El Sonia, St Kilda East

El Sonia in St Kilda East is wonderful mish-mash of deco styles.

A central entrance tower with glass bricks, two Art Deco decorative panels, El Sonia spelt out in cursive metal work and flanked by two small rounded balconies.

Two original garages with wooden doors and small windows and maybe with the move to a greener world cars might fit through those narrow openings once more.

Then there is that almost clumsy square open balcony above one of the garages not to mention the conventional (but practical for Melbourne's weather) pitched tile roof.

If you look carefully on the nearest rounded balcony you'll see, alongside the Australian flag, a Geelong FC flag. Deep in enemy territory, so to speak, but Australian Rules Football, in general, is not like that.

Congratulations to Geelong in the Grand Final yesterday. They have been an awesome team over the past three years.

For St Kilda - heaven can wait.

No. 6 Garden Avenue, East Melbourne

Garden Avenue in East Melbourne is a small enclave of Art Deco blocks of flats.

No. 6 combines horizontal elements in the windows of each flat including the circular rooms to the left. There are also horizontal lines between each floor and also in subtle use of bricks on the ground floor and above the windows.

On the face of the stairwell on the right, the emphasis is on the vertical with four columns leading from above the entrance to the roofline.

The building is completed on the right hand side by with a curved corner, softening the edge of the building.

Kalingrad, East Melbourne

I call this block of flats in East Melbourne Kalingrad but I really don't have a clue. The name on the gate post reads Kalingr so I've added a few letters to come up with a suitably exotic name. If anyone knows the real name I've love to hear it.

Like so many flats built in Melbourne between the wars, this is a only three storeys tall because local building regulations would have required a lift to be installed if it was any taller.

It is lovely to see the original open balconies have not been enclosed like you see on many other flats of this type. I especially like the lines around the balonies denoting the floors. Three lines on the top floor, two lines on the middle and one at ground level.

Kalingrad is a little deco gem and even if I have got the name wrong, it will always by Kalingrad to me.