Royal Hotel, Footscray

I've seen a photo of a much older Royal Hotel on this prominent corner in Footscray dating from around the 1880s but I don't know if this is a complete rebuild or a make-over. So many Melbourne pubs were renovated during the 20s and 30s to help them prevent their hotel licences being recinded and the pub closed by the authorities.

In any case it is a great hotel, a great ship even, with a rounded facade on the apex of the corner.

The decoration is minimal with some speedlines on the parapet and tiled columns either side of the entrance.

I took this photo in 2005 and I noticed when I passed recently that the paintwork around the name still hadn't been finished.

Factory, Footscray

I like the brickwork on this old factory in Footscray.

The use of different coloured bricks creates horizontal bands along the facade of the building.

The cream bricks have been arranged to provide the decoration. The band above the upper storey windows have bricks set on their end, angled and set back from the level of the other courses of bricks.

The band of bricks above the second level windows are much more interesting. The central band again consists of bricks standing vertically on their end but above and below this band the bricks have been laid on an angle so that the protrude from the surface of the wall crating a wonderful zig-zag pattern.

It stands out particularily at the curved end of the building. The zig-zag shadows cast on the windows are especially nice reminding me of the saw-tooth roofs used on many Australian factories.

But the most amazing brickwork can be found in the decoration at the centre of the building at the apex of the slightly stepped roofline. It consists of three triangular columns capped with a pyramid of bricks and separated by a series of columns created by angled bricks.

Truly spectacular but perhaps the most amazing thing is that it is duplicated around the corner over the loading bay.