A House in Camberwell

I adore the front of this house in Camberwell. I don't know if it is a deep verandah or an enormous porch behind that complete semi-circular arch.

On a hot November Saturday in Melbourne I look at this house and wonder if it is cool in there.

Warwick Court, St Kilda East

I absolutely love these four garages at Warwick Court in St Kilda East. It is lovely to see the original doors still intact. I reckon I could just fit my car into one of the garages but I'm not sure I could open the car door to get out once I was in there.

Agra, Camberwell

This is an interesting residence called Agra on the Golf Links Estate in Camberwell. I especially like the quarter-circle balcony and the stepped brick supports and simple metal ballustrade on the other small balcony.

Phylstan, St Kilda East

This is Phylstan, a streamline house in St Kilda East.

I like the use of contrasting dark brown bricks for the base of the house and as decoration in two bands around the roofline. The stepped chimney is also constructed from these dark bricks and the two-tone decoration is continued in the low wall surrounding the front garden.

To the right of the entrance the house has a beautiful curve and a curved glass window which I assume looks out from the loungeroom.

The curve is echoed in the concrete shelter of the porch which also bears an interesting design of repeating semi-circles which is reminiscent to woodwork I have seen on the verandahs of older Victorian and early Edwardian weatherboard houses in inner other inner Melbourne suburbs.

At the rear of the house there is this matching double garage. A planning permit sign attached to the fence indicates a proposed extension including the demolition of the garage. Which is a shame.

Traffic Islands, Golf Links Estate, Camberwell

The Golf Links Estate in Camberwell is a wonderful collection of interwar houses but when I visited a week or so ago I was taken by the these small traffic islands.

I saw two and as you can see they are triangular in shape with a round light on a concrete support in the middle of the island.

The streets in the estate are quite narrow by today's standards and it is good to see that the traffic islands have survived where surely there would have been pressure to shrink them to aid the flow of cars through the intersection.

Carn the Saints

St Kilda Town Hall

No prizes for picking St Kilda Town Hall as a fairly substantial Victorian building but ... well it's Grand Final week and the Saints are in the Grand Final for the first time since 1997. We've only won it once in 1966. Maybe 2009 will be our year if we can defeat a fantastic Geelong team.

As you can see the City of Port Phillip, which now includes the former City of St Kilda has decorated the Town Hall in the Red, White and Black of the Sainters.

But this is an Art Deco blog, so in that spirit the portico, although not deco was built in 1925 and some deco elements can be seen in the glasswork of the doors.

In 1939 further alterations were made to the Town Hall and some interior features have an Art Deco feel.

In the 1990s a fire badly damaged the building but was quickly restored with a remodelled auditorium. The Town Hall has been extended and reworked in recent years providing among other things gallery space and better staff facilities.

GO SAINTS

Centenary Hall, Melbourne Showgrounds

I went to the Royal Melbourne Show yesterday for the first time in yonks. I remember the first time I went was Grand Final day 1975 with my parents. It was our first year in Australia and we choose the Show over the footy. I've never made that mistake again.

The Show was good fun and in a first for me I watched the dog judging because friends of mine were showing their Briards and they all won prizes.

Next door to the Dog Pavilion is Centenary Hall. It was opened during the 1934 Show to commemorate the Centenary of Victoria that year.

In 2005, the State Government restored Centenary Hall as part of a wider redevelopment of the Showgrounds.

Woodside, Camberwell

As the name suggests, the Golf Links Estate in Camberwell was built on a former golf course and is considered one of the best interwar suburbs in Melbourne.

This is Woodside with its name worked into the ironwork of the gate. A concrete path leads past a garden light to the front door, well protected by a substantial porch.

The front garden is surrounded by a short cream coloured wall supported on a base of dark bricks and capped with a strip of brown. The step-down of the wall mirroring the split level of the enclosed garden.

Public Conveniences, St Kilda

I don't know if it is a particular Art Deco fascination or not but on every Art Deco tour we like to check out the bathrooms and toilets. From the fabulous rest room at Radio City Music Hall in NYC to the most humble house the bathroom is often a treasure trove of deco features. As Robin Grow, noted author and President of the Art Deco and Modernist Society would say in his best Aussie slang, 'we love a good deco dunny'.

These Public Conveniences are cut in the the garden embankment between Jacka Boulevard and Upper Esplanade in the Melbourne seaside suburb of St Kilda.

I doubt they are a 'treasure trove of deco' inside but the streamline lines and mushroom light provide a wonderful exterior.

Although there is no overt signage identifying the Public Toilets on Upper Esplanade, they are marked by a pair of fabulous Art Deco pillars.

National Trustees Executors Agency, Melbourne

The National Trustees Executors Agency from 1939 was designed by architects Anketell and Henderson.

The stepped and asymmetrical nature of the roofline provide lots of visual interest to this modest office building.

Lonsdale House - Alternatives to Demolition

If there is any doubt that Lonsdale House has been approved for demolition because a lane-widening project you have to look no further than the words of the developer Colonial First State Management Company. They are quoted as saying "Caledonian Lane needs to be widened to cater for the servicing requirements of this part of the city's retail core, and this necessitates the demolition of Lonsdale House".

Shaun Carney has written an opinion piece 'A piece of history is demolished for a slice of retail sameness' in The Age this morning which outlines why he thinks the 'reasons given for revamping this part of the city are spurious'. I find it hard not to agree with him but read the article and make up your own mind.

If the developer can get their head around preserving Lonsdale House and finding another way of getting the goods to the shops efficiently, what can they do?

They don't have to look very far for inspiration. These are examples of Art Deco buildings in Melbourne that have all found a new life, while maintaining their historical and architectural context.

Middle Brighton Baths with contemporary additions

former factory, now BYFAS Apartments

former BALM Paint factory, now a self storage company

former McPhersons Hardware Showroom, now a gym, food court & offices

former garage, now Mosskito Restaurant

former United Kingdom Hotel, now the most beautiful McDonalds in the world

Lonsdale House, a Sad Day for Melbourne

The Age is reporting that the Victorian State Government through Planning Minister Justin Madden has approved the demolition of Melbourne's iconic Lonsdale House to allow Myer to widen the laneway so they have better access for their delivery trucks.

Justin Madden said Lonsdale House would 'make way for an iconic new entrance and improved access'. Time will judge whether this becomes an icon or just another entrance to a shopping centre.

President of the Art Deco and Modernism Society, Robin Grow, was very disappointed by the decision to demolish Lonsdale House and that the City of Melbourne had done little for the building which is protected by a heritage overlay.

He said 'If the City of Melbourne isn’t prepared to defend buildings that are subject to heritage overlays than what is the point in having the heritage overlays, it is outrageous.’

This is a very sad day for Melbourne.

Mitchell House, Melbourne

Mitchell House is a landmark Art Deco building at the intersection of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Sts in the Melbourne CBD.

The building was constructed in 1936 and the design of Harry Norris has produced asymetrical building which is 'squared off' at the extremities of its 'L' shape yet it curves around the corner site.

It features strong horizontal lines in the horizontal spandrels and bands of windows punctuated with main tower on the Elizabeth St facade topped with the name 'Mitchell House' in gold lettering and a lesser tower marking the entrance to the lift lobby on Lonsdale St.

The ground floor consists of shops including this sandwich bar which could have been here forever.

Note that the name of the building is spelt out in deep relief lettering above The Little Tuckerbox takeaway and an 'MH' monogram is incorporated into terazzo flooring of the entrance.

Century Building, Melbourne

Today saw the second Melbourne Open House with 32 buildings open to the public for free. Personally, there were not many Art Deco buildings on the list but I did pop into the T&G Building, 271 Collins St (formerly Head Office of the National Bank of Australasia), The Donkey Wheel Building and Melbourne City Council House 2 (CH2).

I would have liked to have seen the Russell Pl substation but the queues were too long and I had a football match to get to.

Likewise with the Manchester Unity queue stretched halfway along Collins St but then I had seen it last year and then subsequently had the board room to myself when I photographed it for Robin Grow's book, Melbourne Art Deco.

I was very pleased to get in to see Council House 2. It is a 6 star green building and it was very interesting to here the 15 minute presentation on how the building conserves energy through passive heating and cooling as much as possible. The Melbourne Council also try to make the best use of the electricity and gas that they do use through the use of eco-technology. They also harvest water from the roof and have an on-site water treatment plant which takes balck water from the sewer in Collins St and treats it to drinking water level so it can be used to flush toilet and water plants.

But the best part of CH2 was getting into the roof garden which, in one corner, overlooks Swanston St giving eye-level views the towers of Manchester Unity (1932) and the Century Building (1938-40), both designed by Marcus Barlow.

Lonsdale House, Melbourne - Demolition by Neglect?

In recent weeks graffiti has appeared high on the side wall and upper floor windows of Lonsdale House, a fabulous Art Deco building in Melbourne. Even the iconic tower now has graffiti.

I have written about Lonsdale House before. The building is owned by Myer who along with their corporate bankers, Colonial First State Management Company, want to demolish the building to give their trucks better access to their nearby department store. They have now applied to the Minister for Planning, Justin Madden, for a demolition permit.

In the meantime though, while the Minister determines what decision he will make, shouldn't the owners have a duty of care to secure the building and protect it and those who gain access to it from coming to harm.

Today's photos, especially compared with an earlier shot at bottom, paint an ugly picture. Are these signs of demolition by neglect?