Avalon Theatre, St Lucia

I just started reading Robert Forster's book, Grant & I - Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens.

In the second chapter, Robert writes about a subject, EN170, Drama 1A, that he and Grant McLennan took while studying at the University of Queensland.  His words raised a glint of recognition in me.

"Unbeknown to ourselves we had landed in the perfect place to foster a friendship. Drama tutorials broke from the university; being held off campus in the Avalon Theatre - a small, timber and brick building not unlike a suburban house, five hundred metres from the entrance of the university on Sir Fred Schonell Drive." 

A few pages later another passage confirms the location in my mind.

"If the first image I have of Grant is him sitting a few places down from me in class, the second has him standing at the bottom of the steep concrete stairs that lead up to the Avalon."

I know this building.  I have been there, in 2015, and photographed it looking somewhat worse for wear.

Forty years earlier it served as the place where two of the key Go-Betweens members studied drama and formed a friendship (and probably a band but I haven't go to that part yet).

The Avalon was constructed in 1923, seemingly serving as a church hall before becoming a cinema during WWII.   In 1962 it was taken over by the University of Queensland.  For more information see  the Brisbane Art Deco website. 

Avis Building, Launceston

Bellevue Court, Clayfield

I don't know anything about these flats in Clayfield, Brisbane. I don't like the fence at all, hides too much of the building but it looks like there is a good side entrance.

former Regent Theatre, Deniliquin

The Regent Theatre in Deniliquin probably wasn't that flashy when it opened in 1956 and there is no way that is going to change with the current tenants, the Deni Baptist Church. But even on that simple façade there is the hint of deco with the 'rule of three' employed for the placement of the square windows and the small vents below.

References:
Deniliquin and District Historical Society Facebook page

Bulolo Flats, Fortitude Valley

Bulolo Flats in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley were named after the Bulolo Goldfields in Papua New Guinea. Designed by architects Hennessy & Hennessy they were built in 1934 as residential flats for single young women who worked at the department store of building owner T C Beirne.

References:
Brisbane Art Deco, Edited by Kimberley Wilson - Bulolo Flats by Amelia Lacey

419 Lygon Street, Brunswick

This building at 419 Lygon Street, Brunswick, a former house or more likely flats, now houses a legal firm.

Cairo Flats, Fitzroy

Today I was able to tour the block of flats known as Cairo on Nicholson Street, Fitzroy as part of Open House Melbourne.

Designed by Best Overend the flats were constructed in 1936 in a U shaped around a large communal garden.

The block consists of 20 bed-sits and eight one bedroom units. The spaces are small with some built-in furniture however the complex originally included a communal dining room, an in-house meal service and a laundry service. The serving hatches placed at floor level outside each kitchenette are still in place.

Overend worked with Wells Coates in London and Cairo follows many of the principals employed in Coates' Lawn Road flats in Hampstead which had been completed two years earlier. The concept was to provide minimal bachelor flats at affordable prices.

We were able to visit one of the ground-floor bed-sits which had been recently renovated in keeping with those original design principles. The ground-floor flats each have a private garden. The units on the southern arm of the block face the internal communal garden which adds to the airy feeling of those units.

The first floor flats have access to the roof via concrete stairways including a most extraordinary cantilevered spiral at the centre of the black forming the bottom of the U.

And it provides a lovely view of the city oasis at Cairo.

Gladstone House, Adelaide

Electricity Supply Depot, Wagga Wagga

A House in Culcairn

After a couple of spectacular Art Deco houses in Perth, here's a more modest example in the rural NSW then of Culcairn.

Another House in Perth

This house is next door to the one I posted on Wednesday (http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/a-house-in-perth.html) which I now know is in Jutland Parade, Dalkeith.

A House in Perth

A Miller & Co, Benalla

former ANA Building, Melbourne

Derwent Valley Visitor Information Centre, New Norfolk

A House in Morwell

Great looking house in Morwell, except for those doors.

J Kitchen & Sons, Port Melbourne

The former administration building of J Kitchen & Sons in Ingles Street, Port Melbourne has been boarded up for more than five years and it's fair to say those years haven't been kind to this mid-1920s building. Just about all the windows are broken and the facade is covered with graffiti.

There is some hope on the horizon with Dr Jeanne Shaw and Sophie Fenton planning to open a school in the building in the next few years and I was lucky enough to tag along when they toured the building this morning.

It's not the first time I've been inside this building. I've been inside once before in May 1996 when Unichema, as Kichen's had become by that time, still used the building as offices. You can read a bit about the building in this 2009 post.

Unsurprisingly, the interior is not in very good shape at all. Vandals have done their work and some of the floor has been lifted to allow the removal of asbestos.

But it's still interesting to compare my photos from 1996 with the building today and have a peak at a few places I didn't get to on my first visit.

Front Staircase

The Main Office (from the balcony)

The Director's Office

In 1996, I didn't make it into the Social Hall but here's what it looked like when it was opened from Kitchen's in-house magazine Advance in October 1925 compared with this morning.

A highlight came in a strange little room on the roof of the main building with this homage to Rinso.

Burton Stores, Euroa

The simple Deco of the Burton Stores in Euroa in regional Victoria.

Leeton District Hospital

Leeton is a purpose built town designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the early part of the Twentieth Century in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of New South Wales.
The town features many Art Deco buildings and the district hospital is no exception. A mostly plain brick building but with a lovely entrance.

The grounds include what looks like nurses' quarters which is even plainer but again has some decoration around the entrance.

I particularly like the small balcony above the doorway.

Plaques inside the porch indicate the foundation stone for this building was laid on 9th February 1938 by H P Fitzsimons MLA, NSW Minister for Health and he then opened the building on 23 April 1941.