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.

former ANA Building, Melbourne

Melbourne Art Deco by Robin Grow

In 2009 Robin Grow published a book on Melbourne Art Deco, using a lot of my images.

The book quickly sold out and he is pleased to say that it has now been re-published by Brolga Press, with updates, errors corrected and a new cover.

Best of all, it is selling for about $25 in the shops and online.

Art Deco & Modernism Society members can purchase a copy from Robin for $22, (includes postage within Australia).  For overseas orders please email for postage rates. Contact Robin at robingrow@ozemail.com.au if you are interested and advise if you would like the book to be dedicated and/or signed.

40 English Street, Essendon Airport

Love at this great building at 40 English Street, Essendon Airport in Melbourne. Four boxes put together to form a single building. A flagpole. Cut-out windows flanking the impressive entrance. A very pleasing aspect, I think.

Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne

I'm not sure when I first noticed this view of the Manchester Unity building on the corner of Collins & Swanston Sts in Melbourne. The photo is taken from the City Square, over the shoulders of Burke & Wills, memorialised by Charles Summer in 1865 following their 1860-61 ill-fated exploring expedition to cross Australia south to north from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

While the Manchester Unity building, designed by Marcus Barlow, has been here since 1932, the poor old explorers have been in a few locations around Melbourne in their 140-odd years before finding this home on the edge of the City Square in 1994.

References:
Burke & Wills Wed: the online digital research archive

Old Commerce Building, University of Melbourne

Once upon a time, 1858-59 according to the National Trust of Australia classification, the Bank of New South Wales built their Melbourne head office, designed by Joseph Reed, in Collins Street. By the 1930s, the bank needed a new building so their old head office was demolished but the façade was saved and gifted to the University of Melbourne.

In 1938 it was incorporated into what became known as the Old Commerce Building at the university's Parkville campus. You can see the join in the photo below.

Old Commerce had some nice deco features as you will see in the following pics.

And some nice metalwork on the stairways inside.

Over the summer, the Old Commerce Building was demolished to allow for the construction of a new building for the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, but don't worry, the old bank facade will be saved and in the new building. And some of the deco fittings from Old Commerce were offered for sale so hopefully the lamps and the window grills are still floating around somewhere.

ADMS 21st Birthday, Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne

We started as SADV - Society Art Deco Victoria and after a couple of name changes we're now the Art Deco & Modernism Society.

Tonight we celebrated our 21st Birthday with a cocktail party in the Melba Foyer, upstairs at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Founding President, Susie Lloyd and current President, Robin Grow, shared the honours cutting the cake.

"I'LL PUT A GIRDLE ROUND ABOUT THE EARTH"

In a few hours it will be 2013, marking eighty years since this wonderful mosaic by Napier Waller was completed on the façade of Newspaper House in Melbourne. It is easy to miss since it is at the level of the first storey, a blind spot above the glitz of the display windows at street level. It is difficult to photograph because one of Collins Street's magnificent trees just happens to be directly in front of it. So you end up with an oblique angle like the image above.

You can try to position the tree across one of the windows but the title, "I'll put a girdle round about the earth" runs in a continuous band above the windows.

So you end up splitting it over a few photos.

The best time to see the mosaic is midwinter, when the leaves have fallen from the trees and if you pick the right time of day the weak sun reflects off the gold and the whole thing positively glows.

The best photo I have of the mosaic, is not of the mosaic at all. The Art Deco 1910-1939 exhibition at the NGV in 2008 included the large scale oil paintings that Waller did as part of the preparation for the mosaic. These were reproduced as posters promoting the exhibition and placed on the side of the NGV building.

By the way, did you notice the year, 1933, at bottom left of the middle panel.

Signs, The Centre Ivanhoe

One of my favourite features of the Centre Ivanhoe are the signs for the toilets.

The Centre Ivanhoe

This is the former City of Heidelberg Town Hall now The Centre Ivanhoe, a reception venue making the most of its 1937 Art Deco heritage.

Reference:
The Centre Ivanhoe website

70 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

Here's another great porch from Peterleigh Grove, Essendon. This one's at No 70.

4 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

I hope you've enjoyed my previous posts of houses in Peterleigh Grove, Essendon because it is one of Melbourne true Art Deco gems. The majority of houses in the street were built on the cusp and through the early years of the Second World War (1939-41) and there they remain today. This is No. 4. A fairly conventional house with a great porch.

Winged Shell Sign, Essendon Airport

A House in Travancore

A House in Travancore

Shops, Box Hill

Driving through Box Hill there other day I came across this great group of deco shops. I'm not thrilled with the current colours but the different decoration on each shop is interesting. I love the roofline on DOTEL particularily.