Footscray Town Hall

Joseph Plottel designed the former City of Footscray Town Hall, now also known as the Maribyrnong Town Hall, to replace an older Town Hall dating from 1875. The building was opened by the Governor, Lord Huntingfield in November 1936 and it was described at the time in the souvenir programme as being treated after the Romanesque manner.

While I can appreciate it as a fine building I don't especially like the decoration. Too busy for my taste, however, the entry in the Victorian Heritage Register talks of some contemporary Moderne styled interiors so no doubt I will have to go back and take a look inside.

I did like the pair of standard lights in front of the entrance at the footpath. I wouldn't call them Deco but sit on a rounded brick column at the end of a stepped wall. Each one carries a small rectangular plague on its base proclaiming DONATED BY FOOTSCRAY BRANCH AUSTRALIAN NATIVES ASSOCIATION TO COMMEMORATE THEIR JUBILEE 1886 TO 1936. I like that.

Reference:
Footscray Town Hall, VHR H1218

St Aubins, South Yarra

St Aubins on Punt Road, South Yarra is a typical Melbourne block of flats.

Three storeys because that was the maximum allowed without the requirement to install a lift and brick is used for the structure and for the design elements because Melbourne had a lot of brickworks.

Perhaps the slightly unusual aspect is the glass in the tower housing the stairwell. Often this would be glass bicks but here there is a lovely etched glass pattern perhaps more commonly found in private houses.

Victory Lounge, Durban

The Victory Lounge has been a landmark on this Durban corner, Grey and Victoria Streets, since 1946.

The building may have seen better days but it is great to see the original business still there.

No prizes for picking the portholes and squat flagpole as my favourite parts.

Reference:
Victory Lounge website

555 and 559 Punt Road, South Yarra

An interesting pair of flats in Punt Road, South Yarra. 555, on the left, is a much cut-down version of 559, I presume, to allow for the driveway through to the garages are the rear of the property.

The brickwork under the aeves and above the windows looks identical. The windows are similar but larger at 555. But I wonder why the doors at 555 have porthole windows and 559 doesn't. Perhaps they are newer, perhaps all of 555 is newer!

Barton House, Plymouth

I wrote about this building in October 2008 and at the time I knew nothing more about the building than I could see in the photo which I had taken sometime in 2000-01.

Subsequently, I found out that it was known as Barton House in Colin Campbell Court. Originally it was a car showroom/garage for a dealer caled Barton and since my photo has been a Mothercare store and, I think, a Habitat store.

At one point I thought it had been demolished. Happily I was wrong.

Today I see on the BBC Devon website that the building will feature in an interesting art project from 31 March - 9 April this year.

As part of Plymouth's Hidden City Festival, theatre company Part Exchange Co will present a performance guiding people through the history of the building. Colin Campbell Court car park will be set up like a drive-in movie theatre for the audience to watch the show from the comfort of their cars.

No doubt it will be an interesting event. Unlike America and Australia, Britain does not have a history of drive-in theatres so it could be a first-time experience for many of the audience.

References:
BBC Devon, Plymouth's Drive In Deco unveiled
Hidden City website, Drive In Deco

Star Cinema, Portland

This is the Star Cinema in Portland, Victoria.

I especially like the upper floor windows in this old cinema. If you look carefully has three bars across the middle of the glass panes. You can see them better in the photo at the bottom of this article.

I also like the incised lines at the top and bottom of the windows. At the two small windows at the top of the building the start at the edge of the window and proceed towards the outer walls so that they don't cross the space where the fin sits on the facade.

On the other hand, the incised lines at the windows on the lower level cover almost the entire width of the building extending past the edge of the windows and seem to provide, at least visually, a base for the fin.

2301 Chestnut St, Marina

2301 Chestnut St is on the wrong side of the street as far as I am concerned. While the beautiful deco buildings on the other side were bathed in sunlight, this side was in shadow. Worse, to take a picture, I was looking directly into the sun.

It is a nice building, dating from 1931 by Alex Stern, and luckily it is on a corner so I was able to grab this shot of the Art Deco details.

Otherwise I would have had to make do with something like this.

Reference:
Deco by the Bay: Art Deco Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area ~ Michael F Crowe

Crest, Miami