A peek inside the Manchester Unity Boardroom

Signs Publishing, Warburton

The Signs Publishing Company, the Australian publishing house of the Seventh-Day Adventists, moved to Warburton in 1906 having operated before that as the Echo Publishing Company in the Melbourne suburb of North Fitzroy.

Like the original factory of the nearby Sanitarium Health Food Company (SHF), the first Signs Publishing building was badly damaged when the River Yarra flooded in 1934.

And again like SHF a new building was designed by Edward F Billson and constructed in 1935.

Billson worked with Walter Burley Griffin so it is not unexpected that I can see Frank Lloyd Wright influences particularly in the arched brick decoration surrounding the main door.

I especially like the use Billson has made of blue bricks to divide the windows contrasting against the red window frames.

Reference:
Signs Publishing Company Factory, Warburton Adventists website

former Sanitarium Factory, Warburton

I used to spend quite a lot of time in Warburton and have loved this metal gate from the first time I saw it.

The gate is looking a bit worse for wear now as is the building that it leads to, the former Sanitarium Factory. They used to make Weet-Bix here which explains the stylised stalk of wheat worked into the design of the gate.

The Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-Day Adventists, had built an earlier factory on the banks of the Yarra River in Warburton next to their Signs Publishing complex but it was damaged by flood in 1934 so architect Edward F Billson was commissioned to design a new factory on higher ground. It was completed in 1939 and won Billson the Street Architecture Medal from the Royal Victoria Institute of Architects (RVIA) in 1940.

The factory closed in 1997 but hopefully a new lease of life as a conference and reception centre awaits this handsome building with plans for refurbishment in the pipeline since around 2006.

The Warburton Adventists website includes an extensive photo gallery of their former factory.

Reference:
Sanitarium Health Food Company Factory, Warburton Adventists website

Wade Building, Hastings

Wade Building, Hastings, NZ

115 Cressy Street, Deniliquin

As you can see this a simple clean stylish deco shopfront. It has a nice use of contrasting tiles and very simple design elements such as the two horizontal bands of cream tiles to the right of the doorway.

What I find interesting is that the rest of the building is older at least by a decade or three.

Commercial pressures probably lead to the redesign of the building at street level and here again in April 2011 when I took this picture the commercial forces are looking for a new owner for this fine building.

Caister Road Bus Depot, Great Yarmouth

I was looking through some old photos today and came across the Caister Road Bus Depot in Great Yarmouth.

According to the memories of Patrick Burnside it was the garage for the blue & cream buses of Great Yarmouth Corporation Transport. By the time these photos were taken in around 2001 the buses were still blue and cream (although more cream than blue) but 'The Corporation' was long gone.

The red brick bulk of the building is broken up by vertical fins running either side of the garage openings and there are three panels showing different forms of transport.

There's ...

a carriage ...

a very early steam train ...

but my favourite is the blue Routemaster style bus.

Reference:
Great Yarmouth Corporation Transport by Patrick Burnside, Our Great Yarmouth website

House, Frinton-on-Sea

A modernist house in Frinton-on-Sea.

Travellers Rest Hotel, Thorpedale

It says 1937 on the pediment of the Travellers Rest Hotel in Thorpedale. The lettering spelling out the pub name and that whole central section of the pub are so typical of mid to late 1930s Streamline design.

And closer inspection revealed that many of the windows still bear the original etched glass some, like the that shown in the photograph below have the stylised TRH initials.

From New York to Fish Creek Exhibition

Plans for my From New York to Fish Creek exhibition are progressing nicely which is just as well because it is less than a month away.

For anyone in the Warragul area, the exhibition is open to the public, free, on weekdays Tue 14th Feb - Fri 24th Feb at the West Gippsland Arts Centre, cnr Smith & Albert Sreets, Warragul. (Visit the WGAC Exhibitions webpage for details)

I've designed a poster which should attract a bit of attention.

Luck's Corner, Launceston

Former Luck's Butchers Store from 1937 in Launceston, Tasmania. It's now a restaurant.

Railway Club Hotel, Seymour

The rural Victorian town of Seymour boasts these two fine pubs. The Art Deco style Railway Club Hotel in the foreground and the Terminus Hotel behind that. They are close to the Railway Station ... believe it or not.

The Railway Club Hotel has very nice Art Deco style tiles at street level. Interestingly, so does the Victorian style Terminus Hotel.

Tiles on the street level façade of the Railway Club Hotel, Seymour

Tiles on the street level façade of the Terminus Hotel, Seymour

Clevelander, Miami South Beach

Clevelander (1938) on Ocean Drive designed by Albert Anis.

Reference:
The Clevelander Hotel: Where the Action Begins, Ocean Drive Miami Beach website

Hotel Terminus, Shepparton

In 1938 Melbourne architects J F Ballantyne & Roy Wilson remodelled the Hotel Terminus in Shepparton. They added a second storey and extended the ground floor of the original 1880s building giving the old hotel a slick Moderne look.

Reference:
City of Greater Shepparton Heritage Study Stage II, Allom Lovell & Associates, February 2004

Union Depot, Tulsa

At its peak, the Tulsa Union Depot serviced as many as 36 trains daily but the days of train as a major form of transport was numbered and this fine building ceased operation in 1967. A useful life of just 36 years.

Empty and falling apart, it was rescued and restored in the 1980s and was used as office space demonstrating that older buildings can be adapted and reused.

Since 2007 it has been the home of the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

Reference:
Tulsa Preservation Commission website

Barlow & Weller Pharmacy, Denilquin

A small corner shop in rural Australia, Denilquin, New South Wales to be precise. A simple building as you would expect currently occupied by Barlow & Weller's Pharmacy. But the roofline has that extra Art Deco something. Horizontal bars curving around the corner and two rounded pylons marking the entrance. Nice.

A House in Ararat

Acland Court Pharmacy, St Kilda

This is the Acland Street frontage of the Acland Court Pharmacy. It is a 1938 former G J Coles & Co store designed by architect Harry A Norris.

It is part of the St Kilda Market Complex which is cited in the City of Port Phillip Heritage Review as a Significant heritage building.

The doorways are interesting because they have an Art Deco pattern in the terrazzo entrances. Unfortunately they are not looking there best and, in fact, it is rare to see them because they are usually covered by large mats. It would be lovely to see them cleaned up and put on show a bit more often.

Reference:
City of Port Phillip Heritage Review, August 2000

Lumberjack @ Gare Centrale, Montreal

The interior of the Gare Centrale in Montreal features an amazing array of murals by Charles Comfort depicting all aspects of Canadian life like this lumberjack.

Apartments, Montevideo

Drab, grey and a bit run-down but I do love the shape of the asymmetrical balconies.

Dicksons Mensland, Warragul

Recently I wrote about the former Warragul branch of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney (CBC) at 5 Smith Street and while scouring the internet for information on the building I came across the CBC Officers Club Inc website that included a letter from Malcolm Dickson with the following paragraph.

My father rented a shop at 5 Smith Street from 1930 to June 1939 when we had to vacate the shop for the CBC Bank.

We moved to 30 Smith Street where the business is still operated by my son and two Grandsons.

And that, I'm afraid, is a long-winded way of getting to Dicksons Mensland at 30 Smith Street, Warragul.