Theme Day ~ Entry

Grandeur of the 1880's

Above: The Staircase

This is the entrance of the Grand Hotel, Healesville. It is an elaborate hotel designed by the famous architect, William Pitt. With fifty rooms, the large two storey solid brick hotel was built in 1888 for Mr. Edgecombe. The bricks are hand-made and came from the local brick-works of Clarke and Phillipie. It has an unusual French mansard-style roof of curved corrugated iron with protruding attic windows. Originally there was an iron-lace verandah along the front which was removed when the present large brick and concrete Bauhouse-style verandah was constructed during the World War II and the two street facades were cement rendered.

The Grand Hotel is historically significant and is registered with Heritage Victoria.

Today's quote: Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else ~ Tom Stoppard.


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Miss Marple's

 

Above: Miss Marple's Tea Room
You could be forgiven for thinking you were in the English countryside of a quaint English village. With it's old English architecture, this lovely old building is the epitome of Englishness. Located in Sassafras in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges, the tea room was inspired by Agatha Christie's delightful character Miss Marple.

The local tea room in the quaint old English village of St. Mary Mead was the gathering place for all the local identities. It was a hotbed of gossip, and to anyone of an enquiring mind, like Miss Marple, it was a constant source of useful information. It was Miss Marple's shrewd powers of observation that enabled her to solve many a dastardly crime (read murder). Crimes always reminded her of a parallel incident you see and she had the remarkable ability to latch onto a casual comment and connect it to the case at hand. According to Miss Marple, "Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realise it."

Today's quote: Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea ~ Henry Fielding.

The Spires

 

Above: The spires of St. Patrick's Cathedral

St Patrick’s is one of the worlds most elegant and inspiring neo-gothic Cathedrals. This bluestone/sandstone gothic revival cathedral was designed by William Wardell. It was built in stages from 1858 to 1940, when the spires were added. Saint Pat's as it is fondly called, was accorded the title "Minor Basilica" in 1973 and is on the corner of Gisborne Street and Cathedral Place, East Melbourne.


Today's quote: I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral ~ Robert Louis Stevenson.

The Wire

The lines of modern living

Today's quote: The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web ~ Edwin Way Teale

An Op-Art Roof?

Above: Domed Waves
The warm colours of the retail area coupled with a futuristic light-filled roof and trees growing in the centre make this a joy to shop. This is the "Paris end" of Chadstone Shopping Centre, aka Chaddy where you will find goods and fashion from the lower end of the scale to the very top. Think - Louis Vuitton, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany... and you'll get an idea of just what lies under this gorgeous roofline.

Oh, and did I also say that "Chaddy" is the largest shopping centre in Australia!


Today's quote: If men liked shopping, they'd call it research ~ Cynthia Nelms

Time On Flinders

 

Above: Flinders Street Station
This is the Elizabeth Street entrance to Flinders Street station. The entrance is opposite a T intersection and the clock is visible from a fair distance - as you can see, it is 20 past 2 in the afternoon.

Today's quote: Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back ~ Harvey MacKay.

Telstra Corporate Centre

In the city of Melbourne is the Telstra Corporate Centre. Built in 1992 and standing at 219m high with 47 floors, it's in our top ten tallest list. It was designed by Perrot Lyon Matheison, the architect of Rialto Towers and is the world headquarters for Telstra. It is also a Melbourne landmark.

Of interest is the lift core - it is exposed through the middle of the building and used as a tower feature.

The Telstra building is located at 242 Exhibition Street.

 

Above: Telstra Corporate Centre

Below is the building in front of this modern glass skyscraper.

 

Above: In front of the Telstra building
Note the difference in design, height, medium and architecture. I was facing east taking both photos.



Today's Quote: We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us ~ Winston Churchill

The Spiral Staircase

 

Round and round and round she goes
Spiral staircases have been around long, long ago. You may think they were invented in the Middle Ages, but they've been around a lot longer than that. In the Bible, there were "winding" stairs in Solomon's Temple, and the oldest archaeological remains are thought to be the remnants of a 2,500 year old spiral staircase at a Greek temple in Selinunte, Sicily.

This wonderful example is at Southbank and covers three levels - climbing it is not as easy as it looks.


Today's Quote: Never look backwards or you'll fall down the stairs - Rudyard Kipling.

St. Francis' Church - Victoria's oldest Catholic Church

St. Francis' Church - West Window, Elizabeth Street

St Francis' Church, the oldest Catholic church in Victoria is located on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street and is one of only three buildings in central Melbourne which predates the Gold Rush of 1851. The "mother church of Victoria", St Francis’ Church was commissioned by the Franciscan priest, Fr Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan, and the foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1841, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, to whom the church is dedicated. The first mass was celebrated in the completed nave of the church on 22 May 1842. The church was blessed and opened on 23 October 1845.


View south, Lonsdale Street

The building looming over the church is the Melbourne Central office building which is Melbourne's sixth tallest building, with 54 floors and standing 246m high.


St. Francis' 1845

In 1848 St. Francis became Melbourne's first Catholic Cathedral and was the Episcopal seat of Bishop James Alipius Goold O.S.A. and remained so until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to (the still unfinished) St Patrick's Cathedral.

Blessed Mary MacKillop (1842–1909) made her first communion at St Francis’ in 1850, the same year that Ned Kelly’s parents were married in the church. (Ned Kelly is Victoria's most (in)famous bushranger).
(Lithograph National Library Australia)


St.Francis' 1861

St Francis’ Church became a eucharistic shrine in 1929, when the Archdiocese of Melbourne entrusted its care to the Blessed Sacrament Congregation.

St. Francis' 1930

A religious community of priests and brothers (currently under the leadership of Fr Tom Knowles SSS) live in the monastery attached to St Francis’ Church. The St Francis’ community was the subject of the five-part television documentary Once Were Monks, which was broadcast on SBS Television in April 2000.

Today, St Francis is the busiest church in Australia, with forty-three masses and over 10,000 visiting worshippers each week.

St. Francis is listed with the Victorian Heritage Register, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Heritage Commission. Although there have been many changes made to the building, including the erection of a new tower to house the original 1853 bell imported from Dublin, the church remains essentially as it was designed by Samuel Jackson.

Today's Quote: Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words - St. Francis of Assisi.

Melbourne GPO

Melbourne GPO 2010

Standing on the corner of Bourke Street and Elizbeth Street in the heart of Melbourne's CBD is the Melbourne General Post Office - or the GPO as we say. John Batman was appointed as the first Postmaster in 1836. In 1842 the first government building for postal services in Melbourne was opened.

In 1859, the foundation stone was laid on its present site and built in the Renaissance Revival style designed by A.E.Johnson.

Below: 1887 Clocktower

The building was extended in 1887 - a third storey was added along with the famous clock tower which quickly became a city landmark.


Cessation of the GPO
In 1992, Australia Post announced plans to end Melbourne’s GPO’s major postal role. The GPO ceased to function as an office of Australia Post in 2001 and plans for an upmarket shopping mall were approved.


The sorting hall

The hall was almost gutted by fire in 2001, but the building was restored. This photo shows the inside of the sorting hall after restoration and conversion into a shopping mall. The modern design retains many of the important heritage aspects of the site

The former GPO opened for business as a new upmarket retail centre in 2005 and now forms a major arcade running from Bourke Street through to Little Bourke Street. Melbourne’s GPO makes for a totally unique retail and leisure experience.

The calming and irresistible draw of the CBD’s premier boutique shopping destination provides an escape from the hectic Bourke Street Mall, and with over 50 stores across three floors, Melbourne’s GPO houses a diverse mix of dining options, the biggest names in Australian and international designer fashion, alongside exceptional event spaces which have been designed to impress.

Distances from the centre of Melbourne are still measured from the (former) GPO.

Melbourne GPO pre 1880

Lithograph of the first General Post Office before extension and remodelling in the 1880's. (Victorian State Library)

The heritage-listed GPO is considered one of Australia's most important public buildings. Heritage Victoria recognises its social significance as a public landmark and meeting place.


Today's Quote: And none will hear the postman's knock without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? - W.H. Auden.

Melbourne Cottages

Olde Worlde Grandeur
This pair of double storey cottages are a fine example of the many homes built in the inner city suburbs of Melbourne at the turn of the century. Built in the Victorian Italianate style, they feature the arched windows and extensive lacework reminiscent of the era and have been restored using heritge colours.
Below is a photo showing the ground floor windows.