Victorian and Edwardian warehouses and shops, Elizabeth st
A blog for fragments of history, unusual facts and urban discovery in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
All Photographs by Tristan Davies, unless stated otherwise.
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307-311 Elizabeth st, was built sometime in the 1920’s, in a Neo-Greco style.
Newspaper clippings show it being the home of a Motorcycle business in 1927, and later in 1945 The Directorate of War Graves Services, who put out a nation wide advertisement calling for any information on a soldier who fell at El Alamein , and could only be identified by a distinctive ring found on his finger, to be sent to this building.
It reverted back to a motorcycle repair shop sometime after the war. -
Before and After
316 Elizabeth St, Finlay Bros. Motorcycles shop, now part of Melbourne Central’s skyscraper atrium.
I’ll explore the rest of the block of lanes and warehouses that were engulfed by Melbourne Central at a later date.
historic photo by Lyle Fowler , taken in 1941
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Before and After
Cnr Elizabeth and Lt Bourke st.
The Post Office Hotel, built 1867, and other historic buildings along Elizabeth street destroyed in the late 1970’s for the bland Strand Arcade and Myer office tower. Just one of many unfortunate before and after examples across Melbourne.
Historic photo by Karl Halla
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Michael’s Camera House, cnr Elizabeth and Lonsdale st. built 1915.
home to the Michael’s since 1916 (originally as a pharmacy which evolved into today’s camera store).
Upstairs is a camera museum, home to over 8000 cameras, including early wet plate era cameras ,a Leica model made out of solid gold, tiny spy camera’s from the cold war, a Hasselblad camera used in space by NASA, and a semi-melted camera recovered from the rubble of the 1986 car-bombing of Melbourne’s Turkish embassy by Armenian terrorists.
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Michael’s House, 1915 and Mitchell House, 1937. corner Elizabeth and Lonsdale st.
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Elizabeth St c. 1915-1920. All exept the House of Commons Hotel still standing
courtesy of State Library of Victoria.
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The single storey brick and bluestone shop at 195 Elizabeth st (centre of image) was built in 1853 as a goldbrokers. Since then it has been home to a boot-maker, hairdresser, drapery, oyster saloon (oysters being a popular fast food in the 19th Century) and since 1951, a Tobacconist.
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The 1923 Greco-Revival building at 211 Elizabeth st was home to Bernard’s Magic shop, Australia’s oldest magic shop, from 1937 until it’s move a few doors down in 2010.
the store was possibly named after Alfred Gertler (Bernard the Magician), an icon of early television in Melbourne.
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