Categories
Culture transport

Happy birthday, Flinders Street Station

The current Flinders Street Station is 100 years old today. There’s a newish book on the history of Flinders Street Station called Beyond the Facade by Jenny Davies. Recently I was walking through the Degraves Street subway and noticed a display for the book. Then something in one of the windows caught my eye; amongst  ... [More]

Categories
Consumerism Culture Melbourne

Christmas is coming

So here we are, Christmas Eve. After yesterday’s heat, it was still 30 degrees C overnight. Thankfully it’s cooled down now to 25, and I’ve opened up the house to let it all in — though hopefully not too many flies. Tomorrow we’ll pile over to my sister’s house for Christmas lunch, but it’s looking  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

Melbourne becomes a big city

When I first visited London in the 90s I was staggered by the scale of it. Not so much physical size, but the mass of people. I remember being at Piccadilly Circus on a Sunday and there were just swarms of people, heading in all directions. I felt like a small town hick who had  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne

Melbourne’s streets

Always interesting to hear the view from an outsider. Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise from STREETFILMS on Vimeo. I don’t think I disagree with any of the praises given, and there’s some interesting comments from Robert Adams and others about some fairly subtle design features that have gone into the streetscapes, such as the City Council  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne Photos

Cathedral Arcade

Almost hidden away in the bottom of The Nicholas Building is the Cathedral Arcade. I can’t say I frequent the quaint shops in there — I just use it as a shortcut — but that ceiling is quite amazing.

Categories
Melbourne

Street name clusters

On my day off yesterday we sauntered down to Jaycar in Cheltenham for electronic gadget goodness. I noticed looking at the map beforehand that a bunch of the streets are named after newspapers: Argus St, Herald St, Age St, Times St. No Sun St that I could see. There are plenty of clusters of street  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne News and events

Did the earth move for you?

It was just before 9pm last night. I thought at first it was a ruddy big truck moving down my street. Or a really strong gust of wind. But the whole house was shaking. It passed after a few seconds. Nothing had cracked or fallen. I looked outside. Silence. No thunder, no wind. Twitter and  ... [More]