Nicholas Building

On Saturday my daughter took me up to the first floor of the Nicholas Building in central Melbourne, built in 1926 in the Chicago School style by the Nicholas brothers (who had made their money manufacturing and marketing aspirin) and designed by architect Harry Norris.

Upstairs from its ornate Cathedral Arcade, the fashionably rundown building has some interesting and curious shops on the first and second floors - a button shop, a fortune teller, homewares, a talent school, designers, a place that makes voodoo dolls, a bookshop - and offices for creative types upstairs.

It also has some great details in its corners: polished wooden panelling, beautiful coloured tilework, a central lift surrounded by lace ironwork - and signs dotted throughout:

Ciao Coburg milk bars

The other day I went past the old milk bar on the way to my daughter's school in Coburg. It's on Reynard Street, a former sign haven that has already lost a lot of its ghost signs, and found one too.

Here the news is mixed. We've lost the awesome Tarax sign in the windows (see below), but it looks like the grocer and Lipton sign might even survive the redevelopment into apartments:

As it is...

..and as it was.

Here's another around the corner in Melville Road, in the process of being redeveloped too.

And from the same group of shops - a well-hidden Velvet Soap sign, and one more:

Couple of great sign pics from the State Library

Russell Street, 1954, during the Queen's visit. That was the year the Vacuum Oil Company was changing all the signs around Melbourne from Plume to Mobilgas - this one soon to come:

(see full record details here: http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=MAIN&docId=SLV_VOYAGER1830285&fn=permalink)

And another of Russell Street, 1932:

Here's a great one from 1934 - notice the great work by the Sid Syne company:

A bunch from Brunswick

Here are some Brunswick signs I've snapped over the last couple of months. I would have thought that I'd have seen every sign in that suburb by now, but they keep popping up:

 

 

Great former fuel & stockfeed shop in West Brunnie (both sides):

Latest Victorian article about ghost signs

This time it's from ABC Local, in the delightfully named Sunraysia agricultural region of northern Victoria:

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2015/07/07/4269066.htm

The Guilford Lane district revisited

Last week I went back to a favourite little precinct of former Victorian red brick stables, then mainly motorcycle shops, behind Queen Street and La Trobe Street in central Melbourne.

All around the precinct, like in a lot of Melbourne's CBD, a fury of high-rise development has been rising ever upwards. It's given the precinct quite a unique feel, like a movie set or toy city. Needless to say, it's a hipster haven - but is still a charming place to visit.

There are quite a few great signs to be seen along the few hundred metres of laneway. Here are some:

 

 

The angled corners were apparently built that way to accommodate horse-driven coaches