Remember the front page picture on The Sun newspaper showing a copper dancing on a table top in Greasy Joes?
Remember the original Greasy Joes right on the corner where the pros used to hang out. They would pop out, get picked up and be back for another coffee within the hour.
Remember Dog's Bar, where many a crime was plotted and it received a mention in the iconic Melbourne gay book, Holding the Man?
Remember the mounted black and white clock that pulled your senses together as you fell off the St Kilda tram?
Remember when the Milk Bar occupied the site that is now a take away chicken shop as well as it present premises?
Remember marvellously large breakfasts of bacon, eggs, toast and tomatoes with great coffee, before a big breakfast became fashionable and costs $10 plus?
Remember whiling aways a sunny Sunday afternoon while having a couple of glasses of wine and a laugh with friends and people watching?
They snuck this one past me while I was overseas. These between the wars building are to demolished against the wishes of the City of Port Phillip and many locals. Guess what will replace them? Yep, shops, apartments, offices. Who knows how many storeys.
VCAT, destroying local history, character, streetscapes and thriving businesses before your eyes.
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal if that helps with search engines. Their role is to always overule councils and local people in favour of developers. I don't know how the members sleep at night. See a list of the ******* ***** below the photo.
Picture courtesy William Pitt of Walking Melbourne.
| Deputy President in charge of the Planning and Environment List: | Helen Gibson - Lawyer |
 | |
| Senior Members: | Margaret Baird - Town Planner |
| Russell Byard - Lawyer |
| Anthony Liston - Town Planner |
| |
| Full Time Members: | John Bennett - Town Planner |
| Sam Cimino - Town Planner |
| Laurie Hewet - Town Planner |
| Rachel Naylor - Town Planner |
| Ian Potts - Environmental Scientist |
| Tonia Komesaroff - Lawyer |
| Philip Martin - Lawyer & Town Planner |
| Peter O'Leary - Town Planner |
| Jeanette Rickards - Lawyer |
| |
| Senior Sessional Members: | Richard Horsfall - Lawyer |
| Gerard Sharkey - Engineer, Town Planner & Accountant |
| |
| Sessional Members: | David Alsop - Architect |
| Tracey Bilston-McGillen - Town Planner |
| Megan Carew - Town Planner |
| Gregory Chase - Town Planner |
| Dalia Cook - Lawyer |
| Graeme David - Environmental Science |
| Vicki Davies - Town Planner |
| Desmond Eccles - Town Planner |
| Robert Evans - Town Planner |
| Christina Fong - Town Planner |
| Struan Gilfillan - Architect |
| Alison Glynn - Town Planner |
| Nicholas Hadjigeorgiou - Town Planner & Engineer |
| Christopher Harty - Town Planner & Environmental Science |
| Jane Homewood - Architect, Planner and urban designer |
| John Keaney - Town Planner |
| Ann Keddie - Architect |
| Sylvia Mainwaring - Industrial Chemist |
| Kenneth McNamara - Town Planner & Engineer |
| Jane Osborn - Town Planner |
| Geoffrey Pizzey - Heritage & Tourism |
| Anthony Quirk - Engineer |
| David Rae - Town Planner |
| Michael Read - Town Planner & Architect |
| Mary-Anne Taranto - Town Planner |
| Richard Walter - Town Planner |
| Cynthea Wilson - Town Planner |
Bastard arsehole c**ts.
ReplyDeleteWhat dickhead gave them the almighty power to disregard everyone except the pissant developer?
Well, that's a bit crap. Actually, more than a bit crap really. Quite a lot crap.
ReplyDeleteMore apa-a-a-artments? Golly. And more deadheads to live in them. Blame yourselves.
ReplyDeleteGreasy Joes was Hamburger Max for years, no prostitutes there, they were all down on Fitzroy Street, checking their allure in cafe mirrors. Greek joints. No police.
VCAT is a poodle, a lapdog, taught when to sit and when to piddle. A cur, shitting on footpaths in other suburbs, not where it lives. So what are councils for? Where's your stupid democracy, when money talks? Nowhere.
St Kilda is fucked, I wouldn't live there, couldn't live there, all that artifice, that sameness; that dogbox diva. Hell, what a horror, I couldn't look at those bastards. Give me the slums.
These people are entrusted with the duty to enhance Melbourne. And yet it's incredibly clear how they are biased.
ReplyDeleteThere was someone called 'Alsop'; that wouldn't be related to Richard Alsop from the Church of Privatisation would it? If so, then Melbourne is doomed.
I think you should start posting topics that discuss urban planning matters that I can actually comment on.
ReplyDelete"How is your memory?"
ReplyDeleteBloody awful.
"Remember the front page picture on The Sun newspaper showing a copper dancing on a table top in Greasy Joes?"
No.
"Remember the original Greasy Joes right on the corner where the pros used to hang out."
No.
"Remember Dog's Bar, where many a crime was plotted and it received a mention in the iconic Melbourne gay book, Holding the Man?"
Er...no.
"Remember the mounted black and white clock that pulled your senses together as you fell off the St Kilda tram?"
Um...nope...don't remember that one.
"Remember when the Milk Bar occupied the site that is now a take away chicken shop as well as it present premises?"
Ah...now then...yes...I do remember that...er...no...on second thoughts, I don't.
"Remember marvellously large breakfasts of bacon, eggs, toast and tomatoes with great coffee, before a big breakfast became fashionable and costs $10 plus?"
No...not really.
"Remember whiling aways a sunny Sunday afternoon while having a couple of glasses of wine and a laugh with friends and people watching?"
N.....nnnn...o.
Told you it was bloody awful, didn't I?
Good old VCAT still knocking back local resident and local council objections to the construction of a dozen toy-town sized units where once stood a single Californian bungalow.
ReplyDeleteThe best index of this rapacious, dumb and ill-thought trend on our local patch is the number and frequency of City West Water repair crews seen dealing with yet another mains leak or sewage escape caused by the increased stress put on ancient and inadequate infrastructure.
I note the number of people associated with VCAT who are labeled 'town planners', a description that is rocketing up the hit chart of oxymorons with a bullet.
Ahem, Andrew....
ReplyDeleteAren't you one of these occupiers of high rise developments that have replaced architecture of years gone by?
Why can't they just house the latte set out west where there is plenty of land and stop destroying Melbourne's character. Otherwise she will end up looking like Sydney.
We have the same problem with Sartor & Co up here.
Well, there is a bit of consensus here, except Aaron is not saying anything because, a/can't? b/won't? c/has a vested interest?
ReplyDeleteSo much effort Brian, with so little to contribute.
As I skimmed through the list M'lord, I too noted how many town planners there were, not balanced by average people or historians or those with alternative views of 'planning'. Re the pipes, it is their age you know. Ah no, it is the drought. A myriad of reasons, except that they under extreme pressure.
The architecture that this building replaced Anon was a hideous fifties building of no merit what so ever and quite anti the remaining streetscape that has now gone anyway. In spite of may attempts, I am unable to find out what was here before that. I agree, much as I like it, this building should never have been built to leer down on the plebs of South Yarra.
And Anon, Sartor is for the chop anyway, if you didn't already know.
ReplyDeleteOh golly, house the latte set out west? They'd die. Well they've colonised all the best bits, the inner bits, kicking out the poor in Yarraville for instance by dragging in their great caravan of victuallers etc, and there's even an "Irish Pub". Goodness me. For them to pose outside.
ReplyDeleteI don't get it, they're just stupid, these people. Intelligent -but credulous. Truly.
Well just as a little aside, that shop on the other corner of Acland Street is where my daddy bought me a popgun. Years later it became a dirty bookshop. How deflating. Yes, but you accept this sort of thing. Meanwhile entire streets and bluestone lanes have disappeared around Chapel Street where I grew up, and I'll never accept that. A pommy migrant told me once that the trouble with this country is there's no feeling of permanence in it. And it's true, you can have a drink in a pub on Tuesday and next day it's a vacant lot.
What's called Town Planning is really demolition, but the trouble in places like St Kilda is that the trendies already ensconced there are pitted against their own kind wanting to squeeze in. They themselves can't see that, but overdevelopers see it, and know quite well the double-sidedness of being a trendy.
'but the trouble in places like St Kilda is that the trendies already ensconced there are pitted against their own kind wanting to squeeze in'
ReplyDeleteGot it in one Robert.
You bring out the best in me.
ReplyDelete"So much effort Brian, with so little to contribute."
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Wilde: "I have nothing to offer but my genius."
Sorry I'll read that again.
ReplyDelete"I have nothing but offal and my genus." Bosie.
Belated but I have to join the chorus! I am so sick of all these blasted individuals tearing up our history. What are we going to have left? I have been consoling myself with the protected fancy buildings up Bourke St because everything which could be considered 'of the people' is being demolished. Heritage Victoria where art thou now?
ReplyDeleteThanks LiD. It is sad after seeing how European cities blend new buildings into a streetscape or just recycle a building. Here we just jam in a glass monument.
ReplyDeleteI remember when the joint with the black tiles first got it's black tiles, it's been so many things
ReplyDeleteI remember before greasy joes tho I can't say what was there earlier but I remember there was some drama about the outside seating when Greasy Joes first put them there.
And Before the Dogs bar too, what was there?
It was the change in the licensing laws by the Cain government that allowed sush places to open
And further off the block and not just relevant, but, who could possibly forget Franklins No Frills under The Prince of Wales! Those were indeed the days!
Too sad, it's a nice corner
There's a few things I remember about Franklins.
ReplyDelete1. The small lift from the carpark down to the store (fun to use because it was almost a secret).
2. An old bloke getting the top from a bottle of metho and swigging from it in the queue at the checkout (true).
3. A nice conversation in the cheap seats compartment of the train down from Sydney with a girl who happened to work the checkouts in that store.
4. Passing the place one night soon afterwards and finding it dark and empty, all closed up.
It was a strange place for a supermarket: at the far end of a tatty arcade. No frills? Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteI remember the black tiles going on too Ian. I don't recall either the fuss about the seating nor what was where Dog's Bar was. The Prince still has its downstairs bars, but quite different and upmarket upstairs.
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten that tiny lift Robert and it was pretty squalid. Didn't Franklins become Safeway before the supermarket closed down?
It could have been Safeway, I don't know, it was an empty shell when I last saw it.
ReplyDeleteThe Prince used to put on Les Girls upstairs, I saw a bit of it one night.
ReplyDeleteI certainly remember the lift in the car park, a friend lived in Jackson st and thought it a laugh to use it.So we did. People really were happier with less back then.
ReplyDeletePersonally tho I lived over on Park st and used to approach on foot, from that direction, and enter via the arcade. I cannot for the life of me recall any of the shops in the arcade with the exception of the Si Bon Cafe, on the corner facing Fitzroy st, run by more traditional St Kilda residents of the day, Eastern European immigrants, where you could get a great bacon and eggs.
I think it was a Safeway before it was a Franklins, but in those days tho Franklins was the perfect fit for Fitzroy St
Jackson Street being a bit higher Ian, I can see how that would save a walk up the Acland Street hill and impress visitors. But I seem to recall that the lift sometimes stank of urine.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure you are right, Safeway became Franklins. I am old enough to have shopped at Safeway.
Well the lift was never cleaned, that was the trouble.
ReplyDeleteBut there was a side passage too, from the front of the store out to Acland Street, but still a bit of hill to get up. The roof carpark gave a marvellous view, you could see straight down onto Fitzroy Street, and into The Elanora knockshop across the road. Well it wasn't supposed to be a knockshop, but those girls just couldn't be stopped, and after trying for a while the caretaker just gave up, taking a little cut from them instead. They were wild old days you know, every door in the place busted, and Wattle House at the other end of Jackson Street is where it nearly all ended for me.
Very familiar with the car park from the days of Pokeys.
ReplyDeleteI can recall, entering from Jackson St,through the car park, then down the stairs and into Frankins, the Acland St entrance, I never frequented, but I'm sure it was handy to some, so there were there two sets of stairs? What a labyrinth that place was.
ReplyDeleteIan the passage sloped down from Acland street: no stairs.
ReplyDeleteAnd (may I say) that's the marvellous thing about
old arrangements: the labyrinth. Everything 'town planned' now.
Ah yes, I think u r right
ReplyDeleteAh yes, I remember Pokies well, then there was the trek to Mandate, if one felt like staying up late.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am also old enough Ian to recall when Mandate was originally known as Sweethearts. It had a post Mandate name change too...can't quite remember.
ReplyDelete