Fitzroy Favorites

Favorite thing: The architecture and general street scape has great appeal on Brunswick Street. There one finds countless relics from Melbourne's golden age of Neo-classical and Victorian era construction. One of the true gems of this age would have to be the Beswicke Building, located at the corner of Greeves and Brunswick Streets, Fitzroy.

Fondest memory: On the 1st October 1987 a friend of mine first took me to the "Black Cat Cafe", Fitzroy. As we were alighting the tram the first interesting feature which took my surprise, directly 3 levels above the cafe's entrance, was this "bell shaped tower" at the top corner of the c1888 Beswicke Building. This is a mysterious building, built by a little known architect who had built the 4th tallest building in the world in 1888 (12 levels) and now demolished. The so called "Beswicke Building" has a presence so strong while at the same time going unnoticed. The most parcular thing is that in the 10 years I sold my cards on Brunswick Street, many people who commented on my pictures of the building couldn't actually place where it was. Some asked if was in Prague, Paris or even India! My street stall was in a good place where I could conviently point up several hundred meters up the street to show them where it actually was. One of the most rediculous things I noticed from one apparent local artist was that one of his paintings of the Beswicke Building, sold as a postcard, had the "bell tower" missing as he had forgotten to include it!