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Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

Now and Then 2021 – 108 Bay Street: Bianca Apartments

Bianca Apartments (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. A Hotel by many Names Scott's Hotel and National Bank of Australasia, Bay Street (c. 1878). Photo: Charles Nettleton, City of Port Phillip Collection. In 1854, Henry Charles Farrell opened the Sandridge Inn located on Bay Street where Bianca Apartments now stand. This early pub deteriorated and in 1871 it was described as…

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Victor Lane Uniacke and Family

Ray Jelley Victor had an intriguing way of letting his mother know that he would soon be arriving close to home so that she could deliver his lunch to him without interrupting his work-day – he blew the train whistle. This oral history record was made by Margaret Nayban in 2006 and written into the Port People database. Margaret went…

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Prince Arthur Hotel

Thomas O'Brien established the Prince Arthur Hotel on the corner of Nott and Spring Streets, opposite the Bowling Club, in 1870. That original structure was rebuilt in 1882 to a design by architect T J Crouch. The Prince Arthur was among the ten Port hotels that were delicensed in 1915. For the next seventy years or so the…

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Liardet Street

LIardet? or Lee-ar-day? There may be some uncertainty over the pronunciation but anyone living in Port Melbourne would know this street running between Pickles St to the east and Princes St to the west. Liardet St has two quite different characters: heavily trafficked east of Bay St and quietly residential west of Bay St. W.F.E. Liardet Liardet St is named…

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Why Bother Going to the Riviera?

Port Melbourne foreshore (at Princes St) around 1947. PMHPS Collection. This image from the PMH&PS collection shows the foreshore at the foot of Princes Street, Port Melbourne, taken from the jetty that covered the main drain outlet around 1947. As a boy, I lived further along Princes Street and this was "my" beach. By the late 1950s, much of the planking on…

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A Brief History of the London Hotel

The London Family Hotel held the best position of all Port Melbourne's waterfront pubs, next to the Station and nearest to Railway/Station Pier. Meet me at the London 1930 image - Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society There was a time when this 28 room hotel was the most grand in Sandridge, which can be attested to by valuations of over twice as…

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