Melbourne & Australian Architecture Topics

The photographs in this collection where taken by Barnett & other photographers in the 1930's, many of them served to illustrate a government report on slums and were also used in a series of lectures.

Barnett himself was born in Brunswick and becoming a housing reformer he led a campaign against Melbourne's inner city slums. In 1936 he was appointed to the Slum Abolition Board and from 1938-1948 he was the vice-chair of the Housing Commission.

Here is a selection of photographs from this collection:




Palmerston st, Carlton:



David st, Carlton:



Entrance to a Carlton slum pocket:



Entrance to Airedale Place, Carlton:



Kitchen interior in Carlton:



Little Barkly st, Carlton:



Ormond Place, Carlton:



Somerset Place, Carlton:



Plan of cottage in Lt Harmsworth st, Collingwood:



Rokeby st, Collingwood. If these house still exist they'd more than likely be $500,000 a pop now:



Waterloo Rd, Collingwood:



Backyards in Fitzroy:



Market st, Fitzroy. The buidling in the background is the beautiful Fitzroy Town Hall:



Ward's Lane, Fitzroy:



This is titled "The view from the Brotherhood of St Lawrence", Fitzroy:



In a backyard:



Terrace houses:



It'd be cosy in here during summer:



Canning Place, North Melbourne:



Children in Erskine Place, North Melbourne:



Stokes Pl, Richmond:



Richmond:



Church st, Port Melbourne:

Funny, they don't look all that bad to me.

They're great photos, but not great places to live in the '30s, I imagine. That point about the houses in Collingwood being worth half-a-mill now is an excellent one - would apply to most of the other locations too, I would think.

I used to work at 171 Drummond Street, Carlton, and the back entrance to our office was off Ormond place. It hasn't changed much!

Facinating!

I recall as a child in the 1970's my grandfather showing me "the smallest house" I would ever see. It was somewhere in richmond in the area near Bryant and May from memory. It was night when we went there so I cant recall much details. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Tania

None of those Rokeby Street houses exist any more. I'm not sure exactly where they were in the street, but they have been replaced by totally anonymous buildings, either warehouses or light industrial premises. The terraces may well have been poorly maintained, dirty and crowded during the Depression, but the overall street scape certainly hasn't gained from their disappearance.

theres not many photos around with Yorkshire Brewerie's smoke stack still in place
(Waterloo Rd, Collingwood. Right of photo)