Remember hopscotch from 1950s & 1960s?

Although I assumed my post-WW2 generation invented hopscotch, that seems highly unlikely. The earliest confirmed mention of the game actually comes from Britain in C17th; in fact a manuscript book of games from 1635-72 by Francis Willughby and an entry in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1677 contain the earliest references.

Hopscotch players on side of road

The grid was added in chalk

Te Ara New Zealand

Children all over the world play Hopscotch in much the same way, but the patterns they draw can be very different. Children in Scotland have a game where the pattern is like bananas lying next to each other. In Japan there is a pattern that looks like an old telephone with a rotary dial, and in France there is Escargot, a pattern that looks like a snail. In Vietnam there is a game called Build A House, which has floods, fires and the Mekong River, and in China there is a game with an animal’s head at the top of the pattern. There are clearly many different versions of the game.

In Australian schoolyards, the most common pattern was Aeroplane Hoppy with 8 squares. It was usually painted on the ground although some schools had/have chalk for children to use at lunch time, so they can draw their own patterns. This means that Hopscotch can be changing.

As I discovered in my Melbourne primary school, the boys had a full size football field while the girls were given a smaller area of paved ground for games. So small that only a small number of friends could play girls’ games. To play hoppy as we called it, the squares were marked out in chalk and therefore used primarily in summer (to avoid the winter rain). It was shaped as a grid of lined-up squares dispersed with blocks of 2 lateral squares, ending in a home base shaped as a semicircle. The squares are then numbered in the sequence in which they are to be hopped.

A game of hopscotch

Dept of Education, Sth Australia

Each player tossed a small flat marker called a taw in post-WW2 Melbourne (eg coin, large button, horizontal stone) into a numbered square, hopping through the court without stepping on lines or the marker, and picking it up on the way back. The player stopped in the square before the marker, reached down to retrieve the marker and continued the course as stated. This had to be without touching a line or stepping into a square with another player's marker.

I know that hopscotch is said to still be popular but I haven’t seen it played for decades. Then this week outside my coffee shop, I saw the chalk grid laid out on the concrete and some young girls playing as if 1958 was still here ! There have been different versions of this game recorded over the years and in different countries, but hopscotch was and still is an effective form of play that teaches children important skills: hand-eye coordination; balance; body control; social development; arithmetic skills; and leadership. Played in most outdoor places it encouraged physical activity because there were no competing activities: no tv, no mobile phones and no computer games back then. So are these skills still crucial in the modern world because they limit screen time?

Playing jacks, 1954

Facebook

Hula hoops, 

Coleham Primary

skippy on London streets in the 50s

Facebook

There were other memorable games in the 1950s and 60s eg yo-yos, jacks, hula hoops, Oranges and Lemons and Cat’s Cradle string game and skippy. But some of these games were played by children sitting on their bottoms and didn't encourage any physical activity. And there were some games that required the children to buy and bring their own games pieces to school. Unlike hopscotch which only required the teacher to lend a piece of chalk.

If you played hopscotch at school in the 1950s and 1960s, I would be delighted to hear from you. If you played hopscotch since then, let me know if your game differed from how I described it.

VERY grand hotels!

During our first three years of marriage, while working and travelling around Europe, spouse and I lived in Youth Hostels or slept in the boot of our car. Later, when the children arrived and had started primary school, we stayed in cheap hostels that at least had a private toilet and a shower in each room. Decades later I read Grand Hotels, a heavily illustrated architectural history by Elaine Denby covering the international deluxe life of the 1830s-1930s. Denby is an architect and a member of the Art Workers Guild.

Fairmont Empress

WESTJETVacations

Her chapters appear thus:
1. Origins
2. Size and Grandeur in the United States
3.Euope Burgeoning
4.The Swiss Genius
5. Fin de Siècle
6. Founded in Empires
7. Journeys to the East
8. Into the Twentieth Century and Times of Change
9. Reality and Illusion

The Federal Coffee Palace, Collins St Melbourne, in 1888

largest and grandest Coffee Palace ever, demolished in 1973

Wiki

The styles of architecture and decor have varied enormously for grand hotels: a French Renaissance château manner for the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the 1880s; a fantastic Moorish-style confection for the Tampa Bay on Florida's Gulf Coast (1891); Art Deco for Oliver Hill's seaside Midland Grand at Morecombe in England (1933). And the services available were equally stunning: Turkish baths, rifle-ranges, even a fleet of vintage Rolls-Royces at Hong-Kong's Peninsula. To keep this illusory world glittering, the reality had to run like clockwork, with managers like César Ritz, king of hoteliers, monitoring every detail from ballrooms to basement boilers. Grand Hotels explores every aspect of this all-but-vanished world of opulence, from the entrepreneurs, architects and designers who made it possible to the ambitious individuals and dynasties that kept it going.

The Grand Hotels of Joseph Cornell is a book by Robert Coover that explores a world of Grand Hotels. The book describes rooms that are accessed by a ferris wheel and open onto crystal cages, sand fountains and night voyages, evoking a sense of childhood, games and princesses. "Although childhood is the model of all architecture, the Grand Hotel Nymphlight is the only one known to be specifically devoted to the child within. The grand hotels that Coover, best known as a trailblazing fiction writer and proselyte of hypertext, describes in this small book of prose poems belong to the hotel series by the American dioramist Joseph Cornell, making this book a set of brochures to the marvellous. The Grand Hotel Nymphlight temporarily transforms its residents into innocent, joyful childhood versions of themselves. The Grand Hotel Night Air Balloon boasts a lobby filled with caged tropical birds, a musical fountain and rooms without walls, all enveloped in a blue haze recalling helium. and The Grand Hotel Sand Fountain, a hotel of brief encounters, provides the ultimate therapy for the alienated wallflower, never permitting anyone do anything alone opening a door, riding an elevator except leave. 

Coover, with magnificent simplicity, orchestrates countering strands of pathos and wonder, decadence and innocent glee, in these 10 short chapters that are sure to make anyone permanently dissatisfied with the run-down bed-and-breakfast place. Forecast: Coover is classed with John Barth and Donald Barthelme as a fiction writer, and is particularly well read on campus. A creative display might feature this small press book, Utopia Parkway (a biography of Cornell).

This one-volume international survey of grand hotels focuses on the century ending around 1930, when "profound social changes following the Great War of 1914-18 had reduced the demand and left many of the grand hotel buildings falling into decay." While the book focuses on grand hotellerie in Europe and the US, fine hotels in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the Middle East and Asia are also cov-ered. The author has done a wonderful job of weaving together the histories of some 475 hotels (some no longer exist) to help clarify a period of unprecedented social and technological transformation. The text flows nicely and is accompanied by over 400 photographs of interior and exterior views, architectural drawings and plans, and portraits of noted owners, architects and builders.

Arising from many years of travels and visits throughout Europe, North America, the Near East and the Orient, this examination of the luxury hotel is an architectural and social history that covers the world from the 1830s to the 1930s, but also takes note of recent refurbishments.  Elaine Denby is an architect and a member of the RIBA and the Art Workers Guild.

Fairmont Banff Springs, built 1888

My only experience with these grand hotels was the Canadian Pacific Railway Hotel which was completed in 1885; general manager William Cornelius Van Horne wanted to boost ridership and realise the tourism potential of the Canadian West. The luxurious Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta was among the first hotels built by the railway to realize Van Horne’s vision. Designed by New York architect Bruce Price to resemble the castles of Scotland, the hotel opened in 1888. The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel standing today, the one in which spouse and I experienced the Good Life, was rebuilt in the late 1920s after fire destroyed the first hotel building. It’s within Banff National Park, perfect for us arriving by train on our Rocky Mountaineer tour across the western provinces.

Grand Hotel Vienna

Jet2Holidays

Grand Hotel Vienna

public area - reception, restaurants, bars and pianos

My favourite books 2006 Vs now

I can remember nearly every novel set by English teachers in high school (1960-65) . But when I recently found a 2006 newspaper article discussing my reading preferences, I couldn't remember the era when my children still lived at home. This newspaper article covered the books I most loved in the decades from 1975-2005.

  

Book column

Australian Jewish News

Melbourne March 2006

 

The Women's Room is the first novel

by American author Marilyn French,

published in 1977.

These days I read big, beautifully written and glossy books that I leave on the family room table to impress family and friends. And because they are too heavy and expensive to carry around. My three best current examples are: Palazzi of Rome, by Cresti and Rendina, published by Konemann, 1998; Patrons and Painters, Art and Society in Baroque Italy by Haskell, published by Yale UP 1980 and The Library, a World History, by Campbell and Pryce, Chicago UP, 2013. 

If any reader is interested in the book I would like for my next birthday, I suggest Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes by Le Corbusier, Mardges Bacon, Prof Barry Bergdoll (contribs) et al, Museum of Modern Art, 2013. Many thanks.

Heritage architecture: Robin Boyd Aus

Kitchen with built-in cupboards and timber benchtops 

architectureau

Joseph Eichler’s (1900-74) name became synonymous with the single-family, modern homes that helped define suburban Los Angeles and San Fran­cisco from 1949 on. Hiring progressive archit­ects, his designs fo­cused both on modern Californian taste and on pleasant Calif­ornian climates. So his designs grab­bed attent­ion: 

streamlined kitchen built-ins, 

multi-purpose room adjoining the kitchen, 

radiant-heated floors, 

wood panelling, 

gabled ceilings, 

floor-to-ceiling glass walls and 

classic atrium that melded indoor-outdoor living.  The post-&-beam construction, and open floor plans were de­signed around the cen­tral atrium. The California Modern style was indebted to Frank Lloyd Wright & Mies van der Rohe.

After Eichler in the USA, Robin Boyd (1919-71) started to de­sign his version of Californian Modern in Australia, mainly from the early 1950s on. One home over 2 lots in Tannock St in Bal­wyn, in Mel­b­ourne’s leafy east, was an early example of Boyd's influent­ial work: 1949. The house was originally de­signed for pharmacist Don Wood and was called Wood House. The home is one of the few sur­viving examples of Boyd’s early work as a sole practit­ioner, prior to his famous partner­ship with Roy Grounds and Frederick Romberg .

 As published in Australian Home Beautiful in Oct 1950, Boyd’s Wood House became famous for its split level planning and its small foot­print that maximised the space and out­look. The Wood family com­missioned Boyd to sympathetically ex­tend the house in 1959 with two more bed­rooms, a re­creation room and a flat-roofed garage. The second sympathetic extension occurred in 1971 when Boyd added across the street frontage.

Some years ago, this innovative Melbourne house by Boyd was at risk of demol­it­ion, after the property was listed for sale and described as an opp­ortunity to buy vacant land by the estate agent. Note that no images, no architectural details and no historic information about the house were included in the listing.

A detailed report was written by Research by Built Heritage in 2015 for Boroondara City councillors. This heritage study noted the house was an early, innovative & in­t­act example of Boyd’s work from the austere early post-war period. They urged that Wood House was an architecturally significant heritage site that needed protection. Yet an ap­plic­ation to subdivide the land was soon made, on hold because there was no demolition app­lic­ation.

So why did the councillors reject the advice to protect the home? They rejected the Heritage Study’s recommendations re protecting prop­erties, citing "the financial impact of the proposed herit­age cont­rols". So although the house was one of the first projects Boyd undertook after opening his own solo practice, and was among relatively few surv­iving examples from his special work, the Council would not give Wood House heritage protection.

TV room with a glass wall and glass doors to the patio

The Age

In Aug 2020 an online pet­it­ion called for the home to be pro­tect­ed, started by senior lecturer at Monash Architecture Dr Jacqui Alexander. It said: it was one of three outstanding early and sub­st­antially intact houses by Robin Boyd in the study area which coll­ectively provided rare and valuable evid­ence of the in­novation and bold design approach­es of a young architect starting an illus­trious career. Archit­ect­ur­ally the house was a signif­icant achieve­ment in modern home-building at a time when materials and labour were still due to war-time restrict­ions. The house showed many ideas eg open-planning, split-levels and window walls that were very inn­ov­ative in 1949. Later adopted by others, these elements recurred throughout Boyd's own career.

Dr Al­exander called on Boor­an­dara Council to heritage protect the home and prevent it from demolition. “It is a tragedy that this important exam­ple of post-war Australian modernism looks likely to succumb to the same fate as many other significant homes in Bor­oon­dara. From the social and cultural perspective, it documents the kind of upward mobility of families in the post-war period".

The petition encouraged the Council to officially recog­nise this home and prot­ect it from potential demolition, hoping to raise awareness of this house’s existence, att­racting a buyer who saw its architectural value. She described the house as ‘an important ex­am­ple of mid-century modernism in Melbourne, and in spite of material shortages at the time it was built, the de­s­ign was innovative and ambitious.’ The house incorporated fine ideas that revolutionised Aust­ral­ian domestic design, promoting a new, optim­is­tic image of the suburbs of Melb­ourne. It offered the prom­ise of affordable and dignified design for working Australian families.

Looking into the open-planned family room from the tv room

Wood House by Robin Boyd, 1949

architectureau

Protected homes in Boroondara had been demolished under a controv­ersial 2018 state planning amendment that allowed property owners with an existing council building permit to demolish buildings, de­spite interim heritage orders. Happily the govern­ment has since reversed the amendment; hopefully the new heritage will stop hist­orically significant properties being demolished. Bor­oondara coun­cillors un­anim­ously agreed to write to Planning Min­ist­er Richard Wynne to ask that inter­im and permanent protect­ions be extended to the home. I think Joseph Eichler would have been proud.

Boyd art dynasty of women - Shoalhaven

The Boyd art dynasty began with the marriage of Emma Minnie à Beckett & Arthur Merric Boyd in 1886. Both were already noted painters before their marriage. Their son Merric Boyd married artist Doris Gough in 1915 and their 5 children became artists: Lucy, Arthur, Guy, David, Mary. 

Arthur Boyd, Sleeping Bride, 1957

Queensland Art Gallery

Bundanon, the historic, handsome stone homestead 1866 on the Shoalhaven River is near Nowra on NSW’s south coast. It was sold by the Mackenzies to art dealer Frank McDonald. In 1971 McDonald invited Arthur & Yvonne Boyd to visit Bundanon where the couple fell in love with the area. Arthur and Yvonne Boyd’s deep connection to Bundanon shaped its legacy as a place of artistic inspiration. They purchased the property, making it home. Arthur’s studio offered a look at his artistic process, surrounded by the Shoalhaven landscape that clearly influenced his work. Their generosity ensured Bundanon would continue to inspire future generations, showcasing the Boyd family’s life and art, an Australia cultural landmark.

Bundanon, Shoalhaven

Arthur Boyd (1920–99) was dominant in Australian art history. He painted religious figures in the Australian landscape and white gums on the Shoalhaven River. While he was clearly one of Australia's most famous artists, his legacy runs beyond his work. In 1993, Arthur and Yvonne gave their 1000 hectares of bush and parkland to the public. They formed the Bundanon Trust in 1993 and Arthur's precious $43m collection was housed in new gallery.

Today it hosts his historic homestead, studio and art gallery including a collection of 1,200+ works by Arthur, his family and other artists, including Sidney Nolan and Brett Whiteley. The new exhibition tells Arthur’s story, the women in his family who encouraged him to become an artist and were artists themselves, as well as the generations of Boyd women artists. This survey of five generations of women artists is The Hidden Line: Art of the Boyd Women, open now at Bundanon Art Museum until mid Feb 2026.

A jug by Doris Boyd née Gough, Arthur's mother, was the first she ever made in 1915, at the Melbourne studio workshop shared with her husband, William Merric Boyd. See her painting style really translated from painting to ceramic, gesturing to watercolour and oil works by Doris that hang on the gallery wall. Often Doris worked with Merric on related pots: Merric made them from clay while she painted them, and then the couple took them to sell. To distinguish between ceramics painted by Merric or Doris, look for a Boyd blue or a Merric crazy handle. It drew attention to how Doris influenced and cultivated her son Arthur as a painter. She really helped him to be an artist; he thanked mum for her mentoring, care and financial support.

Emma Minnie Boyd née a' Beckett, Arthur's grandmother, was an artist who often painted watercolour landscapes. Supported by her mother, she also painted narrative and religious paintings, in watercolour and oil, and exhibited in London's Royal Academy. But the thrills from this c1914 watercolour demonstrated the experimentation and forward-thinking of the Boyd women. It had what she described as delicacy of colour and was packed with tiny details, like an abstract. This would be her working out something, almost privately. It was a study of how to look and see; to use watercolour and look at the landscape painted en plein air.

Yet "female" Emma Boyd wasn't allowed to join the Box Hill artists, including Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton, as they camped on outer Melbourne from the mid-1880s, painting rural landscapes. We think of en plein air painting as a European tradition, but it was the most obvious thing to do in Australia. The weather was good enough to sit outside, but also to show who Australians were. Exactly how the family all painted the works!

Melbourne Tram by Yvonne Boyd, 1944

Bundanon

Yvonne nee Lennie Boyd painted Melbourne Tram in 1944, the year before she married Arthur. They had met in drawing class 4 years earlier and later, Yvonne became Arthur's business manager and had their 3 children. In 1944 Yvonne was part of the tradition of Australian artists, including Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Charles Blackman who used their art to illustrate the impact of the war. But rather than painting returned soldiers like Arthur did, Yvonne depicted the effect of the war on the people at home in Australia: immediate and domestic. 

Tessa Perceval (1947-), daughter of John Perceval & Mary Boyd, painted professionally since 1965 and was also included in the display. Celia Perceval (1949-) also developed her inspiration for art from her Perceval parents and their close artistic circle, including the Boyds and Nolans. In a lifestyle of en plein air painting, Celia focused upon the coastal bushlands of Australia. Heavily textured with exuberant colours, she showed harsh Australian wilderness with a dense, expressive brush.

Celia Perceval, River Gums, 1980

askART

The last descendant discussed here is Hermia née Lloyd-Jones (1931–2000), who married David Boyd in 1948, was an artist, writer and a Boyd dynasty member. Hermia was an Australian artist and writer worked together with David in Italy, England and France, before closing their last pottery workshop outside Melbourne in 1968. Then they focused instead on their individual practices: Hermia on etching and sculpture; David on painting.

Lucy Boyd Beck

Orpheus & Euridice, c1975

Bundanon Collection

Gorgeous C19th synagogues in Melbourne

From the first European settlement in Australia, Jews were arriving with 1788’s First Fleet. The first settlement was in NSW, but soon spread to Tasmania and then Victoria. Along with explorer John Batman, founder of Melbourne, Jewish Joseph Solomon was a member of Port Phillip Society. It was in that society that Solomon with Batman received a grant of land from the local aboriginal community in 1835.

`

Mikveh Yisrael Synagogue and School,

Exhibition St  Melbourne, 1859

architects Knight and Kerr.

National Trust Data Base

The 1841 census showed Melbourne had 57 Jews whose religious services were conducted in a Collins St drapery shop. It was decided to create the Jewish Congregational Society, seeking a governmental land grant to build the first synagogue. In 1844 they obtained a grant of land in Bourke St, consecrating the synagogue in 1848. Designed by Charles Laing & built by James Webb, the tiny congregation grew! In 1850 they applied for a government grant to build a bigger synagogue. It was approved and a new, larger synagogue designed by James’ brother Charles Webb: a rectangular building, gabled roof and columned portico!

Church Lane doesn’t have a church in it as it used to. And nearby Synagogue Lane doesn’t have a synagogue in it anymore, renamed Little Queen St in 1968. So why did only one of the two lanes not keep its name? Historian Robyn Annear* said that it was renamed as Bourke Lane in a civic cleansing ahead of the 1880 International Exhibition. The name change was recorded by Public Works Committee in June, suggesting the new name reduced annoyances directed at those attending Lt Bourke St. So was it an anti-Semitic move or one designed to stop problems for local Jews? Read Street names: Why was Synagogue Lane renamed? .

Bourke St Hebrew Congregation

opened 1848

By the time a separate Victorian state was established in 1851, Melbourne Jewry had their new classical Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and early congregational Presidents and Board members became aldermen and councillors of Melbourne City Council. Jews could go into both State Houses of Parl-iament, the Oaths of Office Simplification Bill in 1857 repealing the oath that parliamentarians swore: On the true faith of a Christian. 

The 2nd President Asher Hyman Hart asked Melbourne's Mayor to offer a reward for discovering gold, north of the city. Thankfully for Melbourne, the discoveries that led to the Gold Rush of 1851 slowed the emigration to NSW. These boom times and economic explosion gave Melbourne its marvellous Victorian heritage, and brought many European migrants. Since first Rabbi Moses Rintel in 1849, the congregation has been loyally served by a number of rabbis. A fine man was Rabbi Dr Israel Brodie, who went from St Kilda Rd pulpit to Chief Rabbi of British Empire pre-WW2.

Melbourne’s synagogue had been established in 1847 in Bourke St, but Rabbi Rintel & followers parted in 1857. A second congregation had formed in East Melbourne, mostly recently arrived German Jews after a doctrinal disagreement with the synagogue committee. They met in hired premises till a small synagogue was complete in 1860 in Lit Lonsdale St. They had no permanent meeting place for 20 years until the new East Melbourne Synagogue in Albert St opened Sept 1877. But the facade wasn’t finished till 1883. 

        

East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, front entrance (above) and interior (below)

The Melbourne Synagogue came from noted Melbourne architects Crouch and Wilson. It was inspired by Melbourne’s old Bourke St synagogue. East Melbourne is socially significant for its link with that Jewish community, mainly as a focal-point for religious facilities. It is also significant for its imposing Renaissance Revival facade with the addition of the 2 octagonal domes flanking the central pediment and the survival of the tabernacle and altar. The two-storeyed rendered brick building had a slate roof. The facade was also completed in the Renaissance Revival style with 5 bays, projecting slightly on the pedimented temple front. Star of David was set in bas-relief in the tympanum. A parapet was carried over the tympanum and the cornice. Twin octagonal domes flank the central pediment. The internal space had a gallery on 3 sides on cast iron columns and the main ceiling was panelled with cornices. Victorian Heritage added the site to its Register.

The original Bourke St Synagogue was sold in 1929, becomi and staying a justice firm. When the new site was chosen, there was a strong Jewish presence in Toorak. So the congregation moved to the new site, designed by congregant Nahum Barnet in Toorak Rd, with the foundation-stone of the building laid in Ap 1929. The interior was inspired by the Bourke St synagogue, with a Corinthian portico, copper-clad dome and glass stained windows. Barnet's plan agreed with that of overseas synagogues of Interwar Academic Classical design: semi-circular seating and a ladies' gallery. Interior decorations include stained glass windows created by Karl Duldig. In 1930 the community moved to its present Toorak site, Toorak & Kilda Rds. St Kilda Rd is one of the world’s great boulevards where congregants could walk to the new synagogue on Sabbath. 

Melbourne Hebrew Congregation/Toorak synagogue, 

front steps (above); interior (below)

Melbourne Hebrew Congregation Toorak synagogue, of a grand design with the best Tasmanian black-wood carving, now has 1350 seats and 900+ members. With a dome 100+ feet high, it is an iconic building with Heritage overlay. It’s seen as the Cathedral Synagogue, the primary synagogue that hosts state and national events.

After 180+ years, Melbourne had c50 orthodox congregations, plus a few Liberal-Reform congregations and a Conservative synagogue. Post-WW2 immigration boosted a Eurocentric Jewish community but soon European approaches combined in a more Australian outlook. Melbourne is very cosmopolitan and Jews have been able to succeed in this society since it began. There have been many successful academics, scientists, judges, engineers, medicos, lawyers and business people. Past members of the congregation have included two Governors-General: Sir Isaac Isaacs & Sir Zelman Cowen; Sir Benjamin Benjamin succeeded with Exhibition Building; Gen. Sir John Monash was the most effective WWI commander & superb civil engineer

Read J Aron & J Arndt, Enduring Remnant, history of the first 150 years of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation 1841–1991, Melb UP, 1992. And R Annear, City Lost and Found: Whelan the Wrecker’s Melbourne 2014*

 

Tang treasures from Silk Road capital, Xi'an

Buddhist statues, gilded bronze, 700s, 

Changwu County Museum. 

In my first post on the Silk Route in China, I concentrated on the Chinese Yuan Dynasty (c1260-1368). This was when Mongolian leader Kublai Khan gained the title Great Khan, by embracing Ch­inese culture and rebuild­ing Peking as his winter capital. The Silk Road Saga was the exhibition held at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2013.  The Art Gallery of NSW had already had two exhib­itions from the Shaanxi Province: The Terracotta Warriors and Horses in 1983 and The First Emperor: China’s Entombed Warriors in 2010-11”.

Hidden treasures from Beijing’s Palace Museum in the Forbidden City didn’t come to Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria until 2015. The exhib­ition called A Golden Age of China: Qianlong Emperor 1736–1795  told the story of China’s most succ­ess­ful, long living ruler and fore­most art collector, 4th emp­eror of the Qing Dyn­asty (1644–1911). This exhibition provided works from the Palace Mus­eum’s art collection, built on the imperial collection of the Ming dynasty.

Then in 2016 the Art Gallery of New South Wales focused on an earlier Chinese empire that needed closer analysis. While much of Europe was still in the Dark Ages and London was just a market town of a few thousand people, the Tang Empire (618-907) was the most powerful realm in the world. The empire stretched from today’s Korea in the north, Vietnam in the south and far into Central Asia.

At the heart of Tang was its ancient capital, Chang’an/now Xi’an. Lo­cated at one end of the famous Silk Trade Route, this teeming cosmopolitan metropolis was noted for its great wealth, sophistication and cultural diversity; an advanced and outward-looking society that showed great tolerance of outsiders. It was home to 1 million people inside its intact and impressive walls, which tourists can still walk.

 Earthenware camel & rider, 742. 

Excavated from Li Xian's tomb. Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology 

Gilded basket, silver, c850, from Famen Monastery, 

Famen Temple Museum. 

“Tang: Treasures from the Silk Road Capital”  was a NSW exhibition that explored life in Chang’an during the Tang Empire. Each artefact carried a story from this extraordinary city; from the freedom and power of women to inn­ov­ations in fashion and music, from the elevation of tea culture to an art form, to religious tolerance and the rise and fall of Buddhism. The booming artisanship in gold, silver and ceramics; to great innov­ations in Chinese fashion and music.

The works on display in the Tang Treasures demonstrated exceptional crafts­manship and storytelling power, including a C9th tea grinder that bel­onged to Emp­eror Xizong; an early C8th mural from the walls inside Prince Jiemin’s tomb; and a Hayagriva statue from the site of the Anguo Monastery, an important late Tang dynasty Buddhist centre.

Archaeological findings of sculptures and murals were unearthed from a Tang-era tomb in Xi’an. This exhibition showcased 135 spect­acular objects from the Chinese province of Shaanxi, which demonstrated the high artistic achievements of the Tang dynasty (618–907).

Part of the 12 zodiac animals. earthenware. 

Tang era tomb Xi'an. 

The best Tang epic "Xi You Ji, Journey to the West" traced the pil­grimage of the C7th monk Xuanzang along the Silk Road’s many arms from China to India, in search of Buddhist script­ures. Xuanzang lived at the peak of the Tang Dynasty, setting off on his epic advent­ures from Chang’an. He dodged bandits while crossing the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan and Pak­istan, survived the deserts of Central Asia and sailed down the Ganges into India.

Xuanzang was passionate for learning, ret­urning home only after 17 years of adventure, to be feted by scholars, kings and emperors. And he brought 1335 volumes of sutras to Chang’an's royal courts. Xuan­­zang was des­cribed as the soul of Chinese nationality - a towering bronze statue of the monk was placed on the city’s main ancient road. With his traveller’s staff in hand, the tiers of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda rose up behind the statue. Here the monk conducted his translations, which were then stored in the same pagoda, a building that remains from the Tang dynasty.

Dragon, 700s gilded bronze & iron, Caochangpo Xian, Shaanxi History Mus 

All photos from Alaintruong Archives

Back then, Chang’an was China’s only cosmopolitan met­rop­olis, having nearly a million people and being ruled by emperors who were the sons of heaven. The city’s layout was dominated by the Palace City and the Imperial City, a skyline of palaces, pagodas, temples, mar­kets and monasteries, encircled by city walls and great city gates.

Chang’an’s wealth came from its strategic location on the great medieval trade route, Silk Road. Not only did the roads bring silk and other exotica, but it was also traversed by ideas, cultures and religions, including Bud­dhism. The legacy included gilded bronze dragons, mirrors inlaid with mother-of-pearl and turquoise, earthen-ware sets of China's zodiac (12 animals), ornate baskets wrought from silver and the faces of the Buddha, rendered in marble and stone.

But while many buildings were destroyed and the caves declined into fragility, precious objects of gold, silver, ceramic, glass and elaborate mural paintings were carefully preserved and guarded. These objects of great cultural significance were displayed at the NSW Exhibit­ion which showed how the Golden Age continued; the legend of the scholar and his celestial companions lived on. 

Famen Temple, famous for storing the veritable Finger Bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha, is in Shaanxi Province, east of Xi'an. The gilded basket above (c850) was brought to Australia from the Famen Temple Museum. As was a basin with mandarin ducks and floral medallion design (800).

John Curtin: Australian PM's modest homes

John Curtin (1885–1945) was born in rural Victoria to hard working parents and left school at 13. He became involved in the labour move­ment in Mel­bourne, joined the Labour Party at a young age and then the Vict­or­ian Socialist Party. He became State Secretary of the Timber Wor­kers' Union in 1911, then Federal President in 1914. Curtin was a lead­er of the No Campaign in the 1916 referendum on overseas conscript­ion, and was briefly gaoled for not attending a compulsory military medical examination.     

Curtin lived in a modest Brunswick residence from 1912-15, as Fed­eral President of the Victorian Timber Workers Union. He later bec­ame a leader in the Australian Workers Union. He married in 1917 then moved to Perth to become the editor of the un­ion movement newspaper West­ralian Work­er, and later was State President of the Aus­t­ralian Journ­al­ists' Ass­oc­iation. In 1923, he and wife Elsie built a house in Cottesloe, Perth. [This Cottesloe home was restored by the National Trust much later].

                                           

John Curtin and his wife Elsie built this modest house in 1923.

Cottesloe in Perth

National Trust

After 3 unsuccessful attempts, Curtin was el­ected to Fremantle in the W.A House of Representatives at the 1928 federal election. He remained loy­al to the Labour gov­ernment during the party split of 1931 but lost his seat in Labour's land­slide defeat at the 1931 election. Only in 1934 did Curtin win the seat again and rose up in the Aus­t­ralian Lab­our Par­ty, becoming party leader from 1935.

In 1936 Curtin was elected party lead­er in place of James Scul­lin. The party gained seats at the 1937. In Sept 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced Australia's entry into WW2 in Europe. The 1940 elections re­sulted in a hung parliament. The ALP eventually formed a minority gov­ernment in Oct 1941, just after the Japanese at­tack on Pearl Harbour oc­curred, so Australia now had to fight Japan as well! Worse still bom­bing raids on northern Australia started! John Curtin, Australia's 14th Prime Minis­t­er, led the nat­ion's war eff­ort and made significant de­cisions about how the war was conduc­t­ed. He placed Australian Pacific forces under the com­mand of the Amer­ican General Douglas MacArthur, with  whom he formed a close relat­ion­ship.   

John Curtin (R) became the prime minister in 1941.

Ben Chifley (L) was elected to the Cabinet as Treasurer

 

    

The Curtins with Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King,

Book of Remembrance in Memorial Chamber, 

Parliament House Ottawa, 1944. Wiki

The ALP won almost two-thirds of the seats in the House of Represent­at­ives at the 1943 election, a party record. In total Curtin was prime minist­er for 4 years, leading Australia through the last years of WW2 un­til his death in 1945. He was long­est serving leader of the Aust­ral­ian Labour Party-ALP from 1935-45, his leadership and interper­s­onal skills being accl­aimed by his polit­ical contemp­or­aries. Curtin died in office in July 1945, after months of war-related ill health. Fortunate­ly many of his post-war reconstruction plans were implemented by his succ­es­sor Ben Chifley.

 
In 2011 the heritage-listed home came up for sale; the vendors bought from a family who'd owned it since 1921. The unrenovated house had heritage demolition restrict­ions, so many of its original period features remained.  

Original facade, built in 1906

Brunswick Melbourne

The Brunswick home where Curtin once lived was bought at auction in 2011 by a family paying $710,000. Since then, the ex PM’s home had a renovation, while keeping many of its original Victorian features eg the original façade, stained glass at the front door, ceil­ing roses, wrought iron lacework and 3.3m ceilings. It now had quite gen­erous rooms wh­ich were more fitting as a form­er Prime Min­ister’s home than his actually home had been. Later the house had a plaque added onto the front, mark­ing its historic signif­ic­ance.  

Blue plaque

   

Now Curtin’s former Brunswick home, Melbourne property with a prime min­ist­erial pedig­ree, will be auctioned again at the end of Mar 2023. The less modest four-bedroom house at Fallon St Brunswick still feat­ur­es a plaque on the footpath outside marking its historical sig­nific­an­ce, and has a price guide of $2.1-2.3 million. I would buy the house in a heart beat, but not just because the historical architecture and déc­or should be heritage-protected forever. Rather I need like to know how many prime ministerial houses can rec­eive a blue plaque; Curtin lived in 1]Creswick and 2]Brunswick in Vic­toria, 3]Cottesloe in W.A and 4]Canberra, and possibly other cities I don’t know about.

renovated Brunswick kitchen

Woodards

renovated alfresco deck
realestate.com.au

special Melbourne architecture: 1848 ->

John Smith's home, Queen St

built late 1840s

Served as Treasury and Gold Office from 1859

Melbourne was founded in 1835 as a commercial venture. Tasmanian settlers, frustrated at diminishing opportunities in their own col­ony, sent an expedition to Victoria to test its viability for farm­ing. Project leader John Batman created a modest colony on the Yarra River and negotiated a land purchase from local ind­igenous men. The first city buildings were wooden, presumably to be rebuilt permanently.

John Smith arrived from Sydney in 1840 and began teaching local In­digenous children at a Melbourne government mission. Then Smith op­ened a grocery and later owned hotels. With this money, he built himself the first really lovely home in Melbourne in 1848, and added a third storey later. Smith was soon elected to the City Council, then elected Lord Mayor, then to the State Legislature for years! The Government used Smith’s renovated premises for different purp­os­es in the C20th eg State Treasury Offices.

Bourke Street looking west, 1858
Lovell Chen

Meanwhile, a row of shops was built in town. A large shop and a residence above went up in Crossley St in 1848-9 by an English migrant butcher, William Crossley. The premises were histor­ic­ally used as a meat-preserving works, with the land behind used as a slaughter yard. It was here that our story began, with the wide shop and residence in Crossley St.

Suddenly life in Melbourne changed forever in 1851; gold was disc­overed in rural Clunes, triggering the Gold Rush. As money and people poured in, the city stretched in every direction, requir­ing rebuilding in a much grander fashion.

The second part of the Crossley Building, the adjoining shop and its residence above, was designed by architect Joseph Burns. The comp­l­et­­­ed building extended from Crossley St (ex-Romeo Lane) and Liv­er­pool St (ex-Juliet Lane). The butchers expanded into the newer shops, over the top of the original cellar. The walls were of blue­stone and the ceilings were brick barrel vaults. The inter­iors sh­ow­ed relics of openings, vents, shelving, enclosures and fix­tures. At ground level, an 1847 cast iron column was visible in a later brick wall, separating the two retail sides.

Later shopkeepers included the famous butcher family Sir William Ang­liss. Since then, shops were us­ed for shoes, drapery, café, gro­cer, fruit­­erer, photographic studio, wine mer­ch­ant, tailor and dry goods.  Eugene von Guerard, a won­d­erful landscape artist in the late colonial era, occupied #56 in 1857-8, just when he was estab­lishing his career. The building had also housed the notorious Bourke St Rats gang.

Job Warehouse, as it was called, was still in a simple Victorian Georgian style. The external render was ruled, there was a simple parapet above, and the corner shop had a splayed cor­n­er. Each of the two storey shops had a residence behind and above them. Externally the building kept much of its original form, except for alterations to the shop windows and the parapet. But the inter­iors retained few original features; even the internal stairs which once led upst­airs were all rem­oved and new stairs were added.

The Job Warehouse was of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria, satisfying these 3 criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

A] The building’s cultural history was among the ol­d­est surviving buildings in Melbourne, forming an important link to pre-Gold Rush Melbourne. The various businesses occupying the shops reflected the residential nature of central Mel­bourne then, and the everyday goods and services local resid­ents needed. It dem­on­strated the old pract­ice of people living close to their businesses.

B] It has rare historical aspects surviving from a pre-Gold Rush commercial building, and of an early shop-row, once common in the city but now almost completely disappeared.

C] It has the architectural characteristics of the austere Georgian style buildings typical of pre-Gold Rush Melbourne. This style was the basis for most architecture in Australia from the time of Eur­o­pean settlement until at least the mid C19th but rarer in Vic­toria because there was no convict settlement here. In any case, gold wealth in Victoria led to the popularity of more ornate styles.

Job Warehouse, Bourke Street

Lovell Chen

These shops were occupied from 1956 by Jacob Zeimer, a post-WW2 European migrant. He later owned the whole building, becoming well-known in Melbourne for fabrics for haberdashers, dressmakers and theatres. Since then the terrace housed many tenants and underwent extensive alter­at­ions. For 56 years Jobs Warehouse remained a magnet for dress­makers, its windows showing a lively business crammed to the ceiling with enormous rolls of cloth.

The people who owned and occupied the row told the story of the evolving city. The terrace at the top of Bourke St, on a site flank­ed by laneways, clearly held special significance for older Mel­b­urn­ians. Own-ed by one family for decades and still the home of the Paperback Bookshop today, the terrace was a rare survivor in the city streetscape. The site’s history and development resembled many early commercial and residential buildings once commonplace in Melb­ourne’s Central Business District-CBD, but not now.

The restoration of this, one of Melbourne’s CBD’s oldest buildings, is urgently needed. Neglected since the shops closed in 2012, the Her­it­age Listed prop­erty in Bourke St will form part of a new hosp­it­ality venture, bec­om­ing a 673-patron bar and restaurant Juliet’s Terrace. This will honour the laneway once home to Mel­b­ourne’s red-light district 160 years ago. The Lord Mayor said the group’s $50 million project would gen­er­ate 500 jobs during const­ruc­t­ion, and 350 hospitality jobs after­. But due to the building’s age, the time needed to restore it will be longer than normal.

George's Collins St, c1890

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By way of comparison, compare the Georgian architecture with a building designed by architects John Grainger and Charles D'Ebro some decades later (1880) in the grand classical revival style. Brothers William and Alfred George were retailers in the UK. They emigrated to Melbourne in 1877, and soon found work at Robinson’s drapers in Collins St, in the most fashionable retailing area in the city. In 1880, the opportunity came to take over the business as George's Emporium, perhaps the most beautiful commercial building and business in Australia.