Go Borough!

Port Melbourne won the VFL Grand Final today beating age-old rivals Williamstown 22.12.144 to 13.10.88. It's been 29 years since our last premiership and there are a lot of happy people in The Borough tonight. This is one of the banners that the local Council hung on the Port Melbourne Town Hall earlier in the week to celebrate the team reaching the Grand Final.

No doubt you are wondering what this has to do with Art Deco, especially since the Town Hall is very clearly a Victorian building, designed by J J Wild and constructed in 1882. However in the late 1930s, the then Port Melbourne City Engineer, Fred Cook, redesigned the auditorium and Council Chamber in Art Deco style.

courtesy Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society

Above is a photo of the Red Cross Ball held for the official opening of the remodelled auditorium on May 24th, 1938. The auditorium has been modified several times since then and sadly little or none of the 1938 hall remains. This ship plaque (below) was salvaged and is now part of the collection of the Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society.

courtesy Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society

I mentioned that at the same time Cook also designed the Council Chamber but around the 1960s a false ceiling was put in and the lovely deco ceiling he designed was covered up until several years ago after a severe storm when part of the ceiling collapsed. Here is some detail from Cook's ceiling which I was lucky enough to photograph before it was removed and replaced with a very, very plain, dare I say boring, barrel vaulted Victorian facsimile.

I know PMTH is a Victorian building so I can understand the desire to put in a Victorian ceiling but I think there was a very strong reason to retain at least some of the Art Deco. Cook also designed some furniture for the room and this is his original hand-drawn sketch.

courtesy Port Melbourne Historical & Preservation Society

And this furniture still sits in the Council Chamber somewhat at odds with its Victorianised surroundings.