Hangar 85, Essendon Airport

Sydney architect, Arthur Baldwin, designed two hangars at Essendon Airport which were built by the Department of Air Production in 1944 for the production of Beaufort bombers.

Hangar 85 includes a two storey red brick section for offices alongside the large open work space.

The windows run in two hoizontal bands across the face of the building shaded by a simple concrete ledge. Three storey sections at both ends of the office building providing a softer transition to the taller work space.

A flagpole and clock face at the freeway end of the building make a nice grouping of features linked by horizontal bands in the brickwork.

After the second world war both hangars were taken over by Trans Australian Airlines (TAA).

References:
Essendon Airport Tour Booklet, Art Deco & Modernism Society, June 2011

44 Wirraway Road, Essendon Airport

44 Wirraway Road at Essendon Airport was designed by H Garnet Alsop and built in 1940. The somewhat plain building features this tower at one end with three porthole windows, small circular porch and a selection of coloured bricks on either side of the door. It appears there may have been a flagpole on the corner but only the wall brackets remains.

Reference:
Essendon Airport, Bus Tour Booklet, Art Deco & Modernism Sociey

Fourteen Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

A couple of recent posts on Andrew's excellent High Riser blog (I see deco #1 & I see deco #2) prompted me to revisit my photos of Peterleigh Grove in Essendon. And while Andrew does refer to me and this blog in those posts, I have been a follower for some and often find myself lingering there jumping from item to item on his wide-ranging topics. But Art Deco is my thing so back to the topic in hand.

Peterleigh Grove is a magnificent residential street with most of the houses dating from 1939 and through the early years of WWII.

I've featured some of the houses in the street already and you can find all the posts here and today I'm giving you a glimpse of No. Fourteen.

Reference:
Art Deco in the Western Suburbs tour booklet, Art Deco and Modernism Society

27 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

I've previously posted articles about No 5 and No 34 Peterleigh Grove, an amazing street in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon where most of the houses were built between 1939 and 1943.

This is No 27.

As with other houses in the street, No 27 employs different sized and different coloured bricks to provide decoration. Note the dark top of the chimney and the porch, the band with a central feature across the front of the porch and a similar band above the corner window. There is also the window sill, the base of the columns of the porch and the two horizontal bands running around the middle of the wall.

The standard size of the cream bricks is used to create the stepped arches leading to the front door.

The brick gatepost echoes some of the features seen in the house; the dark base, the thin dark capping and the dark middle block.

Very quickly, however, your eyes alight on the simple clean lines of the metal gate.

Reference:
Art Deco in the Western Suburbs tour booklet, Art Deco and Modernism Society

5 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

The houses in Peterleigh Grove, Essendon were mostly built between 1939 and 1943.

This is number 5.

I don't think there is much to distinguish the house from many Australian suburban houses but the low brick wall and metal gates are a fantastic.

Reference:
Art Deco in the Western Suburbs tour booklet, Art Deco and Modernism Society

34 Peterleigh Grove, Essendon

This is the view of No 34 as you walk down Peterleigh Grove from the Windy Hill end. Even in this street of houses mostly constructed between 1939 and 1943, No 34 stands out as a bit special. Or perhaps I am a bit biased towards the streamline end of the Art Deco spectrum.

No 34 was built in 1941 and was the house of local builder JC Corbett. In all likelihood Corbett not only built the house but designed it aswell.

Reference:
Art Deco in the Western Suburbs tour booklet, Art Deco and Modernism Society