Hmm.

I canned this blog a while back due to a lack of interest on both sides of the screen- it started to feel like a lot of work for very little interest.
BUT I keep seeing new plazas, malls, courts, walks, squares, strips...should it be resurrected?

Let me know what you think.

OK I think that's it.

Thanks for reading.
I'll leave you with this.

Epping Plaza, Epping Road Epping.

This is a fine big place, sprawling out across the asphalt up north with it's roster of heavy hitters proudly displayed at the entrance:

I like the way this entrance is framed by a KFC and a McDonalds. Even if you don't want to shop, you can still eat. I wonder if their staff members eye each other off over an invisble line down the middle?

From the outside its hard to get a real sense of scale or layout of this place. Inside, it feels massive- this is just one leg of it:

And yes the glass roof is very nice, and I know the place uses a gumleaf motif on it's signs, but this combination of the two looks like a massive floating vagina, complete with pubes:

I bet the local schoolboys love it. Speaking of local, what is it with all the Safeways over on this side of town- why haven't they all been rebadged as Woolworths yet?

And while I like the idea that entrances to different parts of the plaza look different, this one is a little too busy. And brown.

Temple Court Arcade, Little Collins Street Melbourne.

City arcades, part four-Temple Court Arcade, Little Collins Street.
Temple Court was named after a street in the London legal precinct, and started out as a kind of alleyway between Collins & Little Collins, before someone built an office building there in the 1860s. The various lawyers, barristers, import-export agents, stock brokers and other financial small fry rubbed along in there quite happily and in 1924, this rather fancy bit of wedding cake went up on the site:

That's the view from Collins St. these days. The building is now apartments, with a few shops (including an OK Vietnamese bakery) on the ground floor. BUT...if you slip around the corner and go down Gurner's Lane to Little Collins St you will see this:

Subtlest sign ever:

This is the view from just inside the doors. There used to be a liquor store downstairs, but that's gone now.

And this is the view from the bottom of the escalator:

Even on a brisk spring morning the air was flat and sterile. The whole arcade was very, very quiet. It gave me the creeps a bit. I had a nagging feeling some blank eyed cyberassassin was lurking behind a pillar.
Three of the shops are empty and for lease, and the basement itself is for sale. I'm guessing some kind of bar/izakaya/taco joint will open down there before too long.

Greensborough special.

Well, finally got over to Greensborough recently and very glad to have made the effort. For some reason I knew this was going to be good- I've never felt the urge to snap a roadsign before:

BUT the plaza isn't the only place of interest. The main street (called...Main St) boasts two stand alone arcades as well. The first, Grimshaw Walk, isn't that great:

It appears to have no other tenants but the cake decoration supply shop/school. Every shop front is filled with baking trays and cupcake apparatus.

Yep, if you want to do some cake decorating, maybe you should forget Port Phillip Arcade and head out to Greensborough.

 

A bit further along the street  Main St is the balance of the universe is restored- Greensborough Arcade features a compellingly normal set of tenants. Although I have no idea what Vi-trex is, if you need some, go here:

OH AND DID I MENTION YOU CAN WALK THROUGH TO THE CAR PARK? WELL YOU CAN.

LOOK THERE IT IS RIGHT THERE THROUGH THE KINDA SCARY GATEWAY:

Anyway. The first thing you should notice about Greensborough Plaza is the sports murals. Which have safety thingers across them, which I bet the artist wasn't too happy about:

The Plaza entrance looks quite majestic from the bus exchange. Pity the clock was broken:

It gets pretty crazy inside. This place has clearly spread itself organically, over the years since it opened back in 1978 and there is a bit of a disjointed feel to the various sections. I liked this massive hub, which was open from the ceiling all the way to the floor, way down below:

I liked this bit of no-nonsense badging on the bins too. It's true you know, if it ain't recycling, it's landfill:

There was so much going on that it was a while before the glass elevators registered. Yes, "glass elevators", plural- they have two of them:

They have two McDonalds' too, which seems a little excessive. Final view is the rear car park entrance- like the front, it's pretty imposing:

Wrapping up, I'd recommend Greensborough overall, and the Plaza itself for fans of brutal architecture who want to get lost in a food court.

The Hub, Little Collins Street, Melbourne

Continuing the series on city arcades, The Hub is a funny little place, a dogleg running off the much bigger and fancier Royal Arcade:

There are a few shops and restaurants in it, small frontages packed in along it's relatively short length. That shoe repair place looks pretty old school, I bet they'd sort your heels out.

This is the view from Little Collins St. It's kind of odd that both ends of the arcade have signs trumpeting the fact you can use it as a short cut to other places, rather than marking it as a destination in itself.

Elsewhere- up north.

I have been on the road this week, so consider this a bit of a Queensland special. I was surprised how many plazas malls & arcades Brisbane holds. From the new and garish, like Queens Plaza:

to the older and more refined- Brisbane Arcade reminded me a lot of Melbourne:

And some kind of run down and suburban looking places:

My travels took me as far as Tully, where I found this: Banyan Plaza.

That thing you can see behind it is Tully sugar mill. It runs 24 hours a day, and makes the whole town smell of treacle.