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.
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