The charming side façade of Brook Lawn – one of the four hidden mansions of mid- Fitzroy St – will soon disappear again as the new shops and apartments beside it are built.
Brook Lawn was built in 1882, to the design of Smith and Johnson, the architects of St Kilda’s Esplanade Hotel. Along with its stately neighbours, it was subsumed by shopfronts after Fitzroy St became a retail strip after WW1. (More of its story is told on the St Kilda Historical Society’s website.)
We’ll still have the lovely glimpse of its front façade from Fitzroy St framed between the Three Elephants and Chronicles Bar. That Brook Lawn view was permanently preserved by legendary entrepreneur Donlevy Fitzpatrick when he demolished the middle of its three shopfronts to reveal the tall entry porch (c1993 with local architect Grant Amon).
Charming!
