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Fitzroy from Town Hall Tower

Fitzroy from Town Hall Tower

Fitzroy Town Hall is a civic building located in Napier Street in Fitzroy. Planned as Melbourne's first suburb in 1839, Fitzroy is a densely populated cultural hub, area 100ha. The hall and tower were designed by William J. Ellis and built in 1863. Address: 201 Napier St, Fitzroy VIC 3065

Take a full tour of the town hall and see the beautifully preserved building and go up the tower and clock to the crows nest via the link below. This view from the top of the tower allows you to look around the suburb and jump to other locations by clicking on the “Visit” labels .

Many thanks to the town council for participating in this historic project, which gives access to their beautiful town hall to everyone. Contact us if you want your historic building to be included in this project.

Capturing Melbourne 360° in 2017 from Scots Church Spire

Capturing Melbourne 360° in 2017 from Scots Church Spire

WEST SPHERE CAMERA FRAMES
In describing the panoramic views over the ages from Scots Church Spire I made this statement: “In 2017 we give you a modern view from the same location. SonyA7R2, Cmos sensor, developed in Photoshop”. 

Ok, I have to admit that it was not quite that easy! Here, I take you on a 2017 tour of the Spire and Church https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/buildings/scots-church/ 
The spire has (to my knowledge), only been accessed by panoramic photographers on 4 occasions: 
1841: Samuel Jackson's highly detailed sketch from the scaffolding surrounding the low roof of the first church building. 
1875: Paterson Bros wet plate collodion photographs from the scaffolding, when the new church was built with a tall spire. 
1989: Val Foreman large format film photographs from the scaffolding, when the spire was being rebuilt after an earlier lightning strike blew it off. These images are being processed into a 360° view and will be added.
2017: no scaffolding to access the exterior. Hidden Melbourne made the climb up the tower via the narrow winding spiral stone staircase and captured a sequence of images which were then developed and joined into a 360° panoramic using a computer.
 

The Spire has small balconies on two sides, accessible from a very narrow stone spiral staircase. Here you can see the caretaker Rick at the top of the stairs. On sides 1 & 4 with the narrow balconies, my camera had to be held out at an angle using a carbon fibre pole, secured to my belt with a tether line. Here you can see the view down to Collins St.

On the other two sides there is only an inaccessible “faux” balcony. We had to go down the stairs then up into the central spire chamber to access two flaps in the wall, through which I had to carefully poke my camera (tethered).

 
The images captured all around the spire exterior were then joined to give a 360° view of the exterior. 
That was the toughest part of the job.

1856 Woodbury from Parliament

1856 Woodbury from Parliament

Going back in time with a master of photography – Walter Woodbury's 1856(?) Panorama from Parliament

Walter Woodbury came to Melbourne as a young boy, hoping to strike it rich on the gold fields. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that some people were getting very rich and most were not. Fortunately for us, he decided to take on work at the public works department and documented much of Melbourne using the new collodion coated glass plate technique which had been invented by Fredrick Scott Archer, the English inventor of the first practical photographic process by which more than one copy of a picture could be made. Wood bury's first panorama of Melbourne is though to be captured from the tower of the gasworks chimney in 1855. This was a tremendously difficult task and he had one opportunity to get to the top of the tower as an observation room had been erected to house a celebratory party for the opening. A steam engine hoisted dignitaries to the top in a cradle and Woodbury availed himself of this to haul up all his gear. He required not only his camera and a tripod, but also glass plates which had been coated with a collodion solution then dried. Photographers had to carry a tent to develop their plates in after exposure to “fix” the images using a number of chemicals. The plates were first sensitised by dipping in silver nitrate solution, then exposed in the camera while wet, and fixed immediately afterwards.http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-65/latrobe-65-028.html

This panorama of Melbourne from the roof of parliament is thought to have been captured in 1856. The corner of Bourke and Spring st where the Imperial Hotel now stands, shows a vacant lot at that time.  Nobel's Circus stood there in1 852, then Salle de Vallentino unitl 1856, then retail stores until 1858 and Imperial Hotel from 1862. The site shows evidence of a circular area where the Salle stood (Image H4976 State Library of Victoria, shortly before demolition in 1856)

As Woodbury left for Java in 1857, this indicates that the panorama from Parlament was captured in 1856 or early 1857.

https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/time-travel/1856-woodbury-from-parliament/

Melbourne Club 1861

Melbourne Club 1861

Bringing History to Life – John Hunter Kerr’s 1861 Panorama from the Melbourne Club

Recently, Hidden Melbourne discovered a previously unknown 360 degree photographic panorama of Melbourne from 1861, which you can see here:  https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/time-travel/1861-melbourne-club/

J H Kerr’s 1861 Panorama from the Melbourne Club is one of the earliest 360° photographic panoramas of Melbourne, from the roof of the Club, a building which still stands today, making its preservation and discovery a significant milestone for us. Views of Melbourne / J.H. Kerr. https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/233330919

Is it a 360° panoramic view? This was the first question that we asked ourselves. Because of the difficulty of the wet plate collodion photographic process, mid-1800’s photographers not only had to carry a large wooden box camera and sturdy tripod, they also had to carry glass plates coated with collodion solution, as well as a number of chemicals to sensitise the plates before exposure and then “fix” the image immediately afterwards. This meant that panoramic images captured from an elevated position were at the top level of difficulty.

Inspection of thumbnail images from National Library of Australia (NLA) proved that the images formed a 360° panorama, and although degraded by time, detail should be sufficiently recoverable. Using grant funding, we acquired the full resolution digital scans from NLA for use in our project.

With very careful digital enhancement we were able to retain the character of the image and also reveal some exquisite detail. You can  clearly see the houses of Parliament, St Patricks Cathedral and other buildings and are able to zoom into more detail within the virtual tour. In the next step, the images were rotated and cropped to retain part of the frame and descriptive handwriting and a small paper margin between them. The 11 photographs were then joined into a long strip to form a high resolution 360° panorama, 55,000×4,600px in size. If printed as a banner this would be 11.6m wide.

The Virtual Tour Skin: The tour is wrapped into a “skin” for the viewer. A modern map grounds the viewer in the present, familiar city and allows them to zoom in or out of the map, drag it to a larger/ smaller size or close it completely. Interesting buildings have labels, which can be switched off. Close all control bar functions including the map to show a clean image.

Building names  have been gathered from various sources: The book held at the State Library of Victoria (SLV), “Melbourne Club, A Social History  1838-1918 by Paul De Serville, gives an excellent description of the city over the ages. Buildings have also been identified from the many other old images of the city that we have used in our virtual tour through the ages.

Non-Seamless stitching of the images

We have chosen not to “stitch” or “morph” joining images, in order to preserve the integrity of the photographer’s work. By presenting it in the “Cyclorama” format for viewing we also “go back in time”. The viewer must accept the extreme difficulties of photography in those days. The photographer moved around on the roof of the building, changing his viewpoint and therefore the perspective. The lens may have tilted down for one frame and slightly up for another. We have to accept that and admire their fortitude. Notice the shift in the horizon as you move around. 

 

Hawthorn Town Hall – Yesterday Today & Tomorrow

Hawthorn Town Hall – Yesterday Today & Tomorrow

Hidden Melbourne has had a very successful cooperation with the Hawthorn Historical Society, to create a virtual tour of the Town Hall through the ages. This virtual tour was featured in an exhibition at the Town Hall called “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, which displayed many historic items as well as allowing visitors to view an interactive tour including many historic items and stories.

Please visit the historical society web page here http://www.hawthornhistoricalsociety.com.au/

Visit the full tour of the Town Hall here: https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/virtual-tours/hawthorn-town-hall-nowthen/