By developing new coding techniques, Hidden Melbourne is able to show you a 360° Panoramic view of Melbourne over time, captured from a church which has been in place since early settlement.
We start with Samuel Jackson's highly detailed 1841 Sketch of Melbourne from Scots Church.
The young architect is said to have used the stave of a barrel to align his viewpoint as he sat on the church under construction.
Using a Camera Obscura to project onto a sheet of paper, he sketched the view in front of him in great detail. He then rotated the camera and continued to sketch section by section to create a seamless 360° view of Melbourne on a sheet of paper 18″ high by 18ft long. This magnificent panorama recently featured in the “Colony” exhibition at the NGV.
We then allow the viewer to switch to an 1875 panoramic view from the same location (albeit a newer, higher church tower). Ten highly detailed photographic plates were captured by the Paterson Bros and show a bustling Metropolis, the second largest city in the British Empire (after London), funded by the gold rush. We can only imagine how tough it was to carry large glass plates up to the spire, sensitize them and expose while wet, then chemically fix them to preserve the image.
In 2017, Hidden Melbourne made the climb up the tower via the narrow winding spiral stone staircase (thanks to Scots Church) and captured a sequence of images on a Sony A7R2, CMOS sensor, which were then developed and joined into a 360° panoramic using a computer. No glass plates or nasty chemicals involved!
Utilise the attached Google map to show you the viewing direction.
Please enjoy this walk through time https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/ScotsChurchThenAndNow
Mark & I had some fun this week at Hotham Town Hall.
While I was capturing 360° panoramas with my stumpy fisheye lens, Mark was shooting a high resolution panorama of the city view.
What my lens sees as 5036 px wide, Mark's 50mm lens delivers as a 16671px wide view.
You can open this view and zoom right in, from a hotspot looking towards the city.
Visit the Clocktower at University of Melbourne and see the visible remaining buildings from the last century and earlier.
https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/VTNode/UnimelbOldArtsTower
The Old Arts building at the University of Melbourne was built between 1919 and 1924 at a cost of seventy-one
thousand pounds. Designed by Chief Architect of the Public Works Department, S C Brittingham, it was the last
stone building to be constructed on the campus. It is located adjacent to the Old Quadrangle, and forms part of
the central core of the University campus. The two storeyed complex is in a Tudor-Gothic style. The brick
construction has bluestone footings, and the exterior, including buttresses, is clad in Kyneton freestone. A fivelevel
castellated and turreted clock tower, containing the foundation stone laid in October 1921, rises above the
Old Arts building and adjacent Old Quadrangle, to visually dominate the site. Its bell was cast by Gillett and
Johnston of Croydon, England and was installed in 1925.
The Old Arts building, with its tower, forms an important landmark defining the oldest precinct on the university
campus. The inclusion of a tower reflected the original intention to include a tower in the unbuilt south wing of the
Old Quadrangle. Architecturally, the Old Arts building draws its inspiration from the original university buildings,
forming a coherent visual unit with them. It was the last stone building to be constructed on the campus and
symbolises the historical association between the arts faculty, the earliest and largest school of university, with
the Law Building and Quadrangle, the oldest building on the campus and where arts subjects were first taught.
Whilst you linger there, please look up at the magnificent drive mechanism for the clockfaces.
This grand old hotel from 1884 is visible in old panoramic photos from 1887 and the view from the Eastern Hill Fire Tower in 1905
as well as in the 2016 view from the Fire Tower
Today, we look back from Hotel Windsor towards Heritage Melbourne and can clearly see the lookout Tower of the former Eastern Hill Fire Station, the Royal Exhibition Building, St Patrick's Cathedral, Parliament, Treasury, Princess Theatre and also the Imperial Hotel on the NW corner of Spring St and Bourke St, the lower floor of which is visible to us in 1862 in a panorama from the roof of Parliament House. We also have views of this hotel from Parliament in 1870 and 1880, which clearly show the plaque on the second floor – Erected 1863. Image courtesy of State Library of Vic H624 http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/69518
Of course, the most natural thing to do for Hidden Melbourne, was to knock on their door and obtain permission to capture a modern view from the rooftop bar of this very old hotel!!!
