Heidelberg Town Hall is a civic building located on Upper Heidelberg Road in Ivanhoe, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It is now more commonly known as The Centre Ivanhoe. Opened in April 1937, the building was designed by architectural firm Peck & Kemter in association with A.C. Leith & Bartlett for the Heidelberg City Council (now Banyule City Council) and was influenced by the Hilversum Town Hall in the Netherlands. It listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, described as “the greatest and most eloquent expression of the interwar brick Moderne style in Victoria.”
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.
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
Visit the Clocktower at University of Melbourne and see the visible remaining buildings from the last century and earlier.
http://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!!!
Enjoy the tour of Hotel Windsor 1884 http://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/VTNode/HotelWindsor1884
It is a long slog, but that's what we planned for. The old photographers were panorama maniacs, they wanted a wide view. They got on top of every tower and high point in the city to capture the view. This was not as easy as today, they had to carry a lot of gear up towers (read about Walter Woodbury and the Gasworks Tower
Unfortunately some of the plates from those excursions are missing. Hidden Melbourne is very busy filling in those gaps with images captured by other old photographers, and also views captured by us.
This historic panorama captured by Nettleton in 1883 from the roof of the Royal Exhibition Building is an example where we have 3 gaps and cannot locate old images to fill those gaps.
Therefore we have inserted 5 views captured in 2016 from the dome of the REB. You can see these views here:
Southwest View South View Southeast View NorthWest View NorthEast View
