Gritty Melbourne Cafes

Manchester Press Entrance

A factory finish with tasty bagels

For those who have gallivanted the Melbourne streets before, the locals would have told you that when you venture into the city "you gotta explore the alleys".  Okay, you may get sick of hearing it, but if you really want the best that the city offers its worth getting your maps out (or actually not, just stumble about) and take their advice.  Melbourne has some of the best, if not the best underground and hidden cafe,bar and restaurant gems in the world.  Walking around the hustle and bustle of the main malls, you wouldn't know that just hidden behind the main street stores are darkened, dingy and smelly alley, where the culture rats live. 

Okay, I didn't stumble across this one (I was taken) but Id like to think I would have stumbled across it anyhow...

The Manchester Press (Rankins Lane) is your quintessential designer Melbourne cafe and is quite new on the cafe scene.  It showcases what is now a style that you would expect from most many cafes in Melbourne.  It is a style that is easily become the "Melbourne look" and despite seeing so many of this rustic, industrial and gritty interior styles throughout Melbourne, I am yet to tire of it.  Its almost a Melbourne cafe check list
 Disused industrial space - check
 Crumbling and rickety seating - check
 Industrial lighting (preferably with loosely hanging cabling) - check
 Unfinished walls - check
 Exposed ceilings - check
 Untreated floors - check
 Industrial storage - check
 tones of grey, black and white - check
 Weathered and Vintage woods - check


Although no longer a unique interior look, the whole industrial focus of many Melbourne cafes does still work.  Here, over sized industrial lights hang dustily over over shabby vintage tables that have seen better days. I couldn't quite put my finger on the history of the chairs, possibly school chairs or some sort of waiting room chair.  The concrete floor was sealed with the hardworking scuffs and marks of years gone by that were left to finalise the overall look. The walls were white washed and finished with simple sketches of "people" that hung randomly on each wall.  The preparation area furniture appeared to be a large old storage box on casters, finished in a polished light coloured timber, it was a simple yet bold statement to the overall look. Random industrial cages and boxes provided storage for ingredients. Like many Melbourne cafes, it was  the lighting that held the focus with the choice of lighting here almost making you think that had always been there. Perhaps it never did! 

Modernism in South Melbourne

Okay, so maybe the first entry for this blog should have been a focus on interior design but for the last few months now, I have frequently walked by what I think has to be one the most wonderful examples of modernist architecture.  The sheer symmetry and minimalist approach to this unmistakeable piece of architecture warrants my first blog entry.  As you walk by Park Towers, on Cecil St, you cant help but cast your eyes up its entire concrete bulk.  Its just massive and quite raw.  U-shaped, this concrete structure casts a moody shadow through its internal spine and I cant help but feel for those who were unlucky enough to have an internal view.  Ive yet to get too close to the building in fear that it will lose its impact.  I often think of the 1000s of dwellers within, the many colourful and sometimes hard lives within.  

So to the facts - With 31 floors of concrete bones, Park Towers stands at 92 metres high. When completed Park Towers was the tallest precast concrete load-bearing-wall panel building in the world.  When the decision was made to build the block four streets and 83 buildings had to be demolished to make way for the single tower and upon completion it was the third tallest building in Melbourne and the second tallest residential building in Australia. It was considered the pinnacle of the Victorian Housing Commissions high rise public housing program which led the world in the development of the precast concrete panel high rise from 1964 to 1975.