Monday 26 January 2009

Preston Day

As Australians today put aside their differences and celebrate two hundred and twenty-one years of attempted genocide, alcoholism, and lambchops for tea, it brings me great pleasure to offer up a little tribute to the Australian suburb I now call home: Preston.

Preston perches at the northern edge of pre-war Melbourne, and looks down (altitudinally) on the low-lying climes of Thornbury and Northcote. Besides such varied attractions as the Preston Markets, the Preston tram depot, the People's Republic of Northland Shopping Centre, the gutted shell of the South Preston post office formerly known as the South Preston post office, the Darebin Creek bicycle path, and the Preston Hotel, Est. 1923, or so, Preston also boasts:

Thriving businesses! Including the retailer of Melbourne's CHEAPEST electric recliner/lift chairs. Other suburbs also sell electric recliner/lift chairs, but theirs are not as cheap.


Art Exhibitions! Including this photographic display of Man With Wristwatch But No Shirt, erected for the public edificiation in someone's front yard. Note also: still-life with telephone directories.

Mid-century architecture! Observe, especially, porthole, Ionic pillars, curved-glass windows, stepping stones, immaculate lawn, appealingly contoured chimney, two-tone brickwork, green-painted guttering, original terracotta roofing, and fanned entrance steps. If I lived in this house, I would add dahlias and gladioli.

Disused factories and warehouses! This one is only a rezoning permission away from turning into a boutique appartment block with own electric recliner chairs.

Next week: Laundromats of Preston.

8 comments:

Lefty E said...

Yes, but where do you stand on West Preston, Ms Baron?

(doorbitch: gastank).

TimT said...

Electric recliner lift chairs - they start out as electric chairs, and then get added to. Guaranteed to give a buzz to your day, too - they're the seat of a deathtime!

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

Wow! West of the railway line? That's sounding pretty wild and woolly. I hear they have a place called Coburg North, yes?

This is a good point, Tim. Advertisers should be cautious when placing the words "electric" and "chairs" in close proximity.

DS said...

Preston sounds like an ideal suburb and that house is excellent indeed. I would plant hydrangeas, roses and iceberg lettuce.

genevieve said...

I really need to have a trawl around Tyler Street and Kinkora Road sometime - parents both lived there as young 'uns. That is, of course, more East Preston.
Last time I was there, West Preston was becoming quite glamorous - or is 'gentrified' the proper word? late eighties, that is.

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

It's all going on down at the Kinkora Rd/Tyler St conjunction. The glass sheet on the bus shelter has been smashed at least three times in the last nine months (and who says there's nothing for the kids to do round here?). It would have been a great place to grow up, esp. with Darebin Creek park sprawling along nearby.

Ampersand Duck said...

See, that's the problem with Canberra. Not enough eccentric corners. No rotting warehouse spaces that can be made into cheap studios or galleries. Few concrete garden embellishments. Expensive electric recliner chairs. Bugger!

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

But Questacon!