Re: Ron #41
  David Featherstone

Thanks Yuri. Google gave me a bum steer. I love that part of town. I
used to go to the Hilton often in the late 70s/80s for a Sunday lunch. I
remember seeing Peter Allen perform there, and he was really good. So good
in fact that I went and saw him later at Her Majesty's in a show he did
called 'Up In One'. So good that lastly I saw him at The Palladium in
Albert Rd Sth Melbourne. At least the venues were close to trams!
One of my all time favourite restaurants in that area was the Cafe Balzac
at Simpson St/Wellington Pde run by George and Mirka Mora (243 pop art
fame). Wonderful place.
By the way, I love the shots you post, they are fantastic, and I appreciate
and don't take for granted the effort you go to.
Cheers. David F

On Tuesday, December 1, 2020 at 1:06:06 AM UTC+11 trams4me wrote:

> On Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:44:43 -0800 (PST), David Featherstone wrote:

>

> >Then further up in the distance you can see a crane - this is the

> construction of the

> >Melbourne Hilton on the site of the demolished (1968)

> >Clivedon Mansions (pronounced Kleevdon) building on the corner of

> >Clarendon St . This was an iconic building in East Melbourne.

> >For all Norm Gallagher's faults he stopped a lot of wanton

> >demolition in his day, Clivedon was too early for Norm, however.

>

> Cliveden, actually.

>

> The magnificent entry doors were salvaged and were repurposed as the entry

> to the then Hilton's expensive restaurant, "The Cliveden Room". I haven't

> been there since the Pullman takeover but the restaurant no longer exists

> there: there's an informal dining and bar overlooking Clarendon Street and

> the Fitzroy gardens. Destruction of the Cliveden mansions would never

> happen in this day and age.

>

> > The Old Freemason's Hospital up the road in Clarendon St is now called

> Epworth-Clivedon.

>

> It's actually called the Epworth-Freemasons - I had the misfortune to be a

> 3-month inhabitant 18 months ago.

>

> The Epworth Cliveden is a small private hospital (day surgery mainly)

> located in a converted Victorian mansion on the corner of Simpson and

> George Streets.

>

> Yuri.

>