At the risk of coming across all cheesy, I have to start this post with the line “Melbourne opened its doors over the weekend”. Throwaway tabloid line as it may be, that’s exactly what happened. On Sunday morning the doors to over 30 of Melbourne’s most significant and intriguing buildings were thrown open for the general public to come and have a bit of a sticky-beak.
Melbourne Open House, which runs in conjunction with the State of Design festival is basically a wet dream for those with either an interest in history, architecture or general Melbournalia (don’t bother looking it up. It’s a word.) As always, line-ups were around the block for Melburnians to get a peek at the inside of the Manchester Unity building, but the most popular by far was the Melbourne Town Hall and Offices with a whopping 4669 visitors.
“We were blessed with great weather, wonderful buildings from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and a public eager to show that if they are given the chance they will take the time to look above the awning and enjoy the cities rich architectural heritage” MOH spokesperson, Robert Larocca said of the day.
Melbourne Open House is running a photography competition of photos from the day in which prizes will be awarded to some lucky shutter-bugs spanning five different categories: exterior, interior, detail, people/crowds and series (up to five images of the one building). Entires can be viewed at the
MOH flickr group.
If you didn’t get along on Sunday, may I strongly recommend that you make plans for next year's MOH. At the risk of sounding like your parents, it’s a rare opportunity to witness Melbourne’s heritage first hand.