297 Lygon Street, Brunswick East has been sold

Not long ago, on one of my walks around the area, I took these photos of the side wall of Carbone Master Tailors at 297 Lygon Street, Carlton. 

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Robur Tea advertisement still visible on the side of the building and it brought to mind the days when our family were almost exclusively tea drinkers and our preferred brand was Robur. 

Our neighbours were dedicated Lipton tea drinkers. It was always tea leaves, of course - I'm talking about the days before tea bags. They collected the cards that came with the packets of tea and I'd spend hours going through them and working out which were missing and try to organise swaps with kids at school. I wasn't a dedicated swap carder like my sister, but I did love those little cards (they were quite a bit smaller than swap cards).

Back to 297 Lygon Street ...

The building was erected in the late 1920s in what Heritage Victoria call the Interwar Greek Revival style. It is located on the west side of Lygon Street between Albert and Victoria Streets. It is now Carbone's Master Tailors, but from 1929 when it was built, until the mid-1930s it was the home of the Perfection Knitting Mills (previously in Rathdown Street, Carlton and later in Peel Street, Collingwood). It's hard to believe now, but there were quite a few knitting mills in the Brunswick and Coburg area. It has also been the premises of a shirt manufacturer and a paper bag manufacturer.

I only found a few references to Perfection while it was based in Lygon Street, a reminder that the 1930s Depression years were terrible times and that ladies' hosiery (stockings) were a valuable commodity - easily hidden and there must have been good black market opportunities.

 Age, 30 July 1931

I noticed the Robur tea ad that sparked my interest in February 2018, mostly because it was being painted over to make way for Carbone advertising and it seemed to me a metaphor for what is happening all around our suburb. This photograph tells it all - no words needed.

The building was sold in June 2019, and we can only hope that it won't be the victim of yet another high rise development in this corner of Brunswick. 

And by the way, as I write, a building is going up in the space next to Carbone, so the ad on the wall is now well and truly gone.