Corner of Blyth and Nicholson Streets, Brunswick East, 1949

Intersection at corner of Blyth Street and Nicholson Street, Brunswick, c1949. Photographer Lyle Fowler. Part of Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. Image H92.20/3329.

What a wonderful photograph! So many things to grab the 21st century viewer's attention. The photographer, Lyle Fowler, was facing north-east in Blyth Street. To the left is the Lomond Hotel. There's a vacant block on the right foreground. Today this is the home of radio station 3RRR. 

On the right hand side of the intersection you'll see a 'clock' style traffic control signal. I don't think I've ever seen one before. The vehicle you see moving along Blyth Street is travelling west towards Lygon Street. Just behind the telephone box (red, of course) you can see the MUFSD (Melbourne United Friendly Societies Dispensary) building. It was built in 1935, so had been there over a decade by then. It's now a multi-storey building.

You can just see a bus travelling south along Nicholson Street in this close up. Today it's the 96 tram terminus.

The shop on the corner of Nicholson and Blyth Streets. It's McAlpin's Grocers shop. And if you look at the advertising you can see they sell Lipton's Tea, Peter's Icecream, Irish Moss, daily newspapers such as the Argus, the Sun and the Herald. This is the closest you'll get to the modern-day supermarket in 1949.

Next door to McAlpin's is Alf Roberts business. Unfortunately I can't make out the details of his business. Written across the window is 'Streb...' but there's a truck in front of the building, obscuring the rest of the word. 

The school children walking south down Nicholson Street have come from Brunswick East Primary School, just a little further down the road in Stewart Street. It's summer, but whether it's the start of the school year or the end is impossible to tell. If you look closely, you can see children on each corner of the intersection, reminding us that these were the days when kids walked to and from school without adult supervision. 

And if you'd like to see some great photos of Brunswick East Primary School taken a few years later, a selection from the Public Record Office of Victoria can be seen here. 

Finally, just so you can do a bit of now and then comparison, here's the original 1949 photo again followed by a photo taken in November 2017 (from Google). I couldn't quite get the angle right, but it's close.

1949

2017