Then and now

The National Library of Australia's Trove facility is a great resource for anyone fancying a little casual research for history week. For example a quick search reveals an interesting pair of images, showing a wide and empty Bay Street, that are freely reproducible.

This one, looking toward what is now Coles, shows the old Port Melbourne Theatre (not to be confused with the Hoyts Eclipse Theatre where 7-Eleven now stands) on the left, whose structure now houses both the Telstra store and Simple Affair...

The theatre was built on the site of the Fire Brigade Hotel (so named presumably as a result of the Fire Station opposite it on Liardet Street), which in turn originally started off life as the Foundry Hotel. The proximity of the fire station came in handy when fire erupted there in 1924. It eventually closed its doors in 1952 and was converted into a battery factory.