Rochester Lodge - Exhibition Street, C.1950
This building, formerly located at the southwest corner of Exhibition Street (earlier known as Collins Place) and Flinders Lane, was completed by 1888. It was owned at that time by a John Enticott, who also owned the Waverley Hotel diagonally opposite. By 1895, this building had become Rochester Lodge boarding house. In 1901, it was described as a fashionable boarding establishment.
This three-storey building had a broad frontage on Exhibition Street, and also on Flinders Lane where it extended to Malthouse Lane. A cellar extended under the whole building. The two street facing elevations are in a Classical Revival-style, but are restrained in embellishment.
By the time this photograph had been taken 1950, the residential character of this southern portion of Exhibition Street was eroding, as residential buildings were being replaced by commercial buildings such as the Cambridge Buildings, visible at left, and Hutchinson House (earlier known as Shaftesbury House) partially visible at right.
The site of the Rochester Lodge had become a car park by 1970, and for a time a display home incongruously occupied the site. The corner is now occupied by the high-rise commercial complex called 11 Exhibition Street completed in 2005.