The Astor Theatre

While it is pleasing to see that the future of the Astor Theatre is assured following its purchase by St Michael’s Grammar School, it is timely to place this achievement in context. In the 1940’s Melbourne boasted a (mostly) fine suburban picture theatre in almost every suburban locality, some 50 theatres in all. These glittering beacons rose out of dreary suburban shopping strips offering the possibility of escape and enjoyment to the local population. Many of these theatres were designed by the most innovative architects of the time, bringing, as one author noted “luxury and costly beauty to the masses they could not afford in their home life”. Only a few of these buildings remain today, and they have been severely compromised through twinning or tripling.They have mostly been replaced by the most artless, unappealing and poorly designed office blocks, retail outlets and fast food restaurants. The finest modernist cinema architects in the thirties in Melbourne were H. Vivian Taylor, Soilleux and Overend, and their greatest achievements have mostly met the wrecker’s ball: The Padua in Brunswick, The Regal in Hartwell, the Park in Albert Park and the Windsor in Prahran (demolished without a wimper two years ago). Only the Rivoli in Camberwell survives in a severely compromised form. It is indeed ironic that the Astor, an unremarkable and some would say clumsy example of the suburban picture house is now considered to be our iconic art deco cinema. This says much about our conservation values. Melbourne is so very self satisfied and so very pleased with itself these days that the preservation of a second rate building by chance is hailed as a great conservation achievement, and somehow means that the loss of significant, well designed buildings does not matter.