Canberra, 1955: Home Beautiful special feature
In my large pile of vintage home and fashion magazines, which I am slowly scanning my way through, there is this:
A March 1955 special feature on Canberra. Canberra was a relatively new city, and after WWII, modern architecture sprang up everywhere alongside the original Californian bungalows and (almost Arts and Crafts) cottages. There are many excellent examples, and the best place to read about them is the Canberra House blog. One of these excellent houses is actually up for sale: an Alex Jelinek house at 10 Gawler St, Deakin. It comes with its custom made Krimper furniture! Price is ‘by negotiation’. Canberra prices are pretty outrageous even for ordinary houses, but if I was the kind of person who had a lot of money to spend on a house, I’d be up for this one. Looking at the pictures, I wonder if those are the original bathrooms. The fittings look kind of 1978 and out-of-place.
Anyway, the Home Beautiful feature has sections on public architecture, such as at ANU; private homes, including floor plans and interiors; and local craftspeople making pottery and furniture. I’ve put it all into a PDF for download, it’s 30MB: Home Beautiful Goes to Canberra – March 1955.
Tags: 1950s, 1955, acrchitecture, architecture, canberra, floor plans, furniture, Home Beautiful, houses, Housing, magazine, mid-century modern, modernist, pottery, retro, vintage
I had the pleasure of visiting Canberra, Australia 2 years ago. It actually still reminds me of these old magazines. The capital is so pristine and clean. We were there on a Sunday and it looked like we were in the middle of a Star Trek episode and all the people were zapped out of the city — but yet it stood there clean, modern and untouched. I have to add that the Aussie people were great. Also — they have a fabulous harp maker — Andrew Thom Harps (in Tasmania — yes like the devil). Uniquely designed harps with warm rich sounds. I have two of his harps and couldnt be happier with them.
Hi Lisa! I actually used to have an Andrew Thom harp, and it was brilliant. I only sold it because I am mostly concentrating on my pedal harp now and I wanted it to go to someone who would play it every day like harps should.