Detail of the St George and the Dragon Window by Ferguson and Urie on the Stairwell of "Tolarno" - Fitzroy Street, St Kilda

            The Torlano Hotel on St Kilda's famous wide boulevard of Fitzroy Street was originally a fine Victorian mansion named "Tolarno" when St Kilda was populated with grand mansions that were close to the waterfront.  

On the first floor landing is a magnificent late Victorian stained glass window of St George.  The window depicts St George in full shining armour wearing a red cloak standing on the head of the defeated green dragon.  The image of St George defeating the dragon were very popular in the Nineteenth Century, partially thanks to the resurgence of interest in the Age of Chivalry.  St George is surrounded by a border of red and white Tudor roses and ornate pillars decorated with lozenges of Union Jacks. 

Believed to have been owned by a politician, little remains of the old "Tolarno" mansion which was converted into a rooming house after the property crash of the 1890s before then becoming an hotel.  What does remain is the house's original wooden staircase and two stained glass windows.  One window on the first floor landing features a stained glass window of St George and the Dragon made by Melbourne based stained glass manufacturer Ferguson and Urie.  The second window on the second floor landing features stained glass windows in Art Nouveau style.  The window has stylised blue flowers with white centres set in stylised garlands.

The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916).  They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia.  Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows.  The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive.  Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company.  Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church.  Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash.  Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.

The Tolarno Hotel was purchased in 1965 by Georges and Mirka Mora who had migrated from France in 1951 and had an important influence on the changes which occurred in Melbourne's cultural life in the post-war period.  Georges bought the hotel as a restaurant, art gallery, studio and home. It had originally been a mansion, was converted to a boarding house in the late nineteenth century, and then to a hotel, with the present restaurant and bar added to the front, by the 1960s. The Georges amd Mirka were prominent members of Melbourne's artistic and bohemian society. They were associated with the revival of the Contemporary Art Society in the 1950s and their restaurants, of which they owned three, were used to display the work of local artists, many of whom have now become world famous, including Charles Blackman, Sidney Nolan, John Perceval and Howard Arkley.  At the Tolarno Hotel Georges opened the Tolarno Gallery, where a remarkable series of art exhibitions were held in the 1960s. As well as displaying the work of local artists, including exhibitions of Sydney Nolan's Ned Kelly paintings and of Mirka's own paintings, as she was a successful artist in her own right.  The gallery was also used for exhibitions of the work of modern French masters, which made Georges a valuable emissary of French art in Australia. 

Between 1965 and 1978 Mirka painted a series of murals over the walls and windows of the restaurant, bistro, hallway and toilets. The restaurant has changed hands several times since 1970, though Georges continued to run the gallery until 1979. Substantial alterations were made between 2006 and 2007 to update the hotel and restaurant.  As part of these works Mirka Mora was commissioned to restore the original murals and to paint new ones. The original painted windows at the front were replaced. The restaurant was renamed Mirka at the Tolarno Hotel.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Saint Kilda West (show map)

Taken on: July 6, 2019

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/3.5, 1/200 sec, 9.7mm, ISO 125 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	9.7mm
ISO:	125
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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