Ernest Larcomb probably designed this building as it backs onto another Larcomb-designed building at 264 Cuba Street – both owned by Thomas Kerslake.
This brick building’s original façade included twin pediments - one above each of its two shops, as pictured above. Little original decoration remains, and its entrances are also altered. The east-side shop was occupied between 1896 and 1974 by a tobacconist-barber business – mostly (1896-1972) by the Giorgi family. Since the late 1990s the Monsoon Asian Kitchen has been there.
This building’s unique ‘architectural feature’ is the remnant of an early 1890s telegraph pole still protruding through its verandah. The pole slightly predates the building, and became its middle verandah post. The upper part was removed around 1920 and the base ‘tailed’ in recent years. Now the historic telegraph pole is only a short length of timber that protrudes above the verandah and which is perched atop a new verandah post.
