Curtin House and Rooftop Cinema

From the street, Curtin House looks like any other early twentieth-century office building. But this six-storey Commercial Palazzo building is what Melburnians call a vertical laneway. Each floor has been colonised by a different bar, restaurant, or creative venue, stacked on top of each other like layers of a cultural cake. And at the very top, open to the sky, is Melbourne's first rooftop cinema.

The building was constructed in nineteen twenty-two for the Tattersalls Club, with offices to rent on the upper floors. The name commemorates wartime Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, who died in office in nineteen forty-five. For most of the twentieth century, it was just another nondescript office building. Then in the early two thousands, a group of creative operators saw the potential and transformed it into a vertical entertainment precinct. The Rooftop Cinema opened in two thousand and six, screening arthouse, classic, and recent-release films on summer evenings between November and March. Two hundred people in deck chairs, watching a movie under the stars, with the Melbourne skyline glowing behind the screen.

In two thousand and seventeen, a renovation added a series of rounded, Art Deco-inspired metallic awnings that nod to the aesthetic of nineteen-fifties drive-in cinemas. Two of them retract to embrace the sun or provide shelter in less friendly weather. At night, glowing neon rings illuminate the awnings. The whole thing is a love letter to the idea that a city's best experiences are often hidden above street level. You would never know any of this was happening if you just walked past on Swanston Street. But that is Melbourne for you. The good stuff is always upstairs, downstairs, or down an alley.