SATURDAY BREAKFAST #22: GLEN HUNTLY ROAD, ELSTERNWICK (EAST OF ORRONG ROAD)

Visited 21 April 2012

There’s something about hairdressing that inspires cute business names:  Hair 4 You, Tortoise Hair, Short Cuts, Mane Identity, Hair Today Gone Tomorrow.  Thoughts of this tonsorial inventiveness were triggered by the name of today’s breakfast venue, Bigger than my Belly – quite an adventurous title for a simple eatery, but one not to forget.  And the food was worth recalling, too:  excellent strong coffee; Bircher full of everything in the way of fruit and nuts; and porridge with maple syrup, pecans and sliced banana.

The retail precinct of Glen Huntly Road to the east of Orrong Road is a continuation of the extensive and vibrant strip to the west that runs all the way from the railway line and from Brighton Road beyond.  It is shorter than its westerly counterpart, but has stand-alone vigour.   There is an extraordinary number of eating places.  The commercial zone drifts into the residential zone without imparting the sense of petering out.  Right at the end of the shops is a retirement complex providing “care compassion and companionship”, all under the banner of Graceland Manor.  I can’t dislodge the word grotesque from my mind.  Somewhat coincidentally, there was yesterday’s report of the death of the American DJ and music entrepreneur, Dick Clark, who in his early days must have spun many an Elvis disc.

We had parked around the corner in Orrong Road to the south.  As we walked to Glen Huntly Road we paused to be amazed by the two storey Victorian-era mansion at number 70.  I am not averse to piling a bit of fulsome praise on buildings that excite and delight, but this one has sent me into an adjective-hunting frenzy.  It is grand and ornate and elegant.  It is flamboyant yet tasteful.  It is very heavily decorated, but has the solidity to get away with it – it is no gingerbread monstrosity.    It sits close to the street and square on, with a verandah along the whole front (but not around the sides), and a matching balcony above.  The façade, above and below, is heavily decorated with cast iron, all intact.  At each end of the verandah and balcony are robust square pillars, stone and ornate.  Above the balcony the façade is set back, with mouldings and cappings, and wings either side atop the pillars.  The decorative motifs – for instance, closed urns with pointed finials – all seem to be undamaged; but, sadly, the place as a whole is run down. 

The building is named Lisbon House, and therein must lie a story.   Was it built by a Portuguese?  Or by someone who had a happy memory or a romantic vision of Lisbon?  Or perhaps it’s called after a ship of that name?  But I confess to considerable frustration, having been unable to find anything of that story.  I can find no listing by the National Trust, or in the Heritage register.  The website of the City of Glen Eira has a “history” page, but the principal focus is on municipal history and there’s scant reference to social history.  I haven’t been able to track down a local history of Elsternwick that might have some reference to Lisbon House’s origins…………………… but there is a photograph in the bare bones Wikipedia page for Elsternwick, so somebody else must think that the building is noteworthy.

However, my search for information about Lisbon House past has by chance led me to something about Lisbon House present.  Web pages are rarely dated, and I have to assume that what I’ve unearthed is “current”:  Lisbon House is occupied by a group named The House.  The House is as mysterious as Lisbon House.  An internet search for “The House” turned up more than five million hits, including The House licenced brothel at Hornsby in Sydney – whose website, for geographical reasons of course, didn’t detain me for long.  As for the other millions of web sites:  too much trouble.  So the only information I have about The House is from its own web pages……………………….it started at Elwood in 1996; it is “now residing” at Lisbon House;  it has recently been developing “as a hub for human communities”, although it has “always interested itself with public versus private space and human creativity”; its residents (presumably residing in Lisbon House) “experiment with creativity and lifestyle, trying to create a balance between a home for ideas and a functional living space”.  [Are you still with me?]  “Such incubators explore the practical and political impacts of living within the urban environment, while also dealing with the political, cultural and peer pressures that go with everyday living.”

So, there is a bunch of people living at Lisbon House under the auspices of a group who badge themselves as The House.  Or are the residents themselves The House?  Regardless, residencies are for an initial three months period, and may be extended “based on the life of an idea submitted to fellow residents.  The ideas development and/or implementation are the indicators” that determine whether residencies are extended.  It is not explained how the “life” of an idea is judged.  The author of the web pages, in my anything but humble opinion, has his or her head stuck firmly up his or her fundament, and needs a lesson in plainspeak.

As to whether consensus rules, or the majority rule: this is not explained; and nor is there any indication as to how residents are recruited or chosen, or what they’re expected to pay for board and lodging, if anything.  More generally, there is no explanation of how The House is funded.  

Nevertheless, they are not simply navel gazers.  They are proponents of the benefits of local communities and local shopping.  They give Chadstone and Southland shopping centres a serve, and attempt, rather, to “engage with local and related services”.  Indeed, they encourage local service providers to advertise on The House’s website, and several do so.  The House facilitates “community chats”, and runs “community forums” – “anything from entertainment to health, business to politics”; or add your own topic.

Whatever the truth of The House, it seems to be fairly harmless.  Or is it?  I mean harmless in two senses – that the organization isn’t harming the local community, and that the organization isn’t harming the residents.  With regard to the latter, there can be quite a bumpy ride from starry-eyed to reality, and it’s a short journey from individual freedom to group duress. 

So, is The House a fluid group of people, formless and fluffy, living in a suburban community it supports and seeks to engage; or is it itself a community with a more inward focus than at first appears?  The outreach into the Elsternwick neighbourhood suggests the former, but the rigidity and humourlessness suggests the latter.  Utopian communes are notoriously unstable, and fall apart for a variety of reasons.  I am guessing that principal among these reasons is the issue of governance, underscored by the human truth – observed by many, but captured by George Orwell in his farm-yard analogy - that while all men are equal some are more equal than others. 

Maybe it’s for fear of the rise of a leader that residency at Lisbon House is for short periods only; or maybe it’s because there is already a heavy hand who does not wish to encourage any disruption to the status quo.  Or maybe the heavy hand is mine alone.            

Gary Andrews