The “Gothic Bank” building, corner of Collins and Queen Streets, Melbourne, circa 1950.

Large-format gelatin silver print photograph, 460 x 370 mm; on the original board mount, signed in full by the photographer beneath the image; a touch of silverfishing at the bottom edge of the print, else fine condition; in a later gazed timber frame.

An evocative early post-war Melbourne street view by photographer and photographic historian Jack Cato (1889-1971). Prominent is one of the city’s architectural jewels, the magnificent neo-Gothic bank building at the corner of Collins and Queen Streets, whose tower casts an afternoon shadow on the facade of a building on the south side of Collins Street opposite. Built between 1883 and 1887, it was originally the Melbourne headquarters of the English, Scottish and Australia Bank. Today the building houses the ANZ Banking Museum.