Fig. 01: Krypto was a one eyed cat who lived in residence at Fitzroy's Black Cat Cafe from its early days until sadly passing away in 1996. He had a brother named Spotty who died some years earlier. This illustration came from a little book I made one evening in 1991 on a paper napkin - note that I had misspelt his name.
The Initiation
It was 1987, my first year at college and still fresh from the burbs, when the humble coffee came instant and all to often in the stylo-foam cup. However my life was soon to make a dramatic change.
For some months a close friend of mine promised on numerous occasions to take me out to a special place. She didn't go into any details of its whereabouts, but did drop its name to me finally - the Black Cat Cafe. To scared to go alone I had already concocted images in my head of cool goatee beatniks and blonde bombshells discussing the likes of Sartre and Foucault, with a dreamy din of free jazz in the background. It was my deepest and desperate desire to become a part of the fanciful world which did not really exist in the Melbourne of my youth.
Finally and completely out of the blue one afternoon my friend asked me in a rather blasé manor "Oh Sean, I've got nothing to do, are you interested into accompanying me to the Black Cat". Almost speechless and my heart racing, without any hesitation in fear that she would make a sudden change of mind, I jumped at the offer.
Fig. 02 - 04 A Day in the Light of the Black Cat Cafe was a photo essay I shot one winters day in 1989 with a Banner (Diana 120mm film) camera. Shot on C41 neg and processed at art school where I lost the negatives and miraculously they turned up over about 10 years later. These images capture the mood of the cafe in its best moments.
In little time we were alighting a W class tram on Brunswick Street Fitzroy and approached a polychrome brick Victorian edifice, which I later learnt as the Beswicke terrace. At a street corner and below a dilapidated bell shaped tower a plate glass door from where above came the glow of a small neon sign simply displayed the word - cafe.
In the late afternoon light on the 1st of October 1987 I entered another world, there was no turning back now! Nervously, my choice, we sat at a table which wobbled, close to the orange enamelled espresso machine. Above us from a high tongue and groove ceiling hang an assortment of light fittings, many with inverted lamp shades, two suspended fans slowly spun. A slight breeze gave an animated flutter to a rag tag display of faded notices from the community board. Beneath another table close by a bull terrier lazily panted at its owners feet, while to my surprise and quite undisturbed a large black and white cat with one eye sprawled across the Formica counter.
A pale looking waitresses asked us for our orders. My friend a short macchiato, me a predictable cappuccino. "Oh one of those" the waitresses replied with a smile of sarcasm.
In what seemed like hours our coffees arrived. My friend's macchiato glass neatly placed inside a colourful paper skirt to protect delicate fingers while mine in a Vitrified cup with saucer displaying the words Hotel Australia. I thought to myself that I don't even really like coffee. I took a sip and then a mouth full of the brew. Then rushing it down I ordered another. Rays of brilliant afternoon light penetrated the cafe interior through slits in the Venician blinds and sent ribbons across the walls and onto the one eyed cat now sleeping. Monotonous free form jazz to the likes of Miles Davis bounced off my ear drums it all adding to the atmosphere of the space. Then under the effects of coffee and a wall of sound something took hold of me. It was bliss! From that very moment on and in its epiphany I was hooked on one of the world's most powerful drugs - caffeine. Finally I'd ventured into the Black Cat Cafe and was for the first time in my life emerged into the world of cafe culture.
Fig. 05 Benny was a fascinating man. Jewish and in late 1930s Nazi Germany, as a young art student he one day wandered into the office of his senior lecturer to collect a book referred to him. Deliberately placed for him to see was a state document issued by the SS to the university management listing the names of all students who were to be soon rounded up for imprisonment. Benny was one of many on the list. Inside the academic journal was a small gift in side an envelope, with an accompanying note from his lecturer - it contained a one way first class rail ticket to Paris. He left Germany that afternoon and never to return. In Paris he discovered and lived the Bohemian life of the artist before eventually emigrating to Australian in the 1940s. After one night at a wild party he crashed on the couch and was awoken the following morning by Pablo Picasso offering him a coffee to overcome his hangover. When in 1994 Henry Maas opened the nearby nightclub the Night Cat, Benny was a regular patron for a couple of years until passing away in mid 1996.
Fig. 06: The so called Beswicke Terrace at 236 - 252 Brunswick Street in Fitzroy in 1906. John Beswicke was the architect of this speculative commercial building which was financed by the Australian Property and Investment Co in 1888. He was to design many prominent Melbourne properties from the early 1880s until 1915, which included private homes, churches, the Malvern and Hawthorn Town Halls as well as the Australian Property and Investment Co Building which was Melbourne's first "skyscraper" at 12 levels. It would be interesting to know what business was located at 252 Brunswick Street soon after its completion. In May 1982 and founded by Henry Maas it would become the Black Cat Cafe.
Fig. 07: This pictures appears in the Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme of 1954, where 252 - Beswicke Terrace is the business to the left and recently sold. In April 1996 the two shops and above two levels were sold by the Habberfeld family. Interesting is the geographers technical term describing the shopping area as decadent. It's terminology would change in later decades when referencing Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.
Fig. 08: Night View of the Black Cat Cafe. My own interpretation of the Beswicke Terrace c 1990.
Fig. 09: Black Cat Cafe on a Winters Day c 1990. From 1990 to about 1994 I was regularly making drawings at the Black Cat and this is one of my favourites which details the patrons.
Fig. 10: Melancholy Night at the Black Cat Cafe. In 1990 I was frequenting the Black Cat Cafe up to three times per day where I was hooked on poppy seed cake as illustrated. The person is not me, but always in my drawings are people who frequented. There was speculation that the shop directly opposite was going to be a 711, but instead a women's laundery shop opened where now the flower shop stands. It was short lived, however in this drawing I some how captured the moment!
Fig. 11: Grand Final Day at the Black Cat Cafe 1990. The BC was always a retreat for me and others during festive periods and major sporting events which were happily avoided.
Fig. 12: Passing Tram Black Cat Cafe c 1990. Easy to get to the Black Cat Cafe was a tram spotters best desire. The "click click click" of the ceiling fans, the "whirl" of the coffee grinder and the "bump, bump, ding! ding!" of the W class trams as they trundled passed were the sounds of 252 Brunswick Street Fitzroy I miss most.
Fig. 13: This sketch says it all about drinking coffee and tram spotting at the Black Cat Cafe.
Fig. 14: The ubiquitous black cat statuette which stood erect in the front window and the multitude of wall clocks at the Black Cat Cafe. These are some night time sketches made in late 1991 when I was frequenting the cafe, due to a shortage of electricity in a near by squatted shop space from which I was inhabiting.
Fig. 15: A Couple of Love Cats at the Black Cat Cafe.
Fig. 16: Back at the Black Cat 13 May 1992. This drawing says it all when concerning the cosy confines and the black cat statuette keeping a close watch over the establishment.
