DESIGN & BUILD
Teller’s front bar has a feature wall by colour smith Clare Scanlan. Photo credit: Jenah Piwanski Photo credit: Jenah Piwanski
LAST YEAR, just three weeks before Victoria’s longest lockdown, a venue called Teller flung open its doors in the budding Brunswick East precinct on Lygon Street. The venue’s red-brick heritage facade has fronted many businesses over the last century. Starting life in 1918 as the State Savings Bank of Victoria, it became a Greek restaurant, a dental practice, a record store, an apartment display suite and then a real estate agent. Although the classic frontage has remained the same through all of its different incarnations – and remains so today, alongside its protected Canary Palm, if you venture inside these days you’ll find a multifaceted pub-style venue. Teller is the vision of owners Melanie Aldred and Gavin van Staden who set out to create a true
A place to call home
A new local on Melbourne’s Lygon Street has sprung from the bones of an old bank.
26 | Australian Hotelier
local for the neighbourhood. As the former owner and operator of the Metropolitan Hotel on William Street for more than 15 years, Aldred has come from a classic pub background. “The Met was a wonderful venue with lots of regulars, but they did get on the train and go home to their local. Here in Brunswick East, you have a little pocket that has got a very strong sense of community,” Aldred says. The pair negotiated a long-term lease with the property owners, then started with a blank canvas. Their aim was to create a welcoming extension of the lounge room, a multilayered venue for different times of day, with each space creating its own identity. Teller’s several spaces were to include an
