Rocket and Belle Antiques is housed in what was once a mechanic's workshop. While the vehicle inspection pit has since been concreted in, the remnants of a saw-tooth roof show the distinct outline of what was once a factory.

Leah Willian and her partner run Rocket and Belle. She's the third generation to own this historical little slice of Ballarat history, and she's passionate about letting others know about what else was once on Mair Street.

The 'Centenary Flats', for example. All along where The Good Guys retail store is now, people once lived in red brick homes. Some were two storey, others were one up and one down.

The flats belonged to Ms Willian's grandmother and then her father. The family bought them after selling their hotel, the Munster Arms in Bakery Hill, early in the 20^th Century.

It's hard to imagine now, but the centre of Ballarat - all around Bridge and Grenville, and up Mair Streets - was once heavily residential. And not that long ago, either. Up until the 1960s people were living in around the CBD, making it a more vibrant, busy place.

Do you know any of the people in these old Ballarat photos?

The red brick flats were built as terraces, which were once more common in Ballarat. They were demolished in the early 1970s, Ms Willian says, after council introduced more stringent fire safety laws.

"They were the most beautiful things, and they were right next door, here," Ms Willian says, recalling the buildings.

"My grandmother would ring my dad to come down on weekends and fix something; they'd say 'something's not working, something's not working,' and dad would have to fix it and we (Willian and her brothers) would be out in Field Street running up and down.

"There were 35 of (the flats). And do you know what happened? This is the saddest story in the world. It broke my dad. In 1973 a new rule came out whereby every flat had to have its own, individual fire escape. So (the council) came to my dad and said, 'Every flat needs a fire escape.'

"And he got the quote and it was phenomenal. He could not afford it. And they said, 'Fire escape, or we pull it down.' And he said, 'I can't afford it.' And they went ahead and pulled them down."

Both Ms Willian's father and her grandmother lost their home, as well as the tenants of the other buildings, and some of the businesses, such as Feltham's Funeral Directors, were also lost.

"It was where people lived," Ms Willian says.

"Some people thought they were a bit poor and ugly, and I think the rent was fairly cheap and the people who lived in them were a little bit poor. I mean they were tenement flats, but they were spectacular!

"It actually broke my dad. He really did almost have a nervous breakdown over it. For the rest of his life he couldn't talk about it."

After the heartbreak, her father sold the land, which is now occupied by the Good Guys building.

Ms Willian says if the flats had survived, the whole profile of Mair Street would be different today. They could have been shops, she says.

"Now we just own these three: White's the Florist next door, this shed, and next door to this."

In the spirit of trying to discover more about the past of Ballarat, Leah Willian is asking people to come in to Rocket and Belle and look at unnamed pictures of Ballaratians form the past, to see if they can discover any lost relatives.

The images, which came from Scott's pharmacy in Sturt Street, show people at rest and play, and are mostly exclusively Ballarat people, Ms Willian says.

"So there's all these stories in this box that was found in a cupboard that we need to tell; and there's the story of me and my brothers being here since we were kids, playing in this shop and not wanting it developed."

Rocket and Belle is open Fridays and Saturdays at 37 Mair Street, Ballarat.