Inside, that new-shoe smell wrenches you right back to sliding a sock-covered foot into the metal measurer, when being fitted for new school-issue Clarks T-Bars.

The ends of shoe boxes stacked floor to ceiling form a geometric wallpaper. Joseph hunches over a Singer crammed into a corner and stitches Velcro onto a pair of red shoes. A pair of dusty black shoes made for club feet hangs by the laces above his head, like a pair of boxing gloves. There are doorways to corridors lined with more boxes; some open out to a workshop. And just inside one door are the wooden molds for countless classic shoe designs. They're from the days when Watt's made more bespoke shoes and boots.

'We still do it, but these days it's mostly surgical footwear (for short legs, deformed feet)', says Bob Watt. He's been working here for 58 years, since he was 15, and learnt bookmaking from his father and his grandfather, who learnt from their fathers and grandfathers, who learnt from their father...all the way back to 1895 when Watt's Corner Shoe Store opened its doors here, on the corner of Lygon and Grattan Streets, Carlton. (Opposite Bosari's.)

And despite an honours degree in science, Joseph (Bob's son) makes shoes, fits children and adults with branded shoes, does repairs and restocks the shelves.

Let's hope he has a son.