| Southeastern
suburbs of Melbourne |
| South
Melbourne and Albert Park
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| If
it’s the bay you’re heading for, then St Kilda
is the obvious destination; the quickest and most interesting way there is
on the #96 tram from Bourke or Spencer streets, which runs on a light rail
track via South Melbourne and Albert Park, past the new Aquatic Centre
with its five swimming pools. Both suburbs are worth checking out in their
own right if you have the time. South Melbourne’s focus is the South
Melbourne Market on Coventry Street (Wed 6am–2pm, Fri 6am–6pm, Sat
6am–2pm, Sun 8am–4pm), an old-fashioned value-for-money place with new
and secondhand clothes and books, as well as fruit and veg, and
delicatessen stalls. Pleasant cafés line Coventry Street opposite the
market, while not far away on Clarendon Street a few ancient shops survive
virtually unaltered, complete with corrugated-iron awnings and iron-lace
pillars.
Albert Park has the feel of a small
village, with many lovely old terraced houses and Dundas Place, a shopping
centre of mouthwatering delis and bakeries. In the shadow of the St Kilda
Road office buildings lies Albert Park itself, the highly controversial
site for the Australian Grand Prix at the beginning of March, which
Melbourne snatched from Adelaide in 1996. |
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| Elwood |
| The
next stop south of St Kilda along the bay, Elwood,
is a quieter version of St Kilda, still with a faintly alternative air.
Ormond Road’s original shopfronts conceal a health-food store, an
alternative-therapies centre and a couple of cheap vegetarian takeaways,
but more yuppified cafés are slowly edging in. Ormond Esplanade runs past
parkland through which occasional paths run down to the beach.
Elsternwick |
| East
of Elwood, Elsternwick (train to Ripponlea) is a largely Orthodox
Jewish area. The original 1918 fittings and facade of Brinsmead Chemist at
73 Glen Eira Rd are protected by the National Trust, as is Ripponlea
House at 192 Hotham St (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; $9), which shows how
Melbourne’s wealthy elite lived a century ago. The 33-room mansion has
magnificent gardens, complete with ornamental lake and fernery, and a
way-over-the-top interior. The grounds are popular for picnics at
weekends, when the tearoom is also open (11am–4pm). Ten to fifteen
minutes’ walk away in East St Kilda, opposite the St Kilda Synagogue, is
the Jewish Museum of Australia (Tues–Thurs 10am–4pm, Sun
11am–5pm; $5; tram #3 or #67 to stop 32 from Swanston Street in the city
or from St Kilda Road). It has four permanent exhibitions: the Australian
Jewish History Gallery, documenting Jewish life in Australia since the
beginning of colonization 200 years ago; the Timeline of Jewish History,
tracing the last four thousand years; and Jewish Year and Belief and
Ritual, both dedicated to the religious and ethical foundations of
Judaism, with a focus on festivals and customs. Changing exhibitions on a
wide range of related topics are another feature of the museum.
Prahran Council
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| Prahran
Council, covering South Yarra, Prahran and, to the east, Toorak and
Armadale, oversees an extensive area of shopping, both downbeat and
upmarket. Chapel Street is the main drag: in South Yarra it extends for a
Golden Mile of trendy shopping and very chic cafés; heading south
beyond Commercial Road through Prahran and Windsor it gradually moves
downmarket, until Dandenong Road and the Astor Cinema mark the start of St
Kilda. Crossing Chapel Street at right angles in South Yarra, Toorak Road
boasts equally ritzy designer boutiques and, if that’s possible, becomes
even more exclusive east of Grange Road, as it enters Toorak, a suburb
synonymous with wealth in Melbourne. Below Toorak, High Street Armadale,
between Kooyong and Glenferrie roads, holds a concentration of antique
shops. Trams #6 and #72 from Swanston Street will get you from the
city centre to Chapel Street.
Beyond Commercial Road in Prahran proper,
Chapel Street still focuses on fashion, but in a more street-smart vein,
becoming progressively more downmarket; as Chapel Street crosses High
Street the suburb changes to Windsor and becomes more interestingly
ethnic. Landmarks include Prahran Market (Tues, Thurs & Sat
dawn–5pm, Fri until 6pm), round the corner on Commercial Road, an
excellent, though fairly expensive, food emporium (fish, meat, fruit,
vegetables and delicatessen). Chapel Street Bazaar, back on the
main drag, has good secondhand clothes, Art Deco jewellery, furniture and
bric-a-brac. Greville Street, off Chapel Street in the heart of
Prahran, is a former hippie hangout turned respectable, with antique
shops, antiquarian and specialist bookshops, record shops, and
wall-to-wall retro or designer clothes shops – very young and full of
itself. On Saturday and Sunday, the small Greville Street Market
hawks arts and crafts, secondhand clothes and jewellery on the corner of
Gratton Street in Gratton Park (noon–5pm).
South Yarra and Toorak
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| Among
the boutiques and speciality shops, bistro bars for the beautiful people
and drop-dead-cool nightclubs, the Jam Factory shopping complex,
named after its former incarnation, is worth making a beeline for on the South
Yarra stretch of Chapel Street. Como House, overlooking the
river from Como Avenue in South Yarra (daily 10am–5pm; $8), is a good
example of the town houses built by wealthy nineteenth-century landowners.
The elegant white mansion, a mixture of Regency and Italianate
architectural styles, has been restored by the National Trust. To reach
the house, walk east along Toorak Road from Chapel Street, and then north
on Williams Road, or, from the city centre, take tram #8 from Swanston
Street.
Toorak has never been short of a bean:
when Melbourne was founded, the wealthy chose to build their stately homes
here on the high bank of the Yarra, leaving the flood-prone lower ground
for the poor. This old money has in recent years been joined by new; many
European Jews who worked hard after arriving penniless in Australia
celebrated their new wealth by moving to Toorak in the 1950s and 1960s.
There’s little to see or do in the suburb: the hilly, tree-lined streets
are full of huge mansions in extensive private gardens, while so-called
Toorak Village is stuffed with wickedly expensive designer boutiques. |
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