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St Vincent Place

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St Vincent Place
Terrace house in the Victorian Regency style
St Vincent Place is located in Melbourne
St Vincent Place
Location of the heritage site in Melbourne
Map
Interactive map of St Vincent Place
37°50′21″S 144°57′18″E / 37.83917°S 144.95500°E / -37.83917; 144.95500
TypeResidential urban development
LocationAlbert Park, Victoria
Nearest cityMelbourne
History
Built1868; 158 years ago (1868)
Site notes
Architect(s)Clement Hodgkinson
(urban designer)
Architectural style
Victorian Regency
Official name
St Vincent Place Precinct
TypeRegistered place
Designated9 January 1997
Reference no.H1291
HO258
Category
Urban Area
Official name
St Vincent Place Conservation Area
TypeDefunct register
CriteriaHistoric
Designated21 October 1980
Reference no.5460

St Vincent Place is a heritage precinct in Albert Park, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Characterised by Victorian Regency–style terrace houses surrounding St Vincent Gardens—a landscaped garden square—the precinct is a rare Australian example of late nineteenth–century residential development, modelled on similar residential garden squares in London and other parts of England.

The St Vincent Place heritage precinct is bounded by Park, Cecil, and Bridport streets, Cardigan Place, and Nelson Road; and is bisected by Montague Street, allowing the passage of trams on route 1.

The precinct, inclusive of St Vincent Gardens and St Vincent Place West, was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 9 January 1997 due to its "… aesthetic, historical, architectural and social significance…"[1][a] The precinct is also included on the Victorian branch of the National Trust non-statutory register,[2][3] and, in 1980, was added to the now defunct Register of the National Estate.[4] A separate area, known as St Vincent Place East, was nominated in 2020 for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register.[5]

Description

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Rochester Terrace
Detail of the main pavilion, Rochester Terrace

The site of a former race track for horses, in 1854 or 1855 Andrew Clarke,[b] a Surveyor-General of Victoria, was attributed with design of the initial plans for St Vincent Place. The original configuration, an emulation of similar 'garden square' developments in London, Bath, and Bristol, extended from Park Street in the north to Bridport Street in the south, and from Howe Crescent in the east to Nelson Road and Cardigan Street in the west.[1]

However, plans for the former St Kilda railway line (1857–1987) interrupted this plan. Clement Hodgkinson adapted the design, effectively creating an 'east' and 'west' portion of St Vincent Place. The first land sales commenced in 1864 and, as housing developed over the next ten years or more, included both quality terrace row dwellings and detached houses.[7][8]

The most significant building is Rochester Terrace, located at 33-51 St Vincent Place. This row of ten ornate brick terraces was erected in two stages, completed in 1869 and 1879, as an investment for William Parton Buckhurst, a local auctioneer and property developer.[c] Designed by Charles Boykett (d.1876[9]) and his son, Charles Bolten Boykett (d.1877[10]), in the Victorian Regency style, the terrace has a dominant central block, flanking intermediate wings, and detailed Palladian-style pavilions. The terrace is reminiscent of the London terraces of the nineteenth century and faces onto St Vincent Place Gardens.[11]

In 2006 Bernard Salt, an Australian demographer, included the precinct as first among his favourite places that have been designed by planners:[12]

"St Vincent Place, Albert Park: …this residential precinct known only to Melburnians must be one of this nation's town planning treasures. Here are two extended but connecting crescents laid out around gardens which are overlooked by double-storey Victorian terrace houses. Designed in the early 1850s, St Vincent Place was virtually a gated community: the well-to-do would promenade around their public gardens; smaller wooden houses for servants and the working classes were relegated to the lesser enveloping crescents."

Historical significance

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The precinct is believed to be the premier garden square development in Victoria that was based on similar models in London. It is the largest development of its type in Victoria and the St Vincent Gardens is much larger than the small parks in the Argyle, Lincoln, Macarthur, and Murchison squares in Carlton.[1] In addition to its importance in terms of its designers and the quality of housing, the precinct is socially important as a reflection of the aspirations of middle class residents in South Melbourne and as a focus of community life for the surrounding district including both the bowls and tennis clubs, located in the St Vincent Gardens, in continual operation since 1873[13][14] and 1884[15] respectively.[1]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was pressure to demolish some of dwellings in the precinct to make way for the proposed F14 East Southeastern Freeway, part of the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan. Barbara Niven, a founder of the Emerald Hill Association, successfully fought to protect the area's 19th-century heritage from demolition.[16][17] The campaign was launched with a pamphlet, authorised by Reg Macey, a South Melbourne politician, showing a map of the alternative routes.[citation needed]

Etymology

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All the streets in the St Vincent Place precinct have nautical themes.[1] It is most likely that St Vincent Place was named in honour of John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, a Royal Navy admiral, who was First Lord of the Admiralty between 1801 and 1804.

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St Vincent Place is sometimes dubbed as "millionaire's row",[18][19] and was home to notable residents, including models, business people, lawyers, doctors and architects.[20][21]

Several households in St Vincent Place lost families members during World War I including Major Frederick Miller Johnson of number 32;[22] Staff Sergeant John Alfred Eric Crawford, the son of Mrs. S.M. Cowen, of number 82;[23] and Private Harold Frederick Robinson, the husband of Ada May Robinson of number 5.[24]

The Gilded Cage (2002), the first novel of a Melbourne historical trilogy by Marshall Browne, narrates a love story with a backdrop of "graceful St Vincent Place".[25]

Notes

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  1. ↑ The Victorian Heritage Register lists: "… comprising all the land, gardens, buildings and works… in the places known as St Vincent Gardens East, St Vincent Gardens West, Numbers 2-94 St Vincent Place North, Numbers 1-99 St Vincent Place South, 10 Merton Street, the Albert Park Bowling Club, the Albert Park Tennis Club, the roadway and footpath of St Vincent Place, and the roadway and footpath of Montague Street between the property lines of St Vincent Place North and St Vincent Place South."[1]
  2. ↑ An officer in the Corps of Royal Engineers of the British Army, Clarke later served in both the Victorian Legislative Council and the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and was knighted as Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Clarke GCMG CB CIE.[6]
  3. ↑ Buckhurst was born in Rochester, England.

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "St Vincent Place Precinct, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H1291, Heritage Overlay HO258". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  2. ↑ "St Vincent Place And St Vincent Gardens (National Trust)". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  3. ↑ "St Vincent Place & Gardens - Historic Area (National Trust)". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  4. ↑ "St Vincent Place Conservation Area (Place ID 5460)". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government. 21 October 1980. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  5. ↑ St Vincent Place East (South Melbourne) – H0441 (PDF). Port Phillip Heritage Review (Report). Vol. 1. City of Port Phillip. January 2020. pp. 293–301. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  6. ↑ Malone, Betty (1969). "Clarke, Sir Andrew (1824–1902)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. pp. 409–411.
  7. ↑ RBA Architects + Conservation Consultants (23 July 2025). "Heritage Impact Statement: 99 St Vincent Place South, Albert Park: Proposed Re-development" (includes an 1855 survey map of the suburb, then known as Emerald Hill.). RBA Architects + Conservation Consultants. p. 5. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Heritage Victoria.
  8. ↑ RBA Architects + Conservation Consultants; Gunawardena, Chamathya; Hemingway, Anthony (8 October 2024). "Heritage Impact Statement: 25 St Vincent Place South, Albert Park" (PDF). RBA Architects + Conservation Consultants. p. 5. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Heritage Victoria.
  9. ↑ "Funeral notices". The Argus. 7 October 1876. p. 12. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Death notices". The Argus. 5 December 1877. p. 1. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ Rochester Terrace. Victorian Heritage Database (Report). 1 July 1999. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  12. ↑ Salt, Bernard (6 July 2006). "It's a gift when beauty goes according to plan". The Australian. p. 26.
  13. ↑ "Club beginnings". Albert Park Bowls Club. n.d. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  14. ↑ "Bowling". The Age. 6 December 1873. p. 5. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Trove. National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "About our club". Albert Park Lawn Tennis Club. n.d. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  16. ↑ Howe, Renate (2014). "Urban and Suburban Community Organisations and Activism". The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Australian Women's Archives Project. ISBN 978-0-7340-4873-8. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  17. ↑ Howe, Renate (2012). "'Nobody but a Bunch of Mothers': Grassroots Activism and Women's Leadership in 1970s Melbourne". Seizing the Initiative: Australian Women Leaders in Politics, Workplaces and Communities (PDF). eScholarship Research Centre, The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Australian Women's Archives Project.
  18. ↑ Landy, Samantha (23 April 2018). "St Vincent Place, Albany Rd revealed as Melbourne's best streets, according to agents". Herald Sun. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  19. ↑ "Living History – St Vincent's Place" (blog). Balance Architecture. 26 May 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  20. ↑ Apelgren, Janne (8 September 1981). "Smartest new address in town". The Age. p. 25. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Google News Archive.
  21. ↑ "London calling, Albert Park". Melbourne Circle Project: Stories from the suburbs. 4 September 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  22. ↑ "JOHNSON, Major (Medical Officer) Frederick Miller: 6th Fld Ambulance AAMC, AIF". Anzac officers died at Gallipoli: H, I, J. n.d. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via anzacs.org. Married; Surgeon, of 32 St. Vincent Place, Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Died of wounds, 29th November 1915 at Lone Pine, aged 52.
  23. ↑ "Staff Sergeant John Alfred Eric Crawford: 15046, Australian Army Medical Corps". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. n.d. Retrieved 25 May 2026. Son of Mrs. S. M. Cowen, of 82, St. Vincent Place, South Melbourne, Victoria. Died on 16 September 1916.
  24. ↑ "Private Harold Frederick Robinson: 2184, 7th Bn. Australian Infantry, A.I.F." Commonwealth War Graves Commission. n.d. Retrieved 25 May 2026. Son of the late Samuel and Mary Robinson; husband of Ada May Robinson, of 5, St. Vincent's Place, Albert Park, Victoria, Australia. Native of Gippsland. Died between 8–9 August 1915 at Lone Pine, aged 25.
  25. ↑ Browne, Marshall (2002). The Gilded Cage (paperback ed.). Duffy & Snellgrove. ISBN 1876631171.

Further reading

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