Brunswick Street, Melbourne: Difference between revisions

| route = {{AUshield|S|45}} Metro Route 45 {{small|(1989-present1989–present)}}

| end_a = {{AUshield|S|45}} '''[[St. Georges Road, Melbourne|St. Georges Road]]'''<br />{{small|[[Fitzroy North, Victoria|Fitzroy North, Melbourne]]}}

*[[Gertrude Street, Melbourne|Gertrude Street]]}}

Brunswick Street runs north–south through the inner northern [[Melbourne]] suburbs of [[Fitzroy, Victoria|Fitzroy]] and [[Fitzroy North, Victoria|Fitzroy North]], from [[Victoria Street, Melbourne|Victoria Parade]] at its southernmost end, crossing [[Gertrude Street, Melbourne|Gertrude Street]] and [[Eastern Highway|Alexandra Parade]] through Fitzroy, and north continuing until it reaches [[St Georges Road, Melbourne|St Georges Road]] in Fitzroy North, near the [[Edinburgh Gardens, Melbourne|Edinburgh Gardens]]; there, its former northward course is continued by a much smaller residential street named Brunswick Street North.

[[File:Melbourne Tram 1979.jpg|thumb|A tram on [[Melbourne tram route 11|route 11]] travels down Brunswick Street, 1979.]]

Brunswick Street, believed to be named after Captain George Brunswick Smythe, owes its origins to Benjamin Baxter, who owned land along Victoria Parade in the recently proclaimed township of Newtown (now Fitzroy South). Baxter owned Crown Allotment 49, which was adjacent to Allotment 48 at the northwest corner of the government roads Victoria Parade and Nicholson Street. In 1839 Baxter subdivided his land into quarters, creating roads between the subdivisions. These became Brunswick Street and Gertrude Street. Initially Brunswick Street only ran as far as what is now Hanover Street, Fitzroy. In 1840, Mr R. S. Webb subdivided Crown Allotment 70, to the north of Baxter's land. This extended Brunswick Street further north to Bell Street (originally known as Hamburg Street). The street was officially proclaimed in 1851, by which time it extended as far as Reilly Street (now Alexandra Parade), at that stage an incomplete open drain.<ref>{{cnCite book |datelast=AugustFitzroy 2022History Society |first=Cute History Committee |url=https://fitzroyhistorysociety.org.au/publications/books/ |title=Fitzroy: Melbourne's First Suburb |publisher=Hyland House Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=0522844766 |pages=333-336}}</ref>

In 1867 allotments in the cleared scrubland to the north of Reilly Street were put up for sale. The Government survey plan included a road in the same alignment as Brunswick Street leading to a cricket ground reserve to the north, but it was un-namedunnamed. During residential development in the 1870s, this road became known as Harker Street and was extended as far north as today's Holden Street. In 1876 Harker Street changed its name to Brunswick Street North, but by 1900 the wide Government section south of St Georges Road had dropped the 'North' in its title while the remainder, narrower and offset from the main road due to its formation by private land subdivisions, retained the name Brunswick Street North.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Shops had appeared in the southern end of Brunswick Street as early as the 1840s and by 1854 the strip rivaled [[Bourke Street, Melbourne|Bourke Street]] as a shopping district.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

After [[World War II]], large numbers of immigrants (principally from Mediterranean Europe) settled in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, including Fitzroy. Among them, there were many [[Italy|Italians]], who in turn imported [[espresso]] machines and established the foundations of Melbourne's café culture. Building on these foundations and established in 1986, Mario's Cafe is an iconic venue on Brunswick street serving both coffee and Italian cuisine.<ref>{{cnCite web |title=Who We Are {{!}} Marios Cafe |url=https://marioscafe.com.au/who-we-are/ |access-date=August2024-09-03 2022|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Gentrification]] was not long in following, though the economic recession of the 1990s slowed it somewhat. One by one, the few remaining regular shops closed and were replaced by cafés, fashion boutiques, and bars, a shift that has played a large role in Fitzroy being named one of the most unique neighbourhoods in the world in 2016.<ref>{{citation|url= http://www.howitravel.co/the-15-coolest-neighborhoods-in-the-world-in-2016/ |title=The 15 Coolest Neighborhoods in the World in 2016 |accessdate=November 17, 2016}}</ref> The Punters Club closed in 2002 (however it would reopen in 2024), and 3RRR has relocated further out to [[Brunswick, Victoria|Brunswick]].{{when|date=August 2022}}{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Brunswick Street was signed as Metropolitan Route 45 between Fitzroy and Fitzroy North, in 1989, continuing north along [[St. Georges Road, Melbourne|St. Georges Road]].{{cn|date=August 2022}}

The passing of the ''Road Management Act 2004''<ref name="roadact">{{cite web |author=State Government of Victoria |title=Road Management Act 2004 |url=https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-08/04-12aa062%20authorised.pdf |publisher=Government of Victoria |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018233332/https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-08/04-12aa062%20authorised.pdf |archivedate=1918 October 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=19 October 2021 }}</ref> granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to [[VicRoads]]: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as '''Brunswick Street''' (Arterial #5114), from [[St. Georges Road, Melbourne|St. Georges Road]] to [[Eastern Highway|Alexandra Parade]] through [[Fitzroy, Victoria|Fitzroy]],<ref name="vicreg">{{cite web |author=VicRoads |title=VicRoads – Register of Public Roads (Part A) 2015 |url=https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/-/media/files/documents/utilities/about-vr/acts-and-regulations/register-of-public-roads---part-a-v-2015.ashx?la=en&hash=116BE6FB86F506FF0B5BAFBEA45FCD6C |format=PDF |publisher=Government of Victoria |page=228 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501042521/https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/-/media/files/documents/utilities/about-vr/acts-and-regulations/register-of-public-roads---part-a-v-2015.ashx?la=en&hash=116BE6FB86F506FF0B5BAFBEA45FCD6C |archivedate=1 May 2020 |url-status=live |access-date=19 October 2021 }}</ref> the remainder of the road to Victoria Parade remains undeclared.

|road={{AUshield|S|45}} [[St Georges Road, Melbourne|St Georges Road]] (Metro Route 45){{VICcity|p=on|Preston|Reservoir}}

|road=St Georges Road South{{VICcity|p=on|, [[Carlton North}}]]

|location_special={{VICcity|[[Fitzroy North}}-]]–{{VICcity|Fitzroy}} border

|road=[[Gertrude Street, Melbourne|Gertrude Street]]{{VICcity|p=on|Fitzroy}}