Acland Street is a street in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, which enjoys great popularity as a recreational area, mainly due to its many restaurants and its proximity to the entertainment areas along St Kilda beach Acland Street runs on a north-west to south-east axis between

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

and Barkly Streets. It was one of the first streets laid out when St Kilda was surveyed in 1842. The north-west end of the street is largely residential, and features many fine houses from the late 19th century, some of them converted to flats or other uses, such as the Linden Gallery, and earlier, Acland Street Gallery, which was at number 18, and closed in 1990. The south-east end of the street, between Carlisle and Barkly Streets, is a commercial strip. The section of Acland Street between Barkly Street and Carlisle Street is a tram zone where route 96 terminates.

History

Acland Street is named for Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, who owned the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

Lady of St Kilda The ''Lady of St Kilda'' was a schooner which served from 1834 before being shipwrecked off Tahiti shortly after 1843. By the 1930s these shops had become of the centres of Melbourne's Jewish community, which grew greatly in size with European refugees before and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and Acland Street featured a number of shops and restaurants catering to this community. In the 1968, the Balberyszski bookshop moved into Acland Street, staying on till the 1990s. The Scheherezade cafe, established in 1958, was the most representative and popular part of this heritage, and served up borscht and latkes for decades. A number of cake shops specialising in Central and East European fare such as Kugelhopf and Black Forest Cake were also established in this period. By the 1980s, the centre of Jewish Melbourne had moved eastwards to more affluent Caulfield, and Acland street became less European and more for weekend tourists, until finally Scheherazade moved to Caulfield in 2008. The remaining cake shops of Acland Street are a reminder of this community, though most no longer run by Jewish owners. The junction of Acland and Barkly Streets is known as the Village Belle, after the Village Belle Hotel, which stands on Barkly Street opposite the end of Acland Street. Near the junction of Carlisle Street and Acland Street is

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...

, one of Australia's best-known amusement parks, which attracts large crowds during the summer. Almost next door is one of Melbourne's grandest theatres, the

Palais Theatre The Palais Theatre (originally Palais Pictures) is a historic picture palace located in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. With a capacity of nearly 3,000 people, it is the largest seated theatre in Australia. Replac ...

. Also on Acland Street is the St Kilda Army and Navy Club, built in 1923 with a hall on the first floor, a cinema to the rear, and flats for retired service personnel on top. Today Acland Street has many restaurants offering a variety of cuisines, including Vietnamese, Indian, Italian and Malaysian. A large

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

now stands on the corner of Acland and Carlisle Streets. In 2016 Acland Street was closed between Belford and Barkly Streets to through vehicular traffic with the tram stop rebuilt with two

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms ...

s.Acland Street Upgrade ''

Newsrail ''Newsrail'' is a monthly railway magazine covering the railways and tramways of Victoria, Australia. It was launched in January 1973 by the Australian Railway Historical Society The Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS) aims to foste ...

'' November 2016 page 345

References

{{Reflist Streets in Melbourne Restaurant districts and streets in Australia St Kilda, Victoria Landmarks in Melbourne Transport in the City of Port Phillip

History

See also

References