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
Route
Acland Street runs on a north-west to south-east axis between Fitzroy 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.
schooner
A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
''
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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, 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 are 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 (Coney Island, 1903), Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Islan ...
, 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, formerly known as Palais Pictures, is a historic Movie Palace, picture palace located in St Kilda, Victoria, St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. With a capacity of nearly 3,000 ...
. 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, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
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.
Gallery
File:Route 96 Acland St - Oct 2024.jpg, Acland St tram stop
File:Acland Street, Melbourne.jpg, Another view of the street
File:Acland Street cake shop window.jpg, Acland Street cake shop window