St Vincent Place is a heritage precinct in Albert Park, Victoria, Australia.
St Vincent Place is bounded by Park Street, Cecil Street, Bridport Street, Cardigan Place and Nelson Road. The park is bisected by Montague Street, allowing the passage of trams on route 1. It is registered with the National Trust of Australia and on the Victorian Heritage Register for its aesthetic, historical, architectural and social significance to the State of Victoria.
It is an example of nineteenth century residential development around the large landscaped square St Vincent Gardens It is characterised by beautiful original terrace houses of the 1860s and 1870s.[1]
According to the Victorian Heritage Register, the precinct is protected "as a reflection of the aspirations of middle class residents in South Melbourne. Because of the shared outlook on and use of the gardens, the precinct has developed a sense of community cohesion unusual in the Melbourne context. "
The Australian Demographer Bernard Salt included the precinct as first among his "favourite places that have been designed by planners" : "St Vincent Place, Albert Park: Where would such a list start but in my home city of Melbourne? Surely 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."
History & References in Literature
Marshall Browne's book 'The Gilded Cage' covers an eighteen month period in 1888-89 and tells the ill-starred love story of William Boyd and Helen O'Neill, and a happier-ending one between Boyd and Katherine Lindsay with a backdrop of "graceful St Vincent Place".[2]
A resident, Major Frederick Miller JOHNSON, 6th Fld Ambulance AAMC, AIF, Surgeon, of 32 St. Vincent Place was killed in action at Lone Pine, central Anzac, on 29 November 1915, aged 52.[3]
In 1928 the first Australian Novitiate of the Catholic Carmelite Order was established in St Vincent Place.[4]
Significant Buildings and Facilities
- 5 St Vincent Place South: [www.lec.org.au/winter_2006_newsletter.php Australian Collaboration]
- 51 St Vincent Place South: St Vincent Place Medical Centre
- 57 St Vincent Place South: The Richard Wagner Society Inc
- 30 St Vincent Place North: Rosebank