Prahran
It has been said that, with so much entertainment on your doorstep restaurants, clubs, theatre Prahran s the place for people who want to take a big bite out of life. Prahran is a lively, L-shaped suburb that straddles the retail spine of Chapel Street and the grand boulevard of Dandenong Road. Commercial Road features mega nightclubs, glossy restaurants and gourmet Prahran Market, while Greville Street is a villagey strip of cafes and boutique stores, and High Street is student central. Chapel Street is home to fantastic old retail emporiums, and its dense network of narrow side streets is full of characterful Edwardian and Victorian terraces.Restaurants and cafes abound on Chapel, High and Greville Streets, from student pubs to slick bistros like the Gramercy under the art-filled Cullen Hotel. Antique lovers can score at the Chapel Street Bazaar, food lovers can dive into Prahran Market and night owls can hit the clubs on Commercial Rd or the Chapel off Chapel theatre complex.
Prahran (pronounced "pruh-RAN", also known colloquially as "Pran") is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Prahran is serviced by Prahran Station, on the Sandringham line, as well as trams routes 5, 6, 64, 72 and 78.
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Prahran Market is Australia's oldest continuously running food market, proudly being in operation since 1864. The market traders take pride in stocking the highest quality of ingredients and source locally wherever possible. They offer the widest choice to their customers including heirloom produce and hard to find specialties, cheeses, small goods, artisan products, certified organic fruit and veg, beef, pork, poultry and game. Not to mention fresh sustainable fish, seafood, shellfish and crustaceans. Location: 163 Commercial Rd, Prahran, Vic.
Victoria Gardens
Prahran features many small gardens scattered throughout the suburb, which are largely hidden. With shady areas for picnics, a coffee shop next door for your caffeine fix, a dog friendly environment and a herb garden what's not to like about Victoria Tardens. Well maintained by the Council and a haven of peace in a busy suburban area of Prahran, The former Greville Botanical Gardens, now Grattan Gardens, are off Greville Street, on Grattan Street. Subdivisions have caused incursions to what is now a narrow strip, with a playground and heritage pavilion. The Princes Gardens are a small garden, which features the "Chapel Off Chapel", an old church converted into a theatre, as well as the Prahran skate park, home to the best vert skateboarding facilities in Victoria. The Orrong Romanis Park is the largest park in Prahran.
Prahran, a former municipality, was originally surveyed for farm allotments. Land sales occurred in 1840 and later in 1849-50. Although intended for farming the allotments attracted house construction - on large blocks in the north and east of the district, and on smaller, subdivided blocks in the south and west. The resulting distinction between grand residential (partially superseded by up-market apartments), and workmen's cottages remains. The latter was stimulated by the need to house gold-rush immigrants. The north and east are today's South Yarra and Toorak, and the south and west are today's Prahran and Windsor.
Prahran's name evolved from "purraran", understood to be an Aboriginal work for "almost surrounded by water". The proximity of the Yarra River and swamp to the south-west part (of which Albert Park Lake is a remnant), explain the description. Purraran was rendered as Prahran by Robert Hoddle, Government surveyor, in 1840. In 1859/60 a railway line was constructed through Prahran from Melbourne to Brighton. A second line branched westwards from Windsor to St. Kilda, Windsor being the station after Prahran. The Gippsland to Melbourne line traversed the northern localities of Prahran by 1879. Cable trams were opened in Toorak Road and Chapel Street in 1888 and 1891.
Between the 1890s and 1930s Prahran built up a huge shopping centre, which by the 1920s had rivalled the Melbourne Central Business District. Large emporiums (department stores) sprang up along Chapel Street. Prahran also became a major entertainment area. The Lyric theatre (also known as the fleahouse), built on the corner of Victoria Street in 1911, burnt down in the 1940s. The Royal was the second old theatre built. The Empress , another popular theatre on Chapel Street, was destroyed by fire in 1971.[6] The site was operated by the cut-price clothes and homewares chain Waltons for the next decade and was later developed into the Chapel Street Bazaar.
During the 1990s, the population increased markedly, with demand for inner-city living fuelling a medium-density housing boom, which continues in the area, as part of the Melbourne 2030 planning policy. It was during the 1990s that solidification of the area's homosexual community occurred. Many gay and gay-friendly businesses, including bars, clubs and bookstores can be found along Commercial Road, between Pran Central and the railway overpass.
