Every local suburb has a bit of an odd street. Maybe it’s some local residents that give the place a little too much character.
Possibly it’s some sort of bizarre architecture or local feature that makes the street just a little bit odd, or completely awesome.
Or there’s a great local legend or history around a particular street.
Maybe it’s your favourite street in the CBD and you’ve got a damn good reason or fondly-held memories as to why.
Perhaps it’s a simply just a really fucking stupid name for a street.
So educate your fellow Melburnians about the street oddities of your local suburb!
My vote goes to Wisteria Lane in Caroline Springs. Some boneheaded home developer has actually constructed a replica of Desperate Housewives’ Wisteria Lane – which proved so bloody successful they’re now developing that area of the suburb around the homes’ “look”.
Personally, I’ll be waiting until I can live inside an apartment complex that faithfully replicates the look and manic atmosphere of 24′s CTU. But maybe that’s just me.
AC/DC Lane in the city, just for the name. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACDC_Lane,_Melbourne
emo rd malvern east.
Oh man, don’t get me started. I could go on for ages.
Madame Brussels Lane – this throughfare through the Urban Workshop in Lonsdale Street was named after a very famous brothelkeeper of the 1890s, Caroline Hodgson, who caught the eye of Prince Alfred during his 1867 visit. She opened a string of brothels along Little Lonsdale Street and was pretty much Melbourne’s ‘Queen of Vice’ for a few decades. If you go out the back, some of the original 19th century buildings have been preserved. If those walls could talk…
Bennett’s Lane, where the jazz club is now used to be a den of scum and villianry, where gangs of men and women would fight after getting schnickered on sly grog from vendors in the area.
There’s also Brogan’s Lane, an anonymous little alley one can find off Little Bourke Street with a bit of research. The link will tell you all you need to know about that.
Hell, pretty much every lane and alleyway in Melbourne has had the body of a young ne’er-do-well or streetwalker dumped in it at some stage.
If you’re interested in how vile a place Melbourne was, please, come over and check out my site. I’m sure you’ll find a lot to chew on.
Cat Jump Road in Donvale. Not much to look at, not very important, but you do have to wonder how far they were stretching for road names by that point.
I discovered this street whilst wandering around during my first year of uni at Monash Caulfield. When I tried to tell all my friends about it, they just wouldn’t believe me.
If you follow Cat Jump road out towards Warrandyte and into Wonga Park it becomes one of the deadliest stretches of road in Melbourne, especially on a dank, foggy night. Many a car full of young men and women has wrapped itself around a tree or plowed into a creek after tacking a turn too fast.
My absolute favourite is Heffernan Lane. Not only is it home to Kum Den (http://is.gd/oZsu), but it has a heap of marvellously esoteric street signs. Unfortunately the resolution on streetview is too low to read them, so you’ll have to check them out in person.
Oh, and I guess Easey Street, Collingwood has to get a nod for the most ironic name.
Mine’s a bit more genteel than Mr Stuchbery’s sordid suggestions above (although I love Madame Brussels Lane, too)! It’s The Eyrie in Eaglemont, one of the sites where the Australian impressionists of the “Heidelberg School” painted en plein air in the late 19th century. Closed off at busy Lower Heidelberg Road, the eastern end of the The Eyrie remains (by choice of local residents) without finished curbs and gutters and is lined by a host of elm tree suckers. In spring and summer especially, these give it the appearance of an English country lane, a shady gold-green tunnel that is cool and inviting. The steepest part of the street is a zig-zagging asphalt path up the east side of Mount Eagle, in the shade of other mature European trees. The western end of The Eyrie is conventionally paved and finished, although it’s at least twice as wide as an average suburban street.
Interestingly, the vegetation in the area appears to be have been much more open in the days of artists like Arthur Streeton, as this view from 1889 shows.
Let’s not forget the murders that made Easey St famous either
I’ve gotta go Dead Horse Lane in Mansfield, guess what it’s named after
Yeah Heffernan Lane! also tattersalls lane with Gaylords and section 8!
Definitely Errol Street, North Melbourne.
Cheltenham Road, in Cheltenham / Beaumaris.
It runs between Reserve & Bluff Roads and has Royal Melbourne Golf Course on one side and Sandringham GC on the other.
Lots of gum trees down either side, you could almost be in the country.
Oh and another.
I love that the Daily Planet is (or was?) in Horn Street.
Very Kelvin Cunnington.
HAHAHAHHAH. Oh, you’ve made my evening :)
Where in Caroline Springs is Wisteria Lane? I tried looking it up on Google Maps but it doesn’t seem to be there.
That is weird… I think they’ve named it “Wisteria Close” from the looks of things, although there’s some houses for sale in teh area referring to it as “Wisteria Lane”. The original news story on it is here, if you’re interested anyway…
I love Bionic Ear Lane, in East Melbourne! Such an odd name for a street.
There’s a street in Ashburton simply called ‘Y Street’.
Cocoa Jackson Lane – opposite Pickwood Lodge brothel in Lygon Street, Brunswick gets my vote. I often imagine that Cocoa was either a cat or a prostitute, but have yet to find the right explanation.
Mark,
Coincidentally, I walked down Cocoa Jackson Lane about two hours ago. The story I heard was that Cocoa Jackson was a boxer who lived in the area.
My friend lives there. It’s supposed to be wisteria lane but because the developer took off without finishing the project completely, local council/melton council haven’t been able to finalise it.
yeah bonehead alright. have you seen the place? apparently the developer didn’t finish the job. looks shocking!
‘Cocoa Jackson Lane – opposite Pickwood Lodge brothel in Lygon Street, Brunswick gets my vote. I often imagine that Cocoa was either a cat or a prostitute, but have yet to find the right explanation.’
Yes, I can vouch that he was a boxer and was in fact my great grandfather and my family still owns some of his possessions still. He was West Indian I believe, though I completely have no resemblance of it.
Yes, I can vouch that he was a boxer and was in fact my great grandfather and my family still owns some of his possessions still. He was West Indian I believe, though I completely have no resemblance of it.
OK, once when I was bored (and because I love words and lists), I kinda read the Melways index. Behold my list of funny/weird/cool street names:
http://listography.com/frisky/places/funny_weird_cool_street_names_in_melbourne
I also want to put in a vote for Heffernan Lane in the city because of the weird signs up the Lonsdale Street end but also because of the Commit No Nuisance signs at the Chinatown end. They really amuse me, partly because of the quaint wording, but also, can you imagine that if you headed there with the intent to commit nuisance that you would be deterred by a sign?
And is it OK to do stuff that is too dastardly to be considered a mere nuisance?
Where I live in outer south east Melbourne, we have a Glasscocks road and an Ernst Wanke Rd… people seem to find those amusing
cocoa jackson was in fact a boxer and ex featherweight champ who also trained my grandfather throughout his professional boxing career
Clitus St in Glen Waverley