Opinion
My suburb isn’t flashy like South Yarra or grungy like Windsor, it’s the Goldilocks of Chapel Street
Andrew Dye
ContributorJust 550 metres from top to bottom. That’s how narrow most of Prahran is.
Sprint star Gout Gout could cover that in a minute, but the arthritic 78 tram takes considerably longer – especially on a Saturday afternoon – to rattle this trifling distance along Chapel Street.
Due to this restricted dimension, many “Prahran” institutions are technically in other suburbs. The Prahran Club, Prahran High School and Prahran Hotel are all south of the border in Windsor, while Prahran Market is in South Yarra.
Like many things in Melbourne, these anomalies can be blamed on Jeff Kennett’s 1990s local government reorganisation, which merged the Cities of Prahran and Malvern to form the City of Stonnington. The suburb of Prahran was reduced to its current dimensions – just over two square kilometres.
If you look, you can still find the occasional City of Prahran reference, even if my favourite sign (located in South Yarra, naturally) was recently removed during footpath resurfacing.
Having relocated from London to South Yarra in 1998, I eventually succumbed to Prahran in 2015, after many years shopping, drinking and eating there. For all its quirks and scruffiness, it’s a convenient place to live; just five kilometres from the Melbourne GPO, with abundant public transport and facilities. There’s a diverse mix of cultures and ages, and it’s never boring.
Prahran isn’t as flashy as South Yarra (which helped when buying our house!), nor are we as grungy as Windsor or St Kilda. We’re the Goldilocks suburb, and like it that way.
Merely saying the suburb name can be a challenge for the unfamiliar (“Praarn”, “Prah-rarn”, “Prah-ran” or even “Purr-ran”), which perhaps explains why shopping venue Pran Central uses its monosyllabic version, though locals typically go with something like “Pruh-ran”.
All the uncertainty over Prahran’s pronunciation makes sense when you consider the confusion about the word. Coined by missionary George Langhorne around 1837, he later wrote that Pur-ra-ran was his compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning land partially surrounded by water, which makes sense given the suburb’s highest point is just 53 metres above sea level, and a flood overlay covers much of it.
But researchers now point to evidence that “Prahran” was simply another attempt by Europeans at transcribing “Birrarung” – the Woiwurrung name for the Yarra river. (Some other spellings of the same word include Bare.rare.run, Paarran and Bay-rāy-rung. Yarra was misunderstood to be the Indigenous name of the river when it is actually a description of a particular place on the river.)
Locals are familiar with the tracks at Prahran Station being submerged after heavy rainfall, so we’re grateful for the giant Prahran Main Drain that burrows across the suburb, ferrying most of the stormwater to the Yarra.
Pran Central was formerly Read’s Stores, one of many department stores that flourished between Commercial Road and High Street in the early 20th century, as Melbourne’s masses acquired greater leisure time and affluence, not to mention easier access via the 1910 introduction of electrified trams along High Street.
Above today’s facades, you’ll see names like Love & Lewis, The Big Store, Maples Corner and the Prahran Arcade. The latter was home to the original Dan Murphy’s store, where Murphy took over the basement from a neighbouring store in the 1950s to cellar his excess wine; after much fanfare, the mega liquor chain returned to the site this year. The Revolver (“Revs”) building was once The Colosseum Arcade, another grand retail emporium, with neo-classical columns modelled on London’s Selfridges.
We’re lucky to have so many facilities within walking distance – supermarkets, Prahran Market, the libraries, Chapel off Chapel, dozens of gyms and innumerable places to eat and drink. Given its inner-city location, Prahran also has a surprising number of decent parks: Victoria Gardens, Princess Gardens and Grattan Gardens all provide great spaces to walk the dog, picnic or just wander, while the huge Fawkner Park is just over the road in South Yarra.
Stonnington Council boosted open spaces by jumping in when old properties go on sale, creating several pocket parks, often in unexpected locations. The biggest of these is Prahran Square, the “bouncer” separating Coles and Woolworths, which replaced an unloved outdoor car park (that itself replaced a cigarette factory) and divides opinion.
Some see much-needed open space, including a mini forest, lawn and children’s play area, while others see an unshaded, stadium-like behemoth that cuts off the surrounding streets. Many residents – me included – probably sit somewhere in between, finding it a useful diagonal cut-through, as well as a venue for some interesting events.
Its underground car park sports fluorescent yellows and greens, reflecting the flamboyance of the LGBTQ community that’s well-represented in the area.
Chapel Street and environs are a touch lively on Saturday nights, as the youth of greater Melbourne descend to meet, mingle and – judging by the Sunday morning footpath evidence – drink way too much. There is a darker side to all that nightlife too, not least the Love Machine drive-by shooting a few years back. The notorious Chap laps returned in recent weeks, and there are still occasional reports of stabbings and tobacco shop firebombings on Chapel Street.
While Chapel Street’s fortunes have fluctuated during my time, the Prahran stretch has probably remained the most consistently tenanted, with fewer vacancies than the South Yarra section. Institutions may disappear – Special Cake Shop and Pets Wonderland on Chapel Street, the Prahran Bowls Club on Grattan Street, The Continental Cafe on Greville Street (where Greville Records just keeps on keeping on) – but something new always emerges to take their place.
Like much of inner Melbourne, the homeless have become increasingly visible and the abundance of op shops is a constant reminder of the wide range of charitable needs.
You also take your life in your hands merely going outside, as the hordes of yellow-jacketed delivery riders hurtle along the streets (and footpaths!) At other times, you’re as likely to see a Greek Australian widow, shuffling her way to one of the Greek churches supporting the once-large diaspora that included a young Ange Postecoglou, who started coaching soccer while attending Prahran High School.
It may be just 550 metres from top to bottom, but Prahran packs a lot in.
Andrew Dye is a Prahran-based market researcher.
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