Crime-fuelled ‘wasteland’ or undervalued precinct? The changing face of Melbourne’s iconic Chapel St
It was once the city’s most fashionable shopping and entertainment strip but these days, Melbourne’s Chapel St is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Where did it go so wrong?
Victoria
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To generations of Melburnians, Chapel St was the city’s premier shopping and entertainment strip.
Home to both high-end boutiques and eclectic independent stores, there was something for everyone at the city’s fashion capital.
Movies at the Jam Factory, buying the latest single at HMV, slushie-fuelled late nights at Frost Bites, the annual festival — Chapel St was buzzing.
Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant stopped traffic in 1999 when they arrived at the Jam Factory for the local premiere of Micky Blue Eyes, while Paris Hilton drew crowds in 2008 when she made a beeline for the long-since closed Wayne Cooper boutique.
“Back then, there was a vibe,” Sam Koulis, who has run menswear business Sam & Ko on the strip for three decades, told the Herald Sun.
“There were a lot more restaurants, a lot more cafes, the people were in a different era back then. All they wanted to do was look sharp and go out to Chapel St and go to the clubs.”
By night, the energy was palpable.
Sidewalks packed, traffic at a standstill, music pouring onto the street from bustling clubs, restaurants and bars.
“Chasers regularly had an underage night we’d be at all the time,” one former visitor recalled.
“It really, for us, was the place to be.”
Fast forward 20 years, the city’s once premier shopping strip is in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Last year, arsonists were caught on camera torching a famous nightclub in South Yarra.
In January, a man almost burned to death on the street after setting himself alight in a bungled firebombing.
In February, a man was rushed to hospital after being stabbed in broad daylight outside a tobacco shop.
On Easter Sunday, Mickleham man Ruka Carlson, 30, died after a fight broke out between six people on the strip.
Mr Carlson, father to six children, was allegedly stabbed repeatedly near the Electric nightclub after being chased down the street. He was set to marry his partner, Monique, in the coming months.
“The middle section where Coles is, that’s rife with crime,” Matthew Guy, owner of Comics R Us said, referring to the stretch of road between Commercial Rd and High St.
“With the cost-of-living crisis, people with drug and alcohol issues — there’s definitely more desperation.
“People yelling, shouting out on the street, the occasional bouts of violence.
“(Council) removed a lot of the seating. Prior to that, people would just be there all day drinking and yelling and shouting and occasionally, you know, punching on and abusing passers-by.”
So what happened to Chapel St?
Has Melbourne’s beloved precinct really become a ramshackle version of its iconic former self?
Or is it just not getting the love it deserves?
I took a trip to find out.
Despite growing up in Melbourne, I’ve never once thought of heading out to the 4km strip with my mates for food or shopping — it’s just not on our radar.
With the Jam Factory shut for renovations, I drove around for 20-minutes before realising my only option was a paid parking lot.
It’s a gripe business owners were quick to speak about, particularly after reports Stonnington Council was planning to remove free parking spaces from the street.
The council has denied this but its upcoming Parking Action Plan has put traders on edge.
“If council changes the parking, then where are my customers going to park?” business owner Koulis said.
“I’ll have no choice but for me to leave — that’s what’s happened to everyone else.”
Up the South Yarra end, friends were gathering for midday drinks and business owners eagerly greeted me as I walked in their doors.
There was graffiti everywhere and the street was grimy — but where in Melbourne doesn’t feel like that these days?
With so many eclectic stores, funky cafes and chains I’d usually go out of my way to visit at major shopping centres, I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t visited before.
That is, until I stumbled into the Prahran section of the strip — suddenly, I was holding my bag a lot tighter.
Groups of disorderly men and women were loitering outside stores, the smell of weed in the air, the remnants of a firebombed tobacco store and dessert bar ahead of me.
Not a police officer in sight.
When I returned on a Saturday night about 6pm, I assumed I’d feel safer with a swarm of people around.
That was not the case.
I felt the need to check behind me as I walked past clubs and bars.
An intoxicated man was making his way across the road and locked eyes with me.
“I’m rich! F--k off,” he screamed.
I felt sick for the number of people experiencing homelessness parked at corners, asking me for change.
A police siren blared up the street before a fire truck rushed past me.
No one flinched.
It’s a funny thing to know there are so many people around, and yet also feel you’re very much alone.
Everyone was determined to keep to themselves.
“At night, as soon as it gets dark, it’s a disaster here,” Koulis told me.
Some might say I should toughen up. I have friends who wouldn’t blink twice at a scene like Chapel St.
But even if I had felt safe, Chapel St didn’t feel like the “cool” place to be.
Sure bars were full and there were families lining up at Yo-Chi, but this was not the bustling, “fantastic”, “funky” Chapel St generations of Melburnians and tourists remember.
Alone on Saturday, I didn’t feel safe walking around after 7.30pm.
Crime by the numbers
So what do the crime stats say?
Total criminal incidents shot up by nearly 20 per cent year-on-year in Stonnington, rising from 8630 in 2023 to 10,341 in 2024. It’s the highest rate seen this decade, and a whopping 2550 more criminal incidents than recorded in 2015.
Driving the surge is retail theft, accounting for almost a quarter of all offending.
Only two in five criminal incidents in Stonnington were solved last year, according to the Crime Statistics Agency.
Charges were laid in just one in five cases.
“There should be a constant patrol of Chapel St during the day, whether that’s by foot or by cars – you just don’t see police around here,” Comics R Us owner Guy said.
“So if you have an issue with crime, which we did recently, call the police, they turned up about two hours later – well, bit late.”
But Chapel Street Precinct Association general manager Matt Lanigan defends the strip, saying crime on Chapel St is just making headlines because of its famous name.
He points out crime is up across Melbourne and the rise in Chapel St is on par with a statewide 18.7 per cent lift in criminal incidents.
“We’re not gonna sit here and say that crime isn’t happening on Chapel St, but in the same sentence we’re going to say it’s a statewide issue,” Lanigan said.
“Chapel St just has an iconic brand and so when something happens in Chapel St it gets more attention.
“Ultimately we know that the police force is understaffed, under-resourced and unfortunately the state government’s position on punishing is weak and anyone who is a criminal or that way leaning understands that.”
Victoria Police maintains it runs a range of regular operations targeting retail theft, high-risk driving, drugs, and crime and public order issues surrounding nearby housing estates.
“Operation Safenight also runs along Chapel St every Friday and Saturday night, ensuring a strong overt and covert police presence in and around the area’s bars and clubs.”
But how’s business?
Chapel St may no longer be Melbourne’s premier retail strip — that title arguably now goes to Armadale’s High St — but traders are hoping its worst days are behind it.
Vacancy rates have improved drastically since pre-Covid.
Business owners at the South Yarra are lapping up a fall in rent prices, while those at Windsor are embracing a bar and restaurant “revival”.
“Windsor, which is where we are, that was sort of the dump end, cheaper rent” said Guy, who has ran his business for 33 years.
“Funnily enough, 30 years later I wouldn’t want to be at the South Yarra end because that’s become a wasteland.”
“Chapel St is not the draw that it once was and it’s a shame cause it’s still a great street, still got a lot to offer.
“It’s been a great (33 year) journey, how much longer that journey continues, we’ll see.”
Despite lower rents, one in twelve stores along the strip still sit empty, the latest market updated by commercial real estate experts Fitzroys finds.
Vacancy rates are highest in Prahran at 9.2 per cent, up from 7.4 per cent the year before, which associate Lewis Waddell puts down to the crime and social issues in the area.
Not that Chapel St traders are giving up without a fight.
A new generation of business owners are driving a “natural transformation” of the precinct.
It may not be high-end, but a vintage clothing and op shop “revival” hits the mark for Gen Z.
“There’s always going to be people that are like ‘back in my day, things were so much better’,” Chapel Street Precinct Association’s Lanigan said.
“But also you’ve got to realise that a new generation coming through that are loving Chapel St.”
Owner of Revolution Fashion Wear Felix Kingston is embracing that “competitive” vintage market at his store in Prahran.
But while he enjoys the hustle of the strip, it doesn’t take long before he highlights problems with shoplifters.
“Security cameras help a lot — we’ve got signs to deter them,” Kingston said.
He, like so many other business owners along the strip, has learned how to “handle” those loitering at their shops.
“If they beg for money, for example, you just give them $2, $5, and you back off,” he said.
“They’re not violent. If you provoke them, they could be violent, but you’ve got to know how to handle that.”
At Tibbs and Bones on Greville St, owner Jade Mary said the precinct has a “really lovely atmosphere”.
She also loves working in the “vibrant community”.
Still, with mostly female staff, she welcomes more regular police patrols and a quicker response to crime.
“We’ve had a few (thieves) recently that have stolen thousands of dollars worth (of stock). We’ve had our back door kicked in,” she said.
“But honestly, the good outweighs the bad. That’s why we have insurance.”
IVY Windsor restaurant owner Sasha Limberger defends the strips and says it simply gets a bad rap.
She has lived on Chapel St for 15 years and said crime isn’t worse than any other time.
“We’re a whole strip of restaurants and bars — it’s what the area is,” she said.
“If you’re not looking for a problem, there’s nothing to be scared of. There’s so much down here and it’s such a good night out that there’s nothing to worry about.”
Back to the future
Prahran’s new MP Rachel Westaway is determined to turn the precinct around.
“As a Friday or Saturday night or Saturday during the day, a big outing was going down to Chapel Street,” Westaway said.
“It was not like it is now – so many homeless people, with graffiti everywhere, it’s not hard to find a syringe down a backstreet, sadly.”
Westaway expected the crime rate was even higher as many shop owners “wouldn’t bother reporting” young offenders — and now she wants to focus on addressing youth crime at a “grassroots level”.
“I intend on making a very loud noise about bringing more safety back into our seat,” she said.
“This is a tourism hub and it should be promoted as one and it needs to be invested in and really has been left as a Green seat — taken for granted.”
City of Stonnington said it remained “deeply committed to the success of Chapel St as one of Melbourne’s most iconic destinations”, pointing out it directs $1m in annual funding to the local precinct association.
“Council continues to support the precinct through a range of initiatives that go beyond marketing,” it told the Herald Sun.
“We understand the challenges the precinct faces and that’s why council recently passed an item of urgent business detailing a range of short and longer-term options to address these issues.”
Jim Dimopoulos, who has operated menswear Barbas since 1996, hopes the $2.75bn Jam Factory redevelopment will be a turning point.
“Once the Jam Factory and possibly across the road, something gets done there, (people) will come back,” he said.
“Chapel St has changed from its prime, but then again everything in the world has changed since back then.”
Construction on the long-promised overhaul is under way, with the redevelopment to accommodate 600 residences across five towers and, 20,000 sqm of retail and hospitality offering and 10,000 sqm of office space.
But like many other business owners, Dimopoulos said the council needed to up its game in helping Chapel St “reinvent itself” while construction was completed.
“It looks nothing like High St Armadale, looks nothing like Hawksburn Village or the Toorak Village,” he said of Chapel St.
“City of Stonnington are not the brightest sparks when it comes to running things around here.”
Koulis thinks the solution lies in attracting unique, quality retailers to fill empty shops.
“Let’s get these iconic, one-off stores in Chapel St like it used to be,” he said.
“Don’t worry about the chains. Get the ones that want to start off on Chapel St … cause that’s what it was known for — the fashion capital.”
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