More than just a market, South Melbourne is a village too

In a series, The Age profiles Victorian suburbs and towns to reveal how they’ve changed over the decades.See all 45 stories.

When Agathe Kerr first laid eyes on South Melbourne Market in 2001, she felt it was really nothing special.

“It was still quite a regular market, with a lot of little nicknacks, fruit and vegetables”, says Kerr, who was out here on work sponsorship for consulting giant Accenture.

“Still, it was very pleasant. But that was my image of it.”

The Parisian had come to the market with her Australian boyfriend on a weekend trip to Melbourne from Sydney, where both were then living and working.

The exotic variety of croissants at South Melbourne market croissants by Agathe Patisserie are symbolic of the transformation of the once-working class suburb.Credit: Jacon Pattison

They married and settled in Paris, and Kerr only stepped foot in the set of sheds whose shopping culture is now routinely dubbed “iconic” after she had changed careers – to fine patisserie baking. By then, the 1867-built landmark was well into its sometime-controversial glow up.

“I came back (and settled in Melbourne) in 2013, went back to the market and noticed how much it had changed,” says the mother of three.

“It went from any regular market you could find probably anywhere to something with so much variety; in produce but also in fashion, drinks, the desserts and cafes – and the vibe.

“It became my favourite market.”

The transformation of both has had a noticeable impact on the former borough of Emerald Hill; a significant First People’s ceremonial and meeting place-turned gold rush canvas town, then home to the docks-and-industry working class, now “million dollar” inner suburb.

Each weekend, the queues at Kerr’s famed croissant stall, Agathé Pâtisserie, are regularly so long they require airport-style barriers, thanks to clips about it on TikTok that put Victorian South Melbourne on the Gen Z-tourist map.

Head chef at Agathe Patisserie in South Melbourne market, Miguel Roqueni, preparing dough for the day’s pastries.Credit: Jacob Patison

At the same time, the suburb’s market, chic shopping in Coventry Street, coffee shops (looking at you, St Ali and Chez Dre) and wine bars have made it a Melbourne-wide destination.

But part of its enduring charm, locals say, is that despite its status upgrade, South Melbourne’s residential mix remains eclectic; while cool haunts have landed – along with some stratospheric property prices – there’s much left of its down-home past.

Its main commercial artery, Clarendon Street, through which thousands of Melburnians wash to and from the city, is very often witness to some top-shelf eccentricity.

Retailer Steven Ewenson has watched life change and evolve (and sometimes stumble and fall) on the footpaths outside his shopfront for 34 years.

His 1882-built shop, Gray’s Affordable Quality Objects, has a cult following among locals for its well-chosen second-hand furniture and bric-a-brac. Its interior and exterior provide an authentic window into South Melbourne’s past.

Steven Ewenson in his store, Gray’s Affordable Quality Items. Locals love it for the well-chosen second hand goods on offer – often being sold for other locals.Credit: Darrian Traynor

Decades before Facebook Marketplace, Ewenson’s shop was selling pre-loved items from South Melbourne locals – often to other locals. It has stood fast as higher-end retailers have come and gone in Clarendon Street, the strip that, like many in choppy retail times, now appears to struggle to know exactly what it is.

When Ewenson opened it, the identity of Clarendon Street was much more clearly defined. It was a lunch and shopping hub where the crowds of advertising and media industry workers in nearby streets could also run their errands, and take advantage of the utilitarian shops.

Shop fronts of Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.Credit: Jacob Pattison

“We lived in Page Street, and when we came here [to Clarendon Street] the Coles car park was still on the street up the road, and people would arrive here from the St Kilda Road agencies and other local businesses, and would park, have their lunch and do a bit of shopping,” says Ewenson.

“There were a lot more people in the street in those days, it was busier: a bustling strip.”

There was a butcher then, and two newsagents, a shoe-maker, a greengrocer, a lingerie shop, many busy banks and a far more cohesive, village high-street feel.

Now the grab-bag of offerings includes a load of take-away food franchises, a vape shop that was recently targeted by fire bombers, a couple of high-end day spas, paint-and-sip cafes, three popular op-shops and Chemist’s Warehouse.

There are stalwarts too; the Old Paper Shop Deli and its glorious cakes endure, as does a longtime florist, an original chemist, a pizza shop, a sex shop, a funeral parlour, a musical instrument shop and a “17 times salon of the year” women’s hair salon, Rokk Ebony (another veteran stayer, at 32 years).

“You walk down Clarendon Street and you see all types. It’s a bit grungy and a bit posh at the same time.”

Warwick Gardiner, South Melbourne area real estate agent

Though the area in general has been gentrified, its even more up-market neighbours Albert Park and Middle Park attract those with serious disposable incomes. Dear old Clarendon Street juggles the rest of us – all while dodging an ever-growing swarm of delivery riders.

The feel of it is somewhat in contrast to the cost – for all but those other than the thousands in state-subsidised housing – of living in contemporary South Melbourne.

“You can probably imagine the cost of a house to purchase here has definitely gone out of reach of any but the most well-paid individuals, and in the last couple of years that’s also applied to the rental situation,” says Ewenson, who can often be seen bailed up behind his vintage counter for long conversations with locals.

“If a house came up for rent next week, you’d need to be earning $100,000 to $150,000 a year to take it.”

While this is true, new wealth and mere economic survival sit side-by-side in the suburb, with some of Melbourne’s most expensive real estate per square metre (see one recent mansion sale of more than $10 million), located about 100 metres from densely populated Park Towers.

The 229 flats are said to have been Melbourne’s first high-rise housing commission development, built in a precinct once occupied by a vast Presbyterian orphanage housing many of the orphans from the gold rush era.

Park Towers at 332 Park Street in South Melbourne.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The obvious mix of demographics rubbing shoulders on the streets of 2024 is something local real estate agent Warwick Gardiner thinks helps to make it attractive.

“You’ve got Howe Crescent, which has a similar grandeur to St Vincent’s place [across Ferrars Street, in Albert Park], and you’ve got Park Towers at the end of that street. You do get all types and that’s what South Melbourne’s famous for,” says Gardiner, a director of Jellis Craig Port Phillip who has operated in the area for nearly 13 years.

St Ali owner Salvatore Malatesta in 2021.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

“You walk down Clarendon Street and you see all types, it’s a bit grungy and a bit posh at the same time.”

That residents can walk 15 minutes and be in the city, the streets are mainly tree-lined, much of the Victorian heritage of South Melbourne has been carefully protected, and the market is so vibrant are among the reasons South Melbourne prices have remained stable despite the downturn.

“You have also got a lot of young people wanting to come into South Melbourne for first or second homes because of the culture, the wine bars and wine cellars, and the South Melbourne food scene,” he says.

The Railway Hotel publican Richard Peoples says those who drink at the 168-year-old hotel value its colourful past.Credit: Darrian Traynor

Residents’ only grumble is that house prices may not appreciate as fast as elsewhere because the suburb is already well-discovered, and it is now expensive to buy in. The median, two-bedroom house price is $1.3 million.

Needless to say, the area would be almost entirely unrecognisable to its first colonial inhabitants as they scraped out a living.

Recently retired City of Port Phillip historian Kay Rowan says a canvas town was first established on ground between contemporary St Kilda Road and Moray Street in the early 1850s to accommodate an overflow of those needing city housing.

The land was surveyed in 1852 and lots were subsequently subdivided and sold, and little houses built. Emerald Hill was named for the green, volcanic rise on which the town hall now sits.

Within a couple of years, residents felt the Melbourne City Council was not giving them value for rates and Emerald Hill was proclaimed a separate borough in 1855, with the motto “the first in the field”, as it was the first zone beyond Geelong to officially separate from Melbourne.

“From then on, it was bustling,” says South Melbourne-born Rowan. “They needed money for drains [to make Emerald Hill’s surrounds habitable] because South Melbourne was also separated from everybody by Sandridge Lagoon.

“The money people were in London, and if you said you were from the south of Melbourne or the north of Melbourne, they knew exactly where you were, because of the gold rush. So Emerald Hill changed its name to South Melbourne.”

As the city’s first industrial zone was established at the Yarra end of South Melbourne, more houses and pubs were built for local workers, as well as those from the docks. At its hospitable peak, the corners of South Melbourne boasted 98 hotels.

Among the suburb’s historic pubs still in operation, The Railway Hotel on Ferrars Street – once named Napoleon Third – retains its traditional, front bar feel. Publican Richard Peoples says those who drink at the 168-year-old hotel value its colourful past.

“As a suburb, I think its generally underrated. We’re not hipster, and we don’t want to be.”

Richard Peoples, publican at The Railway Hotel in South Melbourne

“Squizzy Taylor’s grandson told me Squizzy shot a bloke in the pub [though historian Kay Rowan says she has no evidence of this] and Bob Hawke was kicked out of it in his ACTU days, by the female publican of the time, for being obnoxious,” says Peoples, who has been running it for six years.

A South Melbourne resident of two decades (who has since moved on), Peoples says that despite the acknowledged gentrification, the suburb, and the hotel, have retained their character.

“I think South Melbourne still has a range of diversity within it,” he says. “Whilst the property prices have gone up, there’s a lot of people who have lived in the area for a long time and have deep sense of the history around the area.

“I find it is generally just full of good people. That’s what I love about it. As a suburb, I think it’s generally underrated. We’re not hipster, and we don’t want to be.”

Port Phillip Mayor Heather Cunsolo agrees that much of the authenticity has been saved, and says the heavy presence of creative industries, including recording studios and gaming development, add richness to the suburb.

Ceramicist Mark Young is part of South Melbourne’s very active creative community. He makes his pottery in a tiny studio behind his single-fronted terrace.Credit: Darrian Traynor

Though strict heritage controls can be a pain for residents to work with, the low-rise nature of South Melbourne has helped protect its sense of street-level connection.

“There’s been an immense amount of change in pockets of it, and immense change to the residential area [mainly through modern renovations, rather than demolition] but one of the strengths is in the character. Due to the heritage overlay, it will always retain those low-scale, pleasant streets,” says Cunsolo.

“It makes it a collective win.”

Longtime resident and ceramicist Mark Young says he was lured to South Melbourne 26 years ago by a high-profile friend in the arts community who said, “this is a real village, you must come”.

“I was drawn to the diversity of the demographic from the beginning,” says Young, who was originally a graphic designer.

“The multicultural aspect [appealed], the Greeks, Italians, other Europeans and Russians, and it also appealed that we’ve got housing commission, we’ve got expensive houses, we’ve got lots of artists, people who work in the arts.”

“I’ve slowly discovered them ... and then they introduce you to their peers in music, painting. There are frame restorers, interesting architects, plus the huge draw card is the South Melbourne market. It’s my safe place.”

Young has made so many grassroots ties there that when he visits to shop the stallholders will often give him the inside word on who has the best that day.

“They’ll say, ‘hey so-and-so’s got some amazing heirloom tomatoes at the moment’, or ‘the peaches at the store on Coventry Street are amazing’. You’ll get that neighbourly information. It’s a lovely connection.”

Stallholder Georgie Dragwidge would no doubt relate. The famed “potato lady” from Georgie’s Harvest has become so close to her customers that when her husband died unexpectedly of an aortic aneurism six years ago at the market, of 600 people at his funeral one-third were their clients from the market.

“It’s where everyone has a hello, and where everybody really has a good morning; even my mum works here. She’s 79 years old and has the most beautiful community at the market around her,” she says.

Georgie Dragwidge, of Georgie’s Harvest at South Melbourne Market, has made many dear friends among her customers.Credit: Jacob Pattison

Dragwidge is not surprised when regulars become friends, and says it happens commonly – especially during the week, when fewer tourists are around. “If you were a regular, you would see me more than you’d see your cousins,” she says.

She describes the bonds that grow in the alleys between Coventry and York Streets as “births, deaths and marriages”, and says people she met over the years have become so special to her that she has loved watching them partner up and have kids.

“When they separate, I think there is a discussion about which of them gets me,” she quips. “They are really a part of our life.”

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