ST
KILDA: OVERVIEW OF A SPECIAL PLACE
By
Jim Holdsworth, Strategic Planner City of
Port Phillip, for the 'What's
Good Urban Design' workshop at the George
Hotel, March 14, 1996, co-hosted by Imagine
The Future Inc, the City
of Port Phillip, Australian
Conservation Foundation and Urban
Design Forum.
St Kilda is a beach and bayside suburb some five kilometres
from the centre of Melbourne. It holds a special place in
the hearts of Melburnians because of the unique mixture of
history, activities, people, architecture and atmosphere that
gives this small corner of the metropolis its particular character.
Why
does St Kilda retain its attractiveness? Who gravitates to
this eclectic couple of square kilometres bounded by more
predictable suburbs on three sides and an expansive aspect
of sea, sky and sunset on its west?
You
know when you've reached St Kilda, physically and spiritually.
It's atypical. Maybe you arrived at the turn of the century
to holiday in one of the grand seaside hotels. Maybe you came
here to find a free meal, or a bed in a rooming house. Maybe
you responded to the inspiration of like-minded artists who
reside here. Maybe you found companionship among people of
similar ethnic background: probably eastern European. Maybe
you thought St Kilda was the place where BMWs and mobile phones
were desirable 'cartes d'entre'. Whoever you are,
you're welcome, or at least tolerated. You can't be out of
place.
St
Kilda drapes itself over rising ground around Acland and Barkly
Streets. The town plan reflects a formality common to much
of Melbourne, but there are flats not houses; people not faces;
life not suburban bliss. The place feeds off itself. The sum
of the parts is ... St Kilda.
But
why is it? No architect or town planner determined the mix
of aspirations, values or despair that is St Kilda. Nor urban
designer should dissect its complexity, determine its shortcomings
and dictate its future. Enough to ponder the serendipity of
place and dimension that renders everywhere unique, but St
Kilda especially so. Careful, we might lose it!
Copyright
Jim Holdsworth, 1996.
