Saturday, January 23, 2010

StroLLing through my memories...

and drinking coffee by the bay...




Quote: "St Kilda is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Port Phillip. As of 2006 Census the population has 16,122 people.

St Kilda was named after a schooner Lady of St Kilda (which moored at the main beach for much of 1841) by Charles La Trobe and former ship master and early settler Lieutenant James Ross Lawrence.

During the Edwardian and Victorian eras, St Kilda became a favoured suburb of Melbourne's elite, and many palatial mansions were constructed along its hills and waterfront. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, St Kilda served a similar function for Melburnians as did Cooney Island to the residents of New York City and its history draws an interesting parallel. Densely populated postwar St Kilda became Melbourne's red-light district, home to low-cost rooming houses. Since the late 1960's, St Kilda was a bohemian area of Melbourne, home to artists, musicians and many of the city's sub-cultures, including the Punks, and LGBT groups. While some of these groups still maintain a presence in St Kilda, in recent years the district has experienced rapid gentrification pushing many lower socio-economic groups out of the suburb.

St Kilda is home to many of Melbourne's famous visitor attractions including Luna Park, the Esplanade Hotel, Acland street and Fitzroy street. It is home to St Kilda Beach, Melbourne's most famous beach, several renowned theatres and several of Melbourne's big events and festivals" ... Wikipedia


*As a young teen i visited St Kilda's Famous Drag Queen shows and also lived there for a time (in my mid twenties) before i met my husband ... For a while in a bed-sit in St Kilda's notorious red~light district (Tee! Hee! ...and no i was NOT one of 'the girls!') i also shared a house with my best friend, who is gay and he introduced me to many of Melbourne's famous (and to me at the time most seedy AND glamorous!) night clubs... i was younger then and ~Life~ was simpler... So today was a day of cafe coffee, and sunshine, strolling the trendy Acland & Fitzroy street/s, breathing in the ambiance and drifting in and out of the eclectic mix of pubs, restaurants and shops...

(Ps) Will post a few pics when i can pin down one of ma teenage children long enough to get them to help me to 'Blue Tooth' ma photo's off ma phone!


<3

4 comments:

PhilipH said...

You've a phone with blue teeth? Wow.

St. Kilda sounds a bit like Brighton, on the south coast of England. The 'pink' capital of the UK is probably the euphemistic
way of describing it. It's a very gay place and probably all the better for it.

Back in the 1960s it was more of a HQ for all the crooks and villains, fighting each other for the one-arm bandit areas and other dodgy scenarios.

Graham Greene's "Brighton Rock" was made into a film depicting all the razor carrying mobsters and race-track villains.

Times and places DO change as time goes by...

Anonymous said...

Wow sounds exciting. I love to read stories of other countries and the things kids did as teens. We used to sneak out to a roadhouse to dance, wouldn't dare try to get by drinking but met Tina and Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cliff Butler and what a time. It was a stop in the road for some groups who later became famous. No Elvis ever there though.Whoopee.
QMM

kj said...

i love that no matter where we live in the world, there are places we remember and places we go and memories we share.

we are heart sisters, spunky and ready for adventure. i think we had been teens at the same time and place, we might have been clubbing together :)

nollyposh said...

<3 <3 <3