Take a walk through Yarra and explore our heritage walks.
About Carlton North
The areas now known as Carlton North was developed from the 1850s as an outpost of Melbourne Town. Renowned surveyor, Clement Hodgkinson, surveyed the area in 1869 and initiated the Carlton North plan as an extension for Melbourne’s residential suburbs.
The 1883 announcement of Rathdowne and Nicholson streets as future cable tram routes brought in dense residential terrace housing developments in almost every street north to Park Street. By about 1915, the suburb was virtually complete, with religious and educational buildings, and government services.
Carlton North today is a homogenous 19th and early 20th century residential suburb. It's largely occupied by dense terrace housing developments, set within a rectilinear grid of north-south and east-west streets, with rear lanes an obligatory feature of polite suburban life of the era. Early and original rear outbuildings highlight the Victorian and Edwardian era character of Carlton North. These are of particular historic significance where houses are on corner allotments with their outbuildings exposed to public view.
Traces of the original Jewish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese and Turkish communities are also still evident through their gathering places such as churches and a Mosque. Beyond the meeting places are the distinctive house renovations that transformed the Victorian-era Italianate into a form of post-World War Two Italianate. All of these places are important milestones in Carlton North’s development as a reception centre for immigrants.