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Top Attractions in St. Kilda

St Kilda Town Hall

St Kilda Town Hall is a grand, classically styled city hall, located on the corner of Brighton Road and Carlisle Street in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. The first stage, never completed, was built as the municipal offices and public hall for the former City of St Kilda in 1890. Many additions, internal alterations, and changes in appearance were made in the early and mid 20th century, while serving as the municipal and social heart of St Kilda. A devastating fire in 1991 seriously affected the art collection and burnt out the hall itself, and was followed by a prize winning refurbishment and further extension. After Council amalgamations in 1994, it became the base for the larger City of Port Phillip, and further extensions and renovations have occurred. The hall within remains popular for numerous social events, meetings and performances, a role it has served for over 120 years.

National Theatre

The National Theatre is a 783 seat Australian theatre and theatrical arts school located in the Melbourne bayside suburb of St Kilda, on the corner of Barkly and Carlisle Streets. The building was constructed in 1921 as The Victory Theatre, rebuilt as 2550 seat cinema in 1928, finally converted to a live venue 1972/4 with 783 seats. The original National Theatre Movement was established in 1935 by soprano Gertrude Johnson. After returning from an overseas career that included performing at Convent Garden, Miss Johnson was dismayed at the lack of training and performing opportunities for Australian artists in their own country. To that end the National Theatre included an opera school, drama school and ballet school . Production Companies ran through the 1940s and 1950s. The National Theatre Movement had previously occupied the Village Theatre in Toorak and then purchased the Empress Theatre in Prahran, destroyed by fire in June 1971. The building now occupied by the National Theatre was built in the Beaux Arts style as a 3000 seat cinema and opened in 1920 as the Victory Theatre. In 1971 Hoyts offered the company the Victory Theatre for conversion to a live theatre and rehearsal spaces. The current theatre consists of the original Victory dress circle extended with the addition of a sizeable stage and a fly tower. The original stalls were converted into five studios for drama, opera and ballet. One of the studios is itself a theatrette. The theatre opened in its current guise in August 1974, while the schools and administration moved there in September 1972. The National Theatre drama school dates from 1936, while the ballet school dates from 1939 and is the oldest in Australia. The ballet school currently conducts Royal Academy of Dance examinations and has ballet performances in the middle of the year and in December. The opera school merged with the Victorian College of the Arts in 1980. It was closed by the VCA in 2006 but the National Theatre now supports the new Opera School established independently in 2008. The current artistic director of the National Theatre is Beverly Jane Fry and of drama is Ken Boucher. Other dance artistic directors have included Kathleen Gorham and Gailene Stock.

Lentil as Anything

Lentil as Anything is a series of pay what you feel, not for profit vegetarian restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, founded by Shanaka Fernando running on a similar model to pay what you can. It is named after the Australian new wave band Mental As Anything. There are currently six restaurants, the first of which opened in 2000 in St. Kilda and the largest being located in the former Abbotsford Convent. The most recent venue opened in Melbourne suburb of Thornbury in 2015, and four other locations have opened and later closed in the franchise's history. Lentil as Anything is a multicultural and refugee friendly organisation. Live music, world music, films, and artworks are often performed and displayed at the restaurants, particularly at Abbotsford, where the restaurant has become a public meeting place with many patrons traveling from the inner north and east. Food is sourced from local organic food suppliers, prepared on site and often served in buffet style allowing guests to choose their own meals. There are also a small range of vegan and gluten free options with the exception of the Newtown location where everything is vegan. All locations also feature espresso coffee and some cakes. Lentil as Anything also offers a catering service and notably catered for the Green New Deal conference in Melbourne in 2009. The restaurants wholly rely on the generosity of their patrons, volunteers and suppliers to operate, receiving no government or church funding. Patrons are asked to "pay what they feel" the meal, service and beverages are worth by contributing an amount of their choice into a box at the counter. The Abbotsford and St. Kilda locations initially faced large financial debt due to mismanagement and other factors, many of which have since been resolved. The introduction of week-round buffet at Abbotsford saw a significant boost in patronage during 2009. In 2010, The Naked Lentil, a documentary on the restaurant and its founder Shanaka Fernando, was aired by SBS.

Grey Street

There are 14 Grey Streets in metropolitan Melbourne, but by far the best-known is Grey Street in St Kilda, once a grand residential street but now with a reputation as a centre of prostitution. Grey St was almost certainly named after Sir George Grey, who was Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845 and later Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1877 to 1879. St Kilda's official historian, John Butler Cooper, suggests that it may have been named for another Sir George Grey, a British politician, but the fact other nearby streets are also named after colonial governors (Fitzroy St after Charles FitzRoy, Governor of New South Wales, Barkly St after Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, and Robe St after Frederick Robe, Grey's successor as Governor of South Australia), makes the first Sir George Grey more likely. Grey Street runs south-east between Fitzroy and Barkly Streets. It lies within the original settlement area of the village of St Kilda, which was subdivided for land sales in 1842. As St Kilda grew into a wealthy and fashionable suburb during the second half of the 19th century, Grey St became lined with the mansions of Melbourne's prosperous mercantile class, attracted by the proximity of St Kilda beach and the hotels and restaurants of Fitzroy St and The Esplanade. One of leading hotels of the era, the George, stands on the corner of Fitzroy and Grey Sts. After decades of decline, it has recently been refurbished and its upper floors converted to apartments. The best-known of Grey Street's great homes was Eildon Mansion, built in 1877 by the wealthy pastoralist John Lang Currie. After many years as a guesthouse, Eildon was bought in 2006 by the Alliance française of Melbourne and has been restored. Next to Eildon is the house where Prime Minister of Australia Stanley Bruce was born in 1883. Other mansions have been converted into apartments or backpackers' hostels. Another well-known landmark on the street in the 19th century was the St Kilda Coffee Palace, now a backpackers' hostel. During the 20th century the social status of St Kilda declined and the wealthy moved away from Grey Street. Since the 1970s it has become notorious as one of Melbourne's main areas of street prostitution. Female prostitutes operate day and night on the corners of Dalgety ("hooker's corner"), Robe and Barkly Streets; and customers in cars, known locally as "gutter crawlers", are regarded by local residents as a major nuisance. Drug use in the area is also regarded as a problem. At night there is a frequent police presence along Grey Street, particularly on weekends. The most prominent landmark on Grey Street is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1884 by Archbishop James Goold. The Church operates a large welfare centre, the Sacred Heart Mission, near the corner of Grey and Robe Streets, providing meals and sleeping accommodation to the homeless and needy. The Salvation Army operates the St Kilda Crisis Centre on Grey Street, offering services including a needle exchange facility for drug users.

St Kilda Beach

St Kilda Beach is a beach located in St Kilda, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia, 6 kilometres south from the Melbourne city centre. It is Melbourne's most famous beach. The beach is a sandy beach about 700 metres long between St Kilda Marina and St Kilda Harbour along Jacka Boulavard and St Kilda Esplanade. It is located at the north-east corner of Port Phillip and is protected from ocean swell, though still affected by strong westerly winds. With Port Phillip Bay being open to the sea, St Kilda Beach is subject to regular tides. The St Kilda Sea Baths are located at the beach. The St Kilda Pier is another landmark. The pier is terminated by the St Kilda Pavilion, an eccentric Edwardian building in the mould of English pier pavilions which is considered of high cultural importance to Melburnians. It was recently reconstructed and listed on the Victorian Heritage Register after burning down. The pier has a long breakwater which shelters St Kilda Harbour and hosts a little penguin colony. St Kilda Beach is one of the 46 bayside beaches which are monitored by EPA Victoria for water quality. St Kilda Beach water quality is generally rated as good (the highest rating given by EPA), being below 150 orgs/100 mL, which is set in the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) 2003. The water quality is considerably lower for about 24 hours after rains, which flush stormwater drains. The reading exceeded the enterococci investigation trigger of 500 orgs/100 mL on 28 December 2009. This was short-lived, with bacterial levels returning below the investigation trigger the next day. The cause of the high reading was attributed to a oneoff, unidentified discharge into a stormwater drain, which is located close to the sampling site at St Kilda Beach.

The Palace

The Palace was an entertainment complex located in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia. It was built in 1972 on the site of the former Palais de Danse, which had burned down in 1968. It hosted both local and international bands and performances over thirty-five years, before its closure on 12 June 2007 after a lengthy legal battle between the Victorian state government and The Palace's former operators, Bradto Pty. Ltd. Less than a month after its closure, on 11 July 2007, the building was badly damaged by a fire. Half of the former nightclub was destroyed. Seventy firefighters fought the blaze which brought Jacka Boulevard to a standstill. They were forced to fight the fire from outside the building as vandalism to the dancefloor had made it too dangerous to fight from the inside. It took an hour and a half to control the blaze. The arson squad investigated how the fire started, determining the fire was fuelled by rolled up carpet and chipboard which had been pulled from the roof and ceiling. The building has subsequently been completely demolished.

Acland Street

Acland Street is a street in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, which enjoys great popularity as a recreational area, mainly due to its many restaurants and its proximity to the entertainment areas along St Kilda beach Acland Street runs on a north-west to south-east axis between Fitzroy and Barkly Streets. It was one of the first streets laid out when St Kilda was surveyed in 1842. The north-west end of the street is largely residential, and features many fine houses from the late 19th century, some of them converted to flats or other uses, such as the Linden Gallery, and earlier, Acland Street Gallery, which was at number 18, and closed in 1990. The south-east end of the street, between Carlisle and Barkly Streets, is a commercial strip. The section of Acland Street between Barkly Street and Carlisle Street is a tram zone where route 96 terminates.

Crystal Ballroom

The Crystal Ballroom was a music venue located within the Seaview Hotel on Fitzroy Street in the inner Melbourne suburb of St Kilda. The venue was run by a succession of Melbourne alternative music promoters from 1978 to 1987, starting with Dolores San Miguel (who also ran gigs at other prominent Melbourne music venues, including the Esplanade Hotel), and later by Laurie Richards, founder of the Tiger Lounge in Richmond and the Jump Club in Fitzroy. The Crystal Ballroom was given its name because of the venue's ornate ballroom and chandeliers. It has often been referred to as the centerpiece of Melbourne's post-punk movement. Dolores San Miguel took charge of the venue from its previous occupants in August 1978. The first band to play there was JAB, who relocated from Adelaide. On 2 September 1978, San Miguel took control of the Ballroom and opened it up as the "Wintergarden Room". The first gig in the Seaview Ballroom was headlined by The Boys Next Door, featuring Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard. The Ballroom ran every Saturday night until it was taken over by Laurie Richards in February 1979. Richards renamed the venue the "Crystal Ballroom" and operated it under that name until 10 January 1981, although San Miguel returned in April 1980 to run weeknight gigs in what she christened the "Paradise Lounge" on the ground floor. Melbourne's Little Band Scene flourished here in 1980. After Laurie left, San Miguel co-ran the Crystal Ballroom with Nigel Rennard until a falling out in September 1981, whereby San Miguel vacated her position. Rennard renamed the venue the "Seaview Ballroom" and ran it until the end of 1983. Dolores returned as the venue's owner in 1984. She ran it until 1986 before the hotel was closed for business in 1987. The Crystal Ballroom was a staging ground for major Melbourne bands such as The Birthday Party and Hunters and Collectors, as well as visiting Sydney bands INXS, The Laughing Clowns, and Brisbane's The Go-Betweens. International bands who played there include Simple Minds, The Cure, Magazine, The Members, XTC, The Residents, Snakefinger and Dead Kennedys. The venue is best known as the "Crystal Ballroom" because this was its name during the height of Melbourne's post-punk movement. The venue, and its association with a host of local and international music acts, has been documented in a wide range of media. Noted Australian culture critic Clinton Walker’s first book Inner City Sound was almost as if centred in the Ballroom, and in his fourth book Stranded: The Secret History of Australian Independent Music 1977-1991 (1996), he revisits the time and place in more detail. In 2011, San Miguel published a book titled The Ballroom: The Melbourne Punk & Post Punk Scene. The Crystal Ballroom and its role in Melbourne music is reflected upon by various interview guests on the Dogs In Space bonus DVD documentary We're Living on Dog Food, directed Richard Lowenstein.

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