Richmond, Victoria

Infobox Australian Place
name = Richmond

---

caption = View of the Pelaco factory between two art deco period houses
state = vic
type = suburb
lga = City of Yarra
area = 3.8
city = Melbourne
est = 19th century
postcode = 3121
pop = 22,475 (2006) Census 2006 AUS | id = SSC21561 | name = Richmond (State Suburb) | accessdate = 2007-09-26 | quick = on]
propval = $605,000 [cite web|url=http://www.domain.com.au/public/suburbprofile.aspx?suburb=Richmond&postcode=3121 |title=Richmond suburb profile|publisher=Fairfax Digital|work=Domain.com.au|accessdate=2007-10-21]
fedgov = Melbourne
stategov = Richmond
dist1 = 4 | location1 = Melbourne
near-nw = Collingwood
near-n = Abbotsford
near-ne = Kew
near-w = East Melbourne
near-e = Hawthorn
near-sw = Cremorne
near-s = South Yarra
near-se = Burnley

Richmond is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Yarra. Richmond has three of the 82 designated Major Activity Centres in the Melbourne 2030 Metropolitan Strategy - the commercial strips of Victoria Street, Bridge Road and Swan Street.

The suburb has been the subject of gentrification since the early 1990s and is now an eclectic mix of expensively converted warehouse residences, public housing high-rise flats and Victorian-era terrace houses, along with a lively retail sector and a shrinking industrial and manufacturing base.

The suburb is well known for its textile industry, in particular, popular factory outlets centred along Bridge Road.

Local Landmarks

These are some of the landmarks of Richmond.

* Richmond Town Hall
* Victoria Street, to the north of the suburb, is popular for its Vietnamese food.
* Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre
* Bridge Road has many clothing factory outlets and is popular with tourists.
** The Mountain View Hotel, formerly Ron Barassi's pub, 70 Bridge Road
* Punt Road, one of the main thoroughfares into Melbourne. It is often clogged with traffic and runs alongside Punt Road Oval, home ground to the Richmond Football Club.
* Church Street
* Swan Street has many entertainment venues with live music. They include:
** The Corner Hotel, a bastion of live music in Melbourne. [http://www.cornerhotel.com/]
** The Swan. A pub on the corner of Church and Swan streets built in 1890. It often has live bands and is popular with the younger set.
** The Rising Sun, which is located at the corner of Burnley and Swan streets.
* The Great Britain Hotel, Church Street.
* Dimmey's building on Swan Street, with its ornate clock tower.

Architecture

Non-residential architecture

Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre is a large modern complex built in 2001 to service the inner eastern suburbs. The Loyal Studley Hotel was built in 1891 and is now used as a homewares shop. Richmond Power Station was built in 1891. The Burnley Theatre is now a commercial homewares shop but contains some elements of the original interiors, including the foyer and stage.450 Swan Street, completed in 1995 combines an old bank and modern building in outstanding example of deconstructivist architecture by Ashton Raggart McDougall.

port

Richmond is home of the Richmond Football Club (the Tigers) an Australian rules football club which is a member of the Australian Football League. Richmond is one of the most successful football teams in Australia, having won 10 premierships in the VFL/AFL. The club has a cult following not only in Richmond but throughout the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

The Tigers play home games at the MCG which is just outside the suburbs border, and regularly attract crowds in excess of 40,000, however can draw as large as 70,000 against fierce rivals. The team trains at their spiritual home ground at Punt Road (just adjacent to the MCG) which is now the clubs primary training base behind it's future Cragieburne training base development.

Residential architecture

With a large number of small homes in its narrow streets, Richmond has some of Melbourne's best examples of residential architecture from most periods.

Notable examples include "The Malthouse", a landmark conversion of silos into apartments by award winning architect Nonda Katsalidis.

The bluestone terrace homes at 13 & 15 James Street, built in 1857 in the rustic Gothic style for Eneas Mackenzie, a civil servant, are classified by the National Trust and are among the oldest homes remaining in Melbourne.

Lalor House on Church Street, named after Eureka Stockade upriser Peter Lalor with its rich boom-style ornament is possibly Australia's best example of the Mannerist style applied to residential architecture.

Public Space

Richmond does have some parks and gardens and reserves but they are notably absent in the main centre of the suburb. The largest park is Citizens Park (Richmond Oval) bordering on Church and Highett Streets. Other notable spaces include Barkly Gardens and the Allen Bain Reserve as well as a number of smaller parks and reserves.

Other large parks are located in nearby suburbs, including Yarra Park and Melbourne Park in East Melbourne, (Jolimont) the Golden Square Bicentennial Park, Burnley Park and oval, the Burnley Golf Course (survey paddock) and a number of sport reserves and ovals in Burnley, Pridmore Park, Yarra Bank Reserve, Creswick Street Reserve and St. James Park in Hawthorn, Dickinsons Reserve, Yarra Bend Park, Studley Park Golf Course and Studley Park in Kew.

Religion

The local large Catholic community is served by St. Ignatius' Church on Church Street and St. James Parish. Anglicans also have a presence in Richmond served by St. Stephens, next door to St. Ignatius Church. A Uniting Church also serves its members with a Fijian presence located on Church Street.

There is also a large Assemblies of God Church, Richmond AOG, in Griffiths Street.

Education

Richmond is served by three high schools, St. Kevin's College (Waterford Campus), Lynall Hall Community School and Melbourne Girls' College. Primary schools in Richmond are Richmond Primary School, Richmond West Primary School, and Yarra Primary School. The former St. Ignatius School was closed at the end of 2005 marking an end to over a hundred years of presence serving the local Catholic community. Former notable students included Richmond football club legends, Kevin Sheedy and the late Jack Dyer. The school amalgamated with St. James Primary School to form the Jesuit run, Trinity Catholic School that opened in the start of 2006 on the grounds occupied by the former St. James Primary School.

The Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music, affiliated with Victoria University, is located in York Street, Richmond. Kangan Batman TAFE has a presence in Burnley.

Transport

Richmond has an established transport system involving arterial roads, five train stations, seven tram routes, a bus route and a series of bicycle trails including the Capital City Trail and the Yarra River Trail.

Richmond is served by tram numbers 24 and 109 on Victoria Street, tram numbers 78 and 79 on Church Street, tram numbers 48 and 75 on Bridge Road and tram number 70 on Swan Street.

The main train station in Richmond is Richmond railway station, it is an interchange for all metropolitan passenger trains to the eastern and south-eastern suburbs, viz. the Pakenham, Cranbourne, Frankston, Lilydale, Belgrave, Glen Waverley and Alamein lines.

Other train stations in Richmond include Burnley, East Richmond, North Richmond and West Richmond.

Health

Epworth Hospital (private) is a major surgical hospital, it has a major campus in Richmond fronting both Bridge Road and Erin Street.

The Melbourne Clinic (private) is a major psychiatric facility, it is in Church Street.

Trivia

* The 80s cult punk film Dogs in Space by Richard Lowenstein and starring Michael Hutchence was filmed in Richmond.
* Songwriter Paul Kelly's song 'Leaps and Bounds' mentions Richmond's 'clock on the silo', otherwise known as the Nylex Clock.
* Soprano Dame Nellie Melba was born in Richmond in 1861.

ee also

* City of Richmond - the former local government area of the same name

Notable Citizens

* Peter Lalor (deceased)
* David Mitchell (deceased)
* Molly Meldrum
* Billy Slater

Notable Criminals

* Van Tuong Nguyen (deceased)

References

External links

* [http://www.cornerhotel.com/ Official Corner Hotel website]
* [http://www.richmondfc.com.au/ Official Richmond Football Club website]