May 2026

Not every street in St Kilda is grand houses and impressive flats – Clyde Street runs off Acland and it’s lined with modest Victorian, Edwardian and 20s houses, because ‘the servants had to live nearby’ as I recall from a St Kilda Historical Society tour yonks ago. But of course all sorts would have lived here.

Only some look totally original, many of them are timber, and really the street is dominated by decisions made since the 70s, fences put up in a variety of types, and the verandahs some good repros, many not.

First is Wawn (?), man in the middle had to go white; beaut little jerkinhead gables, cute cast iron finials, fences too tall; quite Luny 😊; a blocky plain 30s cottage with a terrible pseudo Victorian fence; a 20s cottage with a 70s fence made out of rescued Victorian bluestone cobbles and cast iron; a pair of cottages with differing finials and verandahs; a fine garden; an excellent verandah eaten by creepers; did someone render the bricks then paint it red ?; I think it’s an original Victorian but the verandah posts look like those aluminium ones; a verandah with Edwardian posts but Victorian cast iron and an too-tall fence.

Funny how often these inaccurate ‘restorations’ are super fancy. There were two houses being worked on so I couldn’t see them, and I hope the quality is better than the name.

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