I have a friend who lives near John Street in Elwood and he wondered where the name of the street came from, so because I have a bit of a fascination with street and place name origins, I did some research. But before we look at John Street, this is what historian, J. B. Cooper, in his history of the City of St Kilda (1) wrote about the naming of streets in Elwood or South St Kilda as it was then called.
Three months later, October 28, 1857, the Council decided to name the streets lying to the "south of Balaclave Road," i.e., Carlisle Street. In accordance with instructions, the Public Works Committee submitted its report to the Council with a plan of the unnamed streets, and a list of the names the Committee proposed to call the streets. The streets in question were the roadways formed when the Government surveyed the Crown Lands for the purpose of selling the land in sections.
Councillor Sutherland moved, and Councillor Hale seconded, that the Public Works Committee's report be adopted. Councillor Mooney moved as an amendment that the names of British authors be given to the streets. Councillor Spicer seconded the amendment. Councillor Marshall moved a further amendment: "That the names of British and Colonial Statesmen be given to the streets." The Chairman, Councillor Cowderoy, seconded Councillor Marshall's amendment. The second amendment was lost, and Councillor Mooney's amendment was carried. A further amendment, that consideration of the names to be given to the streets be postponed for a week, was lost. After consideration, and much argument, it was agreed that the streets' names should be officially proclaimed as follows -
Original name as
suggested in report New name
Keogh Burns
Monaghan Scott
McCombie Byron
Willis Milton
Goldie Dickens
Emu Blessington
Nankerville Southey
Bennett Tennyson
Prell Mitford
J.B. Cooper continues with information about the namesakes of the rejected names for instance Monaghan, Nankivell and Prell were local land owners and McCombie was an auctioneer.
Probably the Council was wise in its generation when the majority of its members voted for naming the streets with non-contentious names. The amendment launched during the consideration of the street-naming question and seconded by the Chairman, Councillor Cowderoy, that the names of "colonial statesmen" be selected, had in it the elements of discord. Was the prevailing color to be green, O'Shanassy and Duffy? or of another color, Haines and Childers ? Harmony was preserved by the selection of the names of literary men for the streets' names.
Since the poets' names were selected as the names of streets by the St. Kilda Council the number has been added to as new streets have been formed in the vicinity of the parent group. The poets' names are to be found in the southern portion of the city, as well as a place name called "Poets corner." The value of such group-name placing is obviously that of a finger post to their locality. A stranger in St. Kilda seeking a street is not long in doubt of his vicinity to it when he finds himself within the area containing the war, the poetical, or the official groups of street names.
Tennyson Street is one of the best known of the poetical named thoroughfares. Other street names after authors' names are Shakespeare, Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden, Coleridge, Wordsworth. Then we have in the South at Elwood Meredith Street, Addison Street, Ruskin Street, Goldsmith Street, Shelley Street, Beat's Street, Lytton Street, Hood Street, Cowper Street, and others, quite a full library edition of notable authors in English literature. Thackeray is not forgotten in Thackeray Street. Carlisle Street is supposed by some to have been intended to be called Carlyle Street, and that an error was made in spelling the dour Chelsea sage's name. Australian poets are represented by Kendall, Gordon and McCrae, and Australian story tellers very inadequately by Marcus Clarke, Clarke Street. The influence of the mid Victorian period throughout St. Kilda is very marked. (2)
Elwood in 1973. The Poet and other Literary Streets are north of Glen Huntly Road.
John Street and Clarke Street, run parallel to Byron Street.
Melway Street Directory of Greater Melbourne, Edition 7, 1973 (Melway Publishing P/L)
The Tennyson Estate was advertised as 60 Sea View Villa Building Allotments with frontages of 50 feet to 75 feet to Southey, Byron, Melford (it was actually Mitford Street) and the newly created John Street and William Street. It went to auction on November 15, 1884. (3)
Tennyson Estate advertisement, 1884. Melford Street is actually Mitford Street.
The Argus, October 11 1884 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article6059280
The Auctioneer, E.J. Dixon was selling on behalf of Sir W. J. Clarke - William John Clarke, hence the names of the newly created streets - William and John. Sir William (1831-1897) was the son of William John Turner Clarke (1805-1874), known as "Big" Clarke who was immensely wealthy. W. J.T. Clarke died in 1874 and William inherited all of his father's Victorian land holdings which were valued at £1,500,000. The newly rich William built the property Rupertwood at Sunbury and in 1887 he built Clivenden in Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, described as one of the largest private residences in the Colony. He was created a Baronet in 1881. Sir William's second wife, Janet Snodgrass (1851-1909) was involved with many charities, was the President of the National Council of Women, and later the Women's National League. In a time when very few women could attend University in 1889, she funded the construction of the Hostel for Women University Students, Trinity College at Melbourne University; this is now known as Janet Clarke Hall. (4)
A small part of the land holdings inherited by Sir William in 1874 were three parcels of land in South St Kilda, or Elsternwick as it was called in the Probate papers of his father, W.J.T. Clarke. The City of St Kilda rate books show that Clarke senior had purchased the land in 1870 from Hugh Glass (1817-1871), the original owner as noted on the Prahran Parish Plan. In the 1860s Hugh Glass was said to have been the richest man in Victoria with assets of £800,000; however when his business empire collapsed leaving him with a debts of £500,000, he was forced to sell many of his properties and W.J.T. Clarke was a ready buyer. (5)
Extract from the Probate papers of W.J.T. Clarke, itemising his Elwood properties -
called here Elsternwick - Allotments 112a, 116 and 124.
Click on image to enlarge. Wm. J. T. Clarke: Grant of probate, Public Records Office of Victoria VPRS 28/P0002, 11/607
Prahran Parish Plan - the Clarke properties (ex Hugh Glass) are marked with a star and I have added the street names.
As you can see, the land west of Mitford Street was still a Swamp at this time.
Click on image to enlarge. Part of the Parish of Prahran, June 25, 1857.Victoria. Department of Crown Lands and Survey.
State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/123955
It was Allotments 112a and 116, which were situated on either side of Byron Street, that became the Tennyson Estate in 1884 and which created John Street and William Street. (6) William Street, although featuring in the advertisements and the real estate flyer, was very quickly renamed Clarke Street, as we can see from the flyer below. This renaming was likely due to the fact that there was already a William Street in St Kilda, near the Balaclava Railway Station.
The advertising flyer for the Tennyson Estate, 1884.
William Street has been renamed Clarke Street.
Mitford Street is incorrectly labelled as Milford Street.
Click on image to enlarge. Tennyson Estate, South St. Kilda, 1884. Crabb & Brotherton, Printers.
State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/295990
The Auctioneer, Mr E.J. Dixon, could proudly report that the entire Tennyson Estate was sold at the auction on November 15, 1884 for a total price of just over £7196. (7)
Sale result for the Tennyson Estate
The Age, November 17, 1884 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191470641
The first reference I can find to John Street in the City of St Kilda rate books was in 1885 when four five-roomed weatherboard houses, all owned by builder F. Douglas, of Caulfield; and two vacant blocks of land, were listed. Only one of Mr Douglas' houses was occupied and that was by Edward Rogers, a labourer. Clarke Street does not appear in the rate books until 1888 - there were nine vacant blocks of land and one six-roomed wooden house owned and occupied by William Robertson, whose occupation was listed as a Gentleman. Rate books don't always reflect the true position of land ownership, especially in times when there are a large number of new estates being developed as was the case in the Elwood area in the 1880s; it seems to take a year or so for them to catch up. However, I like to think that Edward Rogers and William Robertson could be considered the first occupants of the recently created John and Clarke Streets. (8)
Clarke Reserve, on the corner of Clarke Street and Mitford Street, may have been developed at the same time as Lindsay Avenue, which is north of and parallel to Clarke Street (see the Melway map further up this post). However, the earliest date I have for Clarke Reserve at the moment is 1931. (9) The Lindsay Estate with residential blocks facing both Southey Street and Lindsay Avenue, was sub-divided in 1912. (10) Was Lindsay Avenue named for Adam Lindsay Gordon, as there is a Gordon Avenue which runs parallel to Lindsay Avenue on the north side? (Norman Lindsay is another option, but I don't think he was famous enough in 1912). Lindsay Avenue is not listed in J.B. Cooper's list of Literary streets, but Gordon Avenue is. Neither appear on the 1905 MMBW plan, shown below, so Gordon Avenue was thus possibly established around the same time as Lindsay Avenue, but that's a story for another day.
The state of John, Byron and Clarke Streets in 1905
Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works detail plan. no. 1394, City of St Kilda, 1905
Click on image to enlarge. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/122579
In answer, then, to my friend's question as to the origin of the name of John Street in Elwood, it was named for Sir William John Clarke, the developer of the Tennyson Estate. Clarke Street was almost certainly named for him as well and not, as J.B. Cooper noted, after Marcus Clarke the author.
Footnotes
(1) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a City and after, 1840 - 1930, v. 1 (City of St Kilda, 1931).
(2) Cooper, op. cit., pp 95-98.
(3) The Argus, October 11 1884, see here.
(4) Australian Dictionary of Biography - Sir William Clarke - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clarke-sir-william-john-3229 W.J.T Clarke - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clarke-william-john-1902 Lady Clarke https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clarke-lady-janet-marion-3224 ; Clivenden: - Illustrated Australian News, March 15, 1887, see here.
(5) Wm. J. T. Clarke: Grant of probate, Public Records Office of Victoria VPRS 28/P0002, 11/607
https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/AD27053F-F1DE-11E9-AE98-EF972B65E2E8?image=1; City of St Kilda rate books on Ancestry.com; Australian Dictionary of Biography - Hugh Glass - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/glass-hugh-3620
https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/AD27053F-F1DE-11E9-AE98-EF972B65E2E8?image=1; City of St Kilda rate books on Ancestry.com; Australian Dictionary of Biography - Hugh Glass - https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/glass-hugh-3620
(6) Map - Tennyson Estate, South St. Kilda, 1884. Crabb & Brotherton, Printers. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/295990
(7) The Age, November 17, 1884, see here.
(8) City of St Kilda rate books on Ancestry.com
(9) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a City and after, 1840 - 1930, v. 2 (City of St Kilda, 1931), p. 331.
(9) The Herald, August 22, 1912, see here.
Lindsay Estate, Elwood.
