Ruby Tuesday

Yesterday I met friends for lunch in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy and it was the perfect place to find red stuff for Ruby Tuesday.


Like Abbotsford from a couple of weeks ago, Fitzroy is also an inner city suburb ... even closer to the city than Abbotsford. To put it into context Fitzroy is only a 20 minute walk from work ... it would take about an hour to walk to Abbotsford.

Fitzroy is Melbourne's smallest suburb in term of area ... it's approx 100 hectares in size. Fitzroy was also planned as Melbourne's first suburb in 1839.

There are some impressive shops along Gertrude St. I particularly liked this building with flats above, although it's now has been converted to a boarding house. Those little red squares you can see on the first floor balcony are bathrooms.


The area was surrounded by factories and industrial sites in adjoining suburbs, working class homes were built during the 1860s to 1880s. Somehow or other I managed to switch my camera on to B&W (who knows how) but this is one of the earliest homes in and the oldest on Gertrude Street (and you'll just have imagine the red lidded bin outside).


Despite being such an established suburb Fitzroy was always primarily a working class suburb, although it's undergone waves of both urban renewal and gentrification since the 1950s. At some stage around the 1970s, many of the working class homes were knocked down and those awful multi-storey monstrosities came into being. Fitzroy wasn't the only suburb to suffer fromthis particular problem ... but the flats in Fitzroy are the closest to the city.

Many of the buildings along Gertrude Street are original ... with less of the shop modernisations (like new windows) that have happened in Abbotsford. I think that's one of the things I really like about Fitzroy. This is a good example of the lack of sprucing up in the area ... a hairdresser in what looks like original condition from the 1950s.


And another of the shops I remember from the 1980s (at least) is this costume hire place with loads of red in the window ... and can you see the bike with red plastic milk crate. Double red whammy!


Fitzroy is the centre for Melbourne's Aborigines, with a number of services in the area. The Melbourne Aborginal Youth Sport and Recreation centre ... across the road from where we were lunching.


... and located in this unrenovated building.


And Melbourne's only Aboriginal restaurant Charcoal Lane is located in Gertrude Street. It's located in what was a bank from the 1850s and it has the most delightful outside eating area ... with gorgeous red and yellow tables and wooden benches. It's one of the places on our long list of eateries to try.


But the area is starting to change and there are lots of examples of gentrification and yuppies moving in ... ooops, I guess that's me!

Funky hair dressing salons ... with cute names.


Hand crafted items.


Interesting shops.


Amazing and avant garde jewellery.


Snazzy boutiques ... with trendy clothing.


And my favourite type of store with the most appropriate name ... of course, vintage clothing.


Do you like red stuff as much as me ... visit Mary at Work of the Poet for more glorious redness.