Columns » East Melbourne Historical Society

The Dewdrop Fountain, Fitzroy Gardens

June 2nd, 2026 - Sylvia Black

On a piece of flattish ground near the Gipps St and Clarendon St corner of the Fitzroy Gardens and directly in line with Bishopscourt there once stood a rather impressive fountain.

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The Servants Training Institute

April 1st, 2026 - Sylvia Black

On the western side of Berry St, East Melbourne, there once stood a large red brick building known as the Servants’ Training Institute.

The Fitzroy and East Melbourne Bowling Club

February 4th, 2026 - Sylvia Black

In Fitzroy in 1865 the idea of a local bowling club finally came to fruition. A committee was elected. The name was confirmed as the Fitzroy Bowling Club and rules were put in place.

The changing face of Darling Square

November 4th, 2025 - Sylvia Black

In the time before white settlement the area around what we know as Darling Square in East Melbourne was swampland and was a source of plentiful foodstuffs enjoyed by the local Wurundjeri people.

Policing East Melbourne

September 3rd, 2025 - Sylvia Black

In 1883 the Police Department rented a house on a wide block of land in Darling St, East Melbourne. This house would become the residence of the sergeant-in-charge of the new police station.

James Sinclair and his cottage

July 2nd, 2025 - Sylvia Black

In the centre of the Fitzroy Gardens is a cottage almost invisible behind its overgrown garden but it is an interesting little house and worth a more careful look.

An interesting sidelight on the changing demographic of Melbourne in the years after the Second World War was the decision to relocate the existing City Free Kindergarten in Exhibition St (on the corner of Little Lonsdale St) to Powlett Reserve in East Melbourne.