GlenHuntly & Thereabouts

Yesterday morning I felt green with envy as I wandered down Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.   It is such a hub of activity.  Still small but absolutely delightful with its spirit for embracing history and modern combined.

Where once an aged Coles stood back off the street with a car park in front, the developers have replaced the tired buildings with a large vibrant shopping mall.  Remarkably similar to what Glen Huntly Progress Group had envisioned for Glen Huntly a few years ago.

Full of optimistic naivety I thought that Council had merely overlooked Glen Huntly’s potential but for some reason never  established, Councillors elected to represent our interests had no interest in us at all.   Glen Huntly has remained off the map for political or commercial reasons which remain a mystery.

Getting back to the potential put into action: South Melbourne and St Kilda combined:

Footpaths were full of clutter and lived in with a sense of vibrancy Glen Eira residents could only envy, rather like Springvale but different smells altogether….Not much herbs and spices, so much as flowers and scents…..

Everything was available from covered carpark, large Coles supermarket, chemist, bakery, florist, collectable furniture, bookshop, the obligatory hairdresser and nail attendants, post office, whites good store, CDs & Videos,  hotels,  bags, clothes and shoes.  A clean uncluttered Op Shop was a bonus, as was the clean public toilet (unfortunately built upstairs so I don’t know what handicapped or the frail elderly would do) perhaps there were others close by.   Real restaurants and the odd take away, the rich and the poor were equally catered for.   Everywhere people sat outside in the sunshine socializing with each other.   Having lived close by and worked there many years ago, I loved being able to see the old and the new blend together without any loss of character.    What was particularly appealing was the diversity of goods and services available.

The veranda over the revamped side of Clarendon Street had skylights at its highest point so that the footpath remained sunny and shop windows light and open to the public.   Very, very inviting! And at the same time, the older style had been retained on the other side of the street but blending all together beautifully.   It shows what common sense can do with a mind that is open to new possibilities.

Parking on the street was only available for one hour but of course, we just walked a distance up one side and down the other over a two hour period instead.

Coming back down Inkerman Street, St Kilda, I made a point of looking at the planning of Aldi’s recently opened store within the past year.   The store is built on the street level taking up a large frontage, with three storeys of flats built above and set back off the main street quite some metres.   Behind the first block of three flats there is a space which allows daylight to come into the back of the units as well, probably with car spacing there as well for residents and then behind that is a further block of units built along the same lines.

I cannot see anything wrong with building four storey buildings the length of Glen Huntly Road which is serviced by a tram for its length and meets up with two stations, Elsternwick and Glen Huntly.

Melbourne 2030 has its merit and people, I sometimes think,  would do well to look at its possibilities.    The reason why Clarendon Street and Inkerman Street work, is because the developers planned for the comfort of its users.  The building designs are good, making the best use of limited land.   Aldi is surrounded by many small wooden houses to some extent, given they’re over a hundred years old, they too will perish in time.   My very first job as a “sweet young thing” was as the office junior in the foundry, Galliers and Klaerr Pty Ltd once situated on that site.    Mr Klaerr owned at least 25 houses in the area and left most of his (unmarried) wealth to the Catholic Church.

Even then, in the late ’50s,  the foundry had been there for so many years the rats used to eat the telephone books over the weekend, and my cash used to come from the counter in one of those screwed in money containers that went flying down the passageway to my desk in the office….…..This is change, and sometimes it can be for the better.

That building had lots of character, but you wouldn’t want to work in it or retain it for historical reason in the same way dirty unkempt houses and buildings are not necessarily worthy today of being salvaged…

I had hoped Aldi would find a home in Glen Eira and thought perhaps the old BBC site in East Bentleigh would accommodate my hopes, but unfortunately it is to be another IGA ( Independent Grocers Assoc)  of which GE already have a few.    Unfortunately,  they are more expensive than Aldi,

Perhaps if Glen Huntly is ever to become a Major Activity Centre a second food market would offer choice and it could well be Aldi.