Albert Park’s St Vincent Gardens is not just favourite spot for locals – it’s also a park of national cultural significance. Boasting beautiful mature trees, winding paths and lush gardens, the space is registered with the National Trust of Australia and is on the Victorian Heritage Register as “the best example of a residential square in Australia, remarkable for its nineteenth and early twentieth century attributes that provide the essential character of the precinct”.
Designed and developed in the 1850s and 60s by noted surveyor and engineer, Clement Hodgkinson, the gardens were influenced by similar spaces in London, though St Vincent Gardens are on a much grander scale. Bordered by St Vincent’s Place and Ferrars Street and bisected by Montague Street and the number 1 tram, they’re in the shape of a large rectangle with a semi-circular crescent at the Albert Park end.
An exclusive residential precinct
St Vincent Gardens are part of the St Vincent Place precinct, recognised by Heritage Victoria as being “of aesthetic, historical, architectural and social significance”. The special character of the area is due to the consistent quality of the homes that surround the gardens, which are mainly one and two storey terraces and detached houses.
Rochester Terrace, stretching from 33 to 51 St Vincent Place, dominates the streetscape. Build in the 1860s and 70s, it’s a group of ten ornate brick terraces originally created for builder and developer WP Buckhurst which have been lovingly maintained in near-original condition externally.
