Book description
Tom Roberts' famous depiction of Bourke Street in the summer of
1885-86, just before the introduction of tramlines, sets the scene for this
board historical view of the street life of Melbourne.
Andrew Brown-May invites today's Melburnians to walk the streets of their
city, imagine the everyday past, and see their urban landscape with new
eyes.
For the author, as for the artist, the street is an organising frame for
crowds, for the diverse, ever-changing throng of the rich and the
down-and-out, of busy passers-by, shoppers, idlers, hawkers, cabbies,
entertainers, custodians, law-breakers, beggars, prostitutes, street-urchins
and larrikins.
The site of proud architecture and many public facilities and services such
as street lights, seating, lavatories, trees, power-lines and sewers, the
street also has its hazards - traffic, animals, assault, falling buildings,
fire. The street is the stage of ritual, procession and protest, and
over history its role as a fundamental public place has been helped
and hindered by social protocols, cultural stereotypes, and a range of
regulatory urges.
Original and vital in subject and tone, and based on award-winning research, Melbourne Street Life is a rich commentary on the growth and
transformation of a great Australian city.
About the author
Andrew Brown-May grew up in Melbourne and was educated at
Melbourne University. In 1994, his doctoral thesis was awarded the
American Urban History Association's prize for the best international
dissertation. He popularises Melbourne's history through public
lectures, heritage walks and radio commentary, and writes on urban and
social history, biography, gender studies, and aspects of colonial
scientific inquiry. He is the Director and Co-Editor of the
Encyclopaedia of Melbourne Project in the History Department of Monash
University.
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