Hoddle Grid

Schematic plan of Hoddle's allotments for the village of Melbourne, March,1837
Robert Hoddle's survey of the town of Melbourne in 1837.
Trees surrounded by buildings, King Street
Each "block" was further subdivided into 20 allotments, each 1920 m2 (76 perches) in area
Aerial view of the city centre looking east. The Yarra River is on the right and the MCG is visible in the background.

The Hoddle Grid is the contemporary name given to the approximately 1 x 1/2 mile grid of streets that form the commonly understood central business district of Melbourne. Bounded by Flinders Street, Spring Street, La Trobe Street, and Spencer Street, it lies at an angle to the rest of the Melbourne suburban grid, and so is easily recognisable. It is named after the surveyor Robert Hoddle, who marked it out in 1837 (to Lonsdale Street, extended to La Trobe Street the next year), establishing the first formal town plan. This grid of streets, laid out when there were only a few hundred settlers, became the nucleus for what is now a city of over 4 million people, the city of Melbourne.

History

The first surveyed town grid of Melbourne was laid down by Robert Hoddle when he arrived in early 1837 with New South Wales Governor Bourke in order to regularise the fledgling unauthorised settlement.[1] The unusual dimensions of the allotments and the incorporation of narrow 'little' streets were the result of compromise between Hoddle's desire to employ the regulations established by Governor Darling in 1829, with square blocks and wide streets, and Bourke's desire for rear access ways (now the 'little' streets).[2]

The placement of this regulation grid was determined firstly by the fact that the fledgling settlement was centred there, near a natural basin, just below a rocky outcrop known as 'the falls', above which the water was usually fresh, and below which was the furthest ships could sail up the then meandering course of the river. It was placed to run roughly parallel to the course of the Yarra River, with its western half closest to the 'falls' and a basin, and spanned the area between the small hills (knolls) of (Batman's Hill to the west, Flagstaff Hill to the north and Eastern Hill).[3] Elizabeth Street, Melbourne in the centre of the grid coincided with the lowest point and roughly paralleld an existing gully and has therefore been prone to flooding.

The streets were surveyed at 99ft wide (30m) and the blocks 10 chains (200m) square (as per Darling's Regulations[4]), but at Governor Bourke's insistence, 'little streets' were inserted east west through the middle of the blocks to allow for rear carriage entry. These were to be 33ft, but Bourke's suggestion of making the main streets narrower was resisted by Hoddle, leaving them as surveyed, the end result making the allotments smaller than usual. As per the regulations, the area around the grid was reserved for future expansion or government purposes, and some blocks and allotments were held back from sale and were allocated for government use, public buildings and churches. [5]

Robert Hoddle remained the Surveyor for the district, and laid out all the surrounding subdivisions in a north south east west grid, excepting the area between La Trobe Street and Victoria Street, which is sometimes included in the 'Hoddle Grid', and is usually officially included in the CBD.

This has meant that the original grid sits clearly separately on any map at a marked angle, and is easily recognised on any map. Most inhabitants of Melbourne know all the streets of the Hoddle Grid by name, and in which order they occur in order to find their way about the city.


Use of the Phrase

The term 'Hoddle Grid' emerged in common use only in the 21st century. While it has long been well known that Robert Hoddle laid out the central grid of streets most commonly referred to as 'the City', it was not traditionally named after him. In the 19th and early 20th Century the focus was more on Collins Street, the grandest thoroughfare, with the most expensive and exclusive buildings along its length, while the western and northern edges particularly comprised unremarkable low rise residential and light industrial development.

By the 1950s the phrase 'Golden Mile' comes into use, describing Collins Street itself.[6] [7]

The Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme Report, published by the Board of Works in 1954 refers to the area as 'The Central Business Area' [8]

The phrase 'CBD' or Central Business District appears in the 1960s, probably within the publication of the 'Borrie Report' in 1964, and the subsequent Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme, enacted in 1968. CBD is still the most common phrase to refer to the central grid area of Melbourne.

Official planning strategies in the 1980s and 90s did not use the phrase 'Hoddle Grid'; for instance the State Government's "Central Melbourne : Framework for the Future", published December 1984, identifies it as 'the formal city grid' (p25), while the City of Melbourne's 'Grids and Greenery' published 1987, picks out the skewed grid of streets in various graphics, but only names it as 'the city centre'.

More recently the Encyclopedia of Melbourne, published in book form in 2005, and online in 2008, calls it the "City Grid', while another entry on Roads, describing the wider subdivision of Melbourne, calls the central area 'the Hoddle grid'.[9]

The phrase appears in The Age newspaper as early as 2002. [10]

Specifications

All major streets are one and half chains (99 ft or 30 m) in width, while all blocks are exactly 10 chains square (10 acres, 201 m × 201 m). The total dimensions, including widths of streets, are thus 93.5 chains (1880m) by 47.5 chains (955m). The grid's longest axis is oriented 70 degrees clockwise from true north, to align better with the course of the Yarra River. The majority of Melbourne is oriented at 8 degrees clockwise from true north - noting that magnetic north was 8.05° E in 1900, increasing to 11.7° E in 2009.[11]

East-west streets

Parallel to the Yarra River:

1 One-way westbound, except two-way between Market and Spencer Streets
2 One-way westbound, except two-way between King and Spencer Streets
3 One-way westbound
4 One-way eastbound

North-south streets

Perpendicular to the Yarra River:

1 Runs only between Flinders and Collins Streets, and is the single major deviation from the Grid.

A ~180 degree panoramic image of the Melbourne's Hoddle Grid roughly centered on the easterly direction; the original CBD (or "the city"). Southbank is on the right side (south). Photographed from the Rialto Observation Deck

Hoddle Mile Grid

Robert Hoddle also established a separate grid at one mile spacing for sixty miles or so around Melbourne. This cadastral survey determined the orientation of most roads and older subdivisions in the suburbs. The origin of the grid is now marked by a tall blue and yellow pole near where John Batman’s house was on Batman's Hill. The adopted direction for North was to the flagstaff at Flagstaff Gardens which was close to magnetic north in 1837.

See also

Australian Roads portal

References

  1. "Grid Plan". eMelbourne. School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 1 June 2017.
  2. Lewis, Miles (1995). Melbourne: The City's History and Development. Melbourne: City of Melbourne. pp. 25–29.
  3. Lewis, Miles (1995). Melbourne: The City's History and Development. Melbourne: City of Melbourne. pp. 25–29.
  4. Freestone, Robert (2010). Urban Nation: Australia's Planning Heritage. Csiro Publishing. p. 103. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  5. Lewis, Miles (1995). Melbourne:The City's History and Development. City of Melbourne. pp. 25–31.
  6. "Green Heart Plan in City". The Argus. 7 February 1956. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  7. "City has Glamour after Dark". The Argus. 19 February 1954. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  8. "Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954: Report". Policy and Strategy - Planning for Melbourne. DELWP. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  9. Lay, M.G. "Roads". Encyclopaedia of Melbourne. School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  10. Millar, Royce (6 July 2002). "The well-heeled, sterile city blues". The Age. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  11. Magnetic Declination

Coordinates: 37°48′51″S 144°57′47″E / 37.81417°S 144.96306°E / -37.81417; 144.96306

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