Robert Hoddle's grid and the birth of Melbourne
(Matteo Colombo/ Getty Images)
The city of Melbourne's distinctive grid design was carefully laid out by Robert Hoddle, following strict regulations, in 1837. After 150 years of redevelopment, trams, and laneways, Matt Smith is joined by architectural historian Miles Lewis to see how Hoddle’s grid has fared.
When Robert Hoddle came to the shores of the Yarra River in 1837 there was little to greet him besides an illegal settlement of colonists who had come over from Launceston. He led a team that would map out the foundation for a new city, following the regulations laid out in 1829 under the previous governor, Ralph Darling.
Miles Lewis, a professor of architectural history at the University of Melbourne, has been studying cities and how they work for years. He says that the regulations had much more to do with Melbourne’s design than direction from Hoddle.
[Governor] Bourke had different ideas, and he wanted to have small streets, so Melbourne has the lanes—Flinders Lane, Little Collins Street and so on—which are not part of the New South Wales conception.Miles Lewis, University of Melbourne
'When Robert Hoddle comes with Governor Bourke, he set the grid out not north-south, east-west as you might expect, but more or less parallel to the river, which was a convenient thing to do,’ he says.
‘The assumption always was that you'd survey in a rectangular fashion. People often speak about the surveyors being unimaginative, but it's just the logical way to do it.’
The city was almost named Batmania as decreed by its original founder and local explorer, John Batman. However, it eventually took the name of then British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and the resulting crosspatch of city design has become known as the Hoddle Grid. It is a layout that has persisted to this day. Lewis puts the careful, sensible order of Melbourne down to its late start.
‘Surveyors all really aspire to rectangular grids,’ he says. ‘Sydney differs only because it was founded before these regulations became firm. It was a mess before any freehold land was sold, and so was Hobart. Whereas Melbourne, anybody buying land had to be sure of their boundaries, had to conform to the government regulations, therefore we were much more regular.’
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‘In fact, one of the conditions of the first sale was you had to build a substantial brick building on the site. So unlike early Australian settlements, once the land was sold, suddenly substantial buildings began to grow up. Melbourne grew up like an instantaneous city as a result.’
Hoddle followed the regulations of the time closely. All surveys would be exactly 10 chain square blocks, a chain being around 20 metres in length. This land was subdivided into 20 half-acre allotments, with streets being two chains wide. The only alteration to the design was put in by Governor Bourke.
‘Bourke had different ideas, and he wanted to have small streets,’ says Lewis. ‘So Melbourne has the lanes—Flinders Lane, Little Collins Street and so on—which are not part of the New South Wales conception.’
‘What was interesting was that after Governor Bourke had left and Hoddle remained surveying, he gradually changed the survey practice to get rid of those lanes. So in East Melbourne the lanes were widened out to become streets, so there is no longer a sense of there being lanes: a typical way a public servant resists instructions from above.’
As Melbourne grew through times of gold rush, war and federation, the city changed. The orientation of the city, originally conforming to Hoddle’s grid to follow the alignment of the river, changed to follow a standard ‘north-south orientation’. This resulted in a kink in the city design, with dog-leg curves towards the ends of Elizabeth St and Swanston St.
Extra north-south laneways were added to facilitate sewerage and waste disposal. Skyscrapers replaced residential cottages and slums, and the city sprawled outwards. Trams now clank down the streets where there were once only horses.
Lewis believes that while the design of Melbourne has coped well with the development of a large city, high-rise buildings have never been a natural fit for the grid structure.
‘Even now, the town hall is on a corner site and doesn't work very well. To get a public building effective you've got to have it set back for a whole block length, so you feel it was designed originally. Private designers have not responded very well to the constraints of the grid.’
Hoddle was eventually given the task of auctioning off parcels of land on the grid he designed. With his commission he brought two blocks himself, at the cost of £54. He used one of these plots to build his retirement house at the corner of Bourke and Spencer streets, where he lived out his days in the grid that now bears his name.
Matt Smith is a freelance journalist working in marvellous Melbourne. You can follow him on Twitter: @nightlightguy.
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