Prahran
Prahran (pronounced "pruh-RAN", also known colloquially as "Pran") is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Stonnington. At the 2011 Census, Prahran had a population of 11,191.
Prahran is a part of Greater Melbourne, with many shops, restaurants and cafes. The area of Prahran, centred along Commercial Road is one of Melbourne's gay villages.
The shopping street Chapel Street is a mix of upscale fashion boutiques and cafes. Greville Street, once the centre of the Melbourne's hippie community, has many cafés, bars, restaurants, bookstores, clothing shops and music shops.
Prahran takes its name from Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two aboriginal words, meaning "land partially surrounded by water", in 1837 by George Langhorne. The proximity of the Yarra River and a swamp to the southwest (Albert Park Lake is the remnant) explains that description.
History
In 1837 George Langhorne named the area Pur-ra-ran, a compound of two aboriginal words, meaning "land partially surrounded by water". When he informed the Surveyor-General Robert Hoddle of the name, it was written as "Prahran".
Between the 1890s and 1930s Prahran built up a huge shopping centre, which by the 1920s had rivalled the Melbourne Central Business District. Large emporiums (department stores) sprang up along Chapel Street. Prahran also became a major entertainment area. The Lyric theatre (also known as the fleahouse), built on the corner of Victoria Street in 1911, burnt down in the 1940s. The Royal was the second old theatre built. The Empress (also known as the flea palace[citation needed]), another popular theatre on Chapel Street, was destroyed by fire in 1971.[6] The site was operated by the cut-price clothes and homewares chain Waltons for the next decade and was later developed into the Chapel Street Bazaar.
In the 1960s, in an effort to boost the slowly growing local population and inject new life into the suburb, the Victorian Government opened the Prahran Housing Commission estate, just off Chapel Street, together with a larger estate, located just north in South Yarra. Further complementing the high rise developments was a low density development between Bangs and Bendigo Streets.
In the 1970s, the suburb began to gentrify, with much of the remaining old housing stock being renovated and restored. The area had a substantial Greek population and many took advantage of the rise in property values during the 1980s, paving the way for further development and a subsequent shift in demographics.
During the 1990s, the population increased markedly, with demand for inner-city living fuelling a medium-density housing boom, which continues in the area, as part of the Melbourne 2030 planning policy. It was during the 1990s that solidification of the area's homosexual community occurred. Many gay and gay-friendly businesses, including bars, clubs and bookstores can be found along Commercial Road, between Pran Central and the railway overpass.
