Local Residential

Living Local: Jack

September 2024

4MIN READ

Jack is no stranger to inner-city living, having lived in both Northcote and North Fitzroy. After battling rising rents in Northcote, he and his partner moved into Kensington not long before Covid.

“I had a number of friends here and really liked the area. First, we lived on Rankins Rd before moving here to Macauley Rd. Kensington felt like home pretty quickly. We loved it from the beginning.”

There was so much to like about their new home.

For a start, he says, “Kensington is sleepy, and you know everyone well enough to say hi, but no-one sticks their nose into your business. It’s familiar without being uncomfortable.”

Jack points out that Kensington is almost the last of Melbourne’s inner-city neighbourhoods to retain its older-style charm: with inner-city living and atmosphere being pushed ever further out elsewhere, Kensington could be the last of the originals. This pocket of land, he points out, is bordered by the Maribyrnong River, Flemington Racecourse, the Tullamarine Freeway, and the container port. Contained within these natural boundaries, Kensington has been able to insulate itself from unchecked expansion and, to some extent, gentrification.

“You don’t go through Kensington unless you have to. Despite being only 3km from the city, it’s sort of nestled out of the way. And it’s not a destination like Fitzroy, where people from everywhere go there on the weekend. This is very much a local neighbourhood.” Warming to his theme, Jack describes Kensington as “a quiet little inner city pocket before suburbia takes over, leafy green, eclectic. It has a Northcote vibe,” he says. “Kensington has a similar vibe to Northcote. I call it Northcote Lite.”

Part of the appeal also comes from its compact size. “You don’t need a car if you live here. There are four train stations in Kensington. It’s a lovely walkable suburb, small and intimate, and you can walk or bike ride or scooter anywhere.

“Down the other end, JJ Holland Reserve is like a secret Edinburgh Gardens that only locals know about.”

The ability to walk everywhere extends beyond Kensington’s confines, drawing on the suburb’s proximity to all that’s good about Melbourne. “What you don’t have actually in Kensington, you have very close by, whether it’s Melbourne Uni, the CBD or Highpoint. Royal Park is a ten-minute walk away – that’s where I often walk my dog. We’re close to Melbourne Uni, close to RMIT, to Victoria University. I sometimes walk into the city. Nothing’s very far from here.”

Looking at Kensington with an architect’s eye, Jack sees things others don’t. “Kensington’s story can be told through its architecture: the schools and churches and fancier, larger properties on the hill; the smaller and cheaper cottages in the lower streets off Stubbs Road and closer to the former industrial areas; the workers’ cottages; the train lines that run direct to the warehouse and connect into the port; the urban renewal and development of the larger warehouse sites into apartments.” The suburb’s architecture is, he says, “a real microcosm of how Melbourne was established and has changed over the years”.

And Jack sees developments like Local: Kensington as very much a part of that evolving story. It’s almost as if the emerging Macauley Precinct, of which Local is a part, and the people who move in are the last, exciting pieces of the Kensington puzzle. It is, he says, a thrilling new axis, transforming what was once a largely industrial area into an entirely new neighbourhood hub.

“You have a great mix of old residential, old industrial and then newer developments injecting a bit of life and change,”

“It’s very similar to East Brunswick where, since its old industrial sites were developed, there are now so many people living there. It has created such a buzz with cool restaurants and bars along Nicholson and that end of Lygon St. It has created something special, and it could happen here.”