st kilda - where classes collide...

i've mostly lived around Balaclava and East St Kilda - West St Kilda is a 'new' experience - such incredibly wide streets, beautiful grand mansions, stunning architecture...

i'm surrounded by wealth, but also by extreme poverty... i'm definitely not wealthy, nor am i extremely poor - i own nothing, i have no savings, i have debts, i work 4 days per week and earn around $25 per hour - some weeks i can afford to buy 'extras', some weeks i live frugally, depends on what bills need to be paid and whether they can be juggled (have i had the 'red' one yet?) - but i never cease to be amazed by what some possess, and saddened by what others lack.

the Gatwick is just around the corner from me... it's a magnificent old building, built in 1938, with walls that no doubt resonate with energy from bygone days - from the affluent and extravagant residents, to the desperately impoverished...

"History (from City of Port Phillip Heritage Review)

The Gatwick Private Hotel was constructed by 1938. It replaced a nineteenth century house known as 'Lockings’ that was occupied by members of the O’Donnell family in the early decades of the twentieth century. The O’Donnells owned both this property and the adjoining lot to the south-west.

In May of 1936 the subject property was sold to Margaret Carter who later that month transferred the property to ‘Maribeale Pty Ltd’ of 34 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda (Land Victoria 1). Sands & McDougall Directories show that in 1936 the house on this site was still listed as being occupied by the ‘Misses O’Donnell’.

In 1937 the notation is ‘Flats being built’ and by 1938 the Gatwick Private Hotel is listed at 34 Fitzroy Street along with Mrs L.M. Beale who presumably was the manager. As noted above, the Gatwick Private Hotel was one of the last of the substantial private hotels erected in St Kilda during the inter-war period that catered for a more up-market clientele.

During World War Two it provided accommodation for the U.S. armed forces when officers from Base Section Four headquarters at Port Melbourne, under the command of Colonel Galloway were billeted at the Prince of Wales Hotel (where an officer’s club was established), and at the Gatwick Hotel, which were both owned or managed at that stage by Edwin Jewell. According to Longmire (1989:122) both hotels were ‘highly regarded for the facilities they provided’. The Gatwick Hotel lacked a dining room so officers and their ‘female friends’ dined at the Prince of Wales where ‘the freezer was stacked with ice-cream and the pantry full of unprocurable goods’.

After WWII, standards at the Gatwick Private Hotel and other guest houses declined."


the Gatwick's popularity flourished and fluctuated along with the fortunes of the era and tenants - from private hotel ("highly regarded for the facilities they provided") to guest house, to boarding-house, which it still is, populated by vulnerable people with limited resources these days.

i see such desperation and sadness when i walk past on my way to and from work - it's a confronting, depressing way to start or finish the day... and in an area renowned for it's restaurants and eateries, inequity is glaringly obvious on a Wednesday night when you can find the St Kilda Food Van outside handing out much needed and appreciated sustenance...


such extremes... so many people with nowhere to go... such sadness... such desperation...

so many alcohol and drug affected people - such easy access to both - i was saddened to watch a young man sniffing glue the other day while i was waiting for a tram - the police arrived and spoke to him, then threw his bag and crap away, and when they left he just went and got it out of the rubbish bin and started all over again...

and then there's the very palpable violent undercurrent that inhabits the streets around here - some days the street 'vibe' is really threatening - it can be a frightening place...

i don't get that welcoming, 'homey' feel here - i feel vulnerable, unsafe, uncomfortable, and i don't want to live like that... will anywhere ever feel like home again... oooh, i'm possibly a bit melancholic at the moment... got an email from Brann friday, saw Louie saturday - trying to keep painful memories at bay... my life feels fragmented - my family is fragmented...

and here's another alison krauss and robert plant song...