Victoria Street, Melbourne

Victoria Street was reserved as a government road in 1839. The road was originally called Simpson's Road after a magistrate who constructed a small footpath and road in 1843.[7] The street was renamed Victoria Street in the 1850s in honour of Queen Victoria's popularity and her namesake colony.[7] Though not part of the original Hoddle Grid, it was included as a thoroughfare in Hoddle's Mile extension.

The street originally formed the boundary between the former cities (now suburbs) of Collingwood and Richmond, and as such did not feature many grand or civic buildings, though it does now feature numerous properties on the Victorian Heritage Register.[8] The western end of the street became a shopping centre for present-day Abbotsford and North Richmond in the 19th century, lined by predominantly double-storey terrace shops. The eastern end of the street was an industrial area comprising engineering factories and wool scouring industry.[7]

During the economic boom in the 1880s many of the buildings along Victoria Street were reconstructed and in 1884, the bridge over the Yarra River was built. This stimulated the subdivision of land at the end of Victoria Street and made it more easily accessible than by using the former ferry service between the river banks. In 1886 a cable car tram line was installed at the eastern end of the street. This was subsequently converted into an electric tramway in 1929.[7]

During the middle of the 20th century the importance of the street declined, however the area has been revitalised in more recent years as the shopping and community focus for some of Melbourne's South-East Asian migrants.[7]

The Victoria Street Gateway erected to recognise the cultural contribution of Vietnamese refugees

The eastern stretch of Victoria Street (between Hoddle and Burnley Streets) is known colloquially as 'Little Saigon' or 'Little Vietnam'.[9] This is due to the influx of migrants to the surrounding area following the Vietnam War, and the subsequent development of Vietnamese businesses during the 1980s.[10] This stretch of Victoria Street has become famous as an Asian grocery and restaurant precinct with Japanese, Korean and Thai options alongside the longer-standing Vietnamese establishments.

On 16 January 2014, a culturally-themed gateway was installed at the intersection of Victoria Street and Hoddle Street to recognise "the cultural contributions that have established Victoria Street's reputation as a bustling and diverse retail and dining strip."[11]

A Lunar Festival celebrating Tết, the Vietnamese New Year festival of the Lunar calendar, has been held in the Little Saigon stretch of Victoria Street since 1994.[12] The street is closed to traffic and many food and culture stalls, live performances and events line the section of road between Hoddle Street and Church Street.

Victoria Street (and Victoria Parade) was signed as Metropolitan Route 32 between Carlton and Kew in 1965, diverging from Victoria Parade to run through the city along Latrobe, Adderley and Dudley Streets to Docklands. It was re-routed to run further west along Victoria Street, turning south and west along Peel and Dudley Streets to Docklands instead in 1989.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004[13] granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Victoria Street (Arterial #5082), between Dryburgh and King Streets in North Melbourne and between Peel Street in North Melbourne and Nicholson Street in Carlton,[2] as Victoria Parade (Arterial #5083) between Nicholson Street in Carlton and Hoddle Street at Abbotsford,[4] and as Victoria Street (Arterial #5948), beginning at Hoddle Street at Abbotsford and ending at Barkers Road in Richmond.[3]