Little Lon district
Encyclopedia
Little Lon was the popular name for a slum
and red-light district
in Melbourne
, Australia.
The area was roughly bounded by Lonsdale Street
, Spring Street
, Stephen Street (later Exhibition Street
) and La Trobe Street
. Little Lonsdale Street
itself ran through the block, and the area was further divided by numerous narrow laneways. In the nineteenth century the area consisted of timber and brick cottages, shops and small factories and was home to an ethnically diverse and generally poor population. Today there are few reminders of the area's former notoriety.
. The numerous narrow back alleys and small cottages of this area housed, by this time, a growing number of prostitutes, The Argus
newspaper at the time complaining of "females of the lowest and most disreputable class, who pursued their calling with the lowest and most filthy language and conduct." Prostitution was linked with "larrikinism" in official reports, as in the following description of the corner of Little Lonsdale and Leichardt Street from 1882:
In 1891, Melbourne city's back slums were described by evangelist Henry Varley as "a loathsome centre in which crime, gambling hells, opium dens and degraded Chinese abound, and where hundred of licentious and horribly debased men and women are herded like swine". These places were "a disgrace to any civilized city on earth." Fergus Hume
's immensely popular The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
, written in 1887, described life in a slum in the nearby lanes behind Little Bourke Street
, as exposed by its middle class heroes. Writing in 1915, C. J. Dennis
's humorous novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
spoke of the "low, degraded broots" (brutes) of Little Lon.
Little Lon's most opulent brothels tended to face main streets, but were discreetly run. "Disorderly" or "low class" brothels tended to be in the narrower laneways behind. Tobacconists, confectionery, cigar and fruit shops in the area also sometimes acted as fronts for prostitution. In the small houses of the laneways, single or small groups of prostitutes also ran the most primitive cottage brothels. For example, the still extant Number 17 Casselden Place was operated by a single Chinese prostitute known as "Yokohama" (Tiecome Ah Chung) as late as the 1920s.
"Madam Brussels"
, facing Lonsdale Street, attracted a wealthy class of clientele, and consequently also greater notoriety, although prostitution itself was not illegal in 19th century Victoria. In 1878 a Select Committee Report on the Prevention of Contagious Diseases included the following evidence about Madam Brussel's brothel at 32-34 Lonsdale Street, from Sergeant James Dalton:
Madam Brussels was far from the only elite brothel in the area. In 1867 Police Commissioner Standish introduced the visiting Prince Alfred
, Duke of Edinburgh, to a brothel run in Stephen Street by Sarah Fraser. Other "orderly" brothels also included those of "Scotch Maude" and Biddy O’Connor.
In October 1891, the mace
of the Victorian parliament was stolen. It was claimed that it had found its way to Annie Wilson's "Boccaccio House", in the Little Lon district, where it was supposedly used in a mock parliament. It was not recovered. The connection between Victoria's politicians and the brothels of Little Lon was reinforced when Chief Secretary Sir Samuel Gillott
was revealed to have had ongoing financial dealings with Madam Brussels.
's The Truth being particularly vocal in its attacks, especially on Madam Brussels, the "queen of harlotry." Workshops and small factories increasingly took over the area. Many of the hotels and brothels were gradually being demolished and "prostitutes found themselves forced into... areas such as Gore Street and the notorious 'Narrows' around the Fitzroy Town Hall" Policemen had greater powers and prostitutes were subject to new laws. Around 1914, the buildings between 6 and 34 Lonsdale street, including Madam Brussels former brothel (which had closed in 1907) were demolished and replaced by small factories.
However, people continued to live in the area until the 1950s, when much of the district was compulsorily acquired for redevelopment by the Federal Government. In the early 1990s, a former resident of the Little Lon district was interviewed. Marie Hayes lived in her parent's home in Cumberland Place (in the northern half of the district) until she married in 1940. Of Little Lon she said
Several other buildings in the district have been redeveloped or incorporated into modern office blocks.
These include
Major archeological digs were conducted in the area in 1988 and 2002. Many of the objects uncovered are on display at Museum Victoria in a recreated "Little Lon" streetscape.
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
and red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia.
The area was roughly bounded by Lonsdale Street
Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Lonsdale Street is located in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid, it runs roughly east-west. Lonsdale Street's eastern end intersects with Spring Street while its western end intersects with Spencer Street. It is home to multiple office buildings, courts,...
, Spring Street
Spring Street, Melbourne
Spring Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly north-south, and is the easternmost street in the Hoddle Grid. The street travels from Flinders Street in the south, to La Trobe Street and the Carlton Gardens in the north...
, Stephen Street (later Exhibition Street
Exhibition Street, Melbourne
Exhibition Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. The street is named after the World Heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building, which is located in the Carlton Gardens.- Geography :...
) and La Trobe Street
La Trobe Street, Melbourne
La Trobe Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly from east to west and forms the northern boundary of the CBD ....
. Little Lonsdale Street
Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Little Lonsdale Street is located in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. A part of the Hoddle Grid, it runs roughly east-west. North of Lonsdale Street and south of La Trobe Street, Little Lonsdale Street's eastern end intersects with Spring Street while its western end intersects with...
itself ran through the block, and the area was further divided by numerous narrow laneways. In the nineteenth century the area consisted of timber and brick cottages, shops and small factories and was home to an ethnically diverse and generally poor population. Today there are few reminders of the area's former notoriety.
Prostitution, petty crime and larrikinism
Archaeologist Justin McCarthy suggests that by 1854, only twenty years after Melbourne was established as a city, the area was well established as a notorious "red light" and slum district. It was associated with prostitution, petty crime and larrikinismLarrikinism
Larrikinism is the name given to the Australian folk tradition of irreverence, mockery of authority and disregard for rigid norms of propriety. Larrikinism can also be associated with self-deprecating humour.- Etymology :...
. The numerous narrow back alleys and small cottages of this area housed, by this time, a growing number of prostitutes, The Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
newspaper at the time complaining of "females of the lowest and most disreputable class, who pursued their calling with the lowest and most filthy language and conduct." Prostitution was linked with "larrikinism" in official reports, as in the following description of the corner of Little Lonsdale and Leichardt Street from 1882:
In 1891, Melbourne city's back slums were described by evangelist Henry Varley as "a loathsome centre in which crime, gambling hells, opium dens and degraded Chinese abound, and where hundred of licentious and horribly debased men and women are herded like swine". These places were "a disgrace to any civilized city on earth." Fergus Hume
Fergus Hume
Fergusson Wright Hume, known as Fergus Hume was an English novelist.-Early life:Hume was born in England, the second son of Dr. James Hume. At the age of three years his father emigrated with his family to Dunedin, New Zealand. He attended Otago Boys' High School and studied law at the University...
's immensely popular The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a mystery fiction novel by English writer Fergus Hume. The book was first published in Australia in 1886. Set in Melbourne, the story focuses on the investigation of a homicide involving a body discovered in a hansom cab, as well as an exploration into the social...
, written in 1887, described life in a slum in the nearby lanes behind Little Bourke Street
Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Little Bourke Street in Melbourne's CBD runs roughly east–west within the Hoddle Grid. It is a one-way street heading in a westward direction...
, as exposed by its middle class heroes. Writing in 1915, C. J. Dennis
C. J. Dennis
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", published in the early 20th century...
's humorous novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian novelist and poet C. J. Dennis. The book sold over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year, and is probably one of the highest selling verse novels ever published in Australia....
spoke of the "low, degraded broots" (brutes) of Little Lon.
Little Lon's most opulent brothels tended to face main streets, but were discreetly run. "Disorderly" or "low class" brothels tended to be in the narrower laneways behind. Tobacconists, confectionery, cigar and fruit shops in the area also sometimes acted as fronts for prostitution. In the small houses of the laneways, single or small groups of prostitutes also ran the most primitive cottage brothels. For example, the still extant Number 17 Casselden Place was operated by a single Chinese prostitute known as "Yokohama" (Tiecome Ah Chung) as late as the 1920s.
"Madam Brussels"
Caroline Hodgson
Caroline Hodgson , also known as Madame Brussels, was a well-known brothel proprietor and local identity of the Little Lon district in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, during the late 19th century.-Life:...
, facing Lonsdale Street, attracted a wealthy class of clientele, and consequently also greater notoriety, although prostitution itself was not illegal in 19th century Victoria. In 1878 a Select Committee Report on the Prevention of Contagious Diseases included the following evidence about Madam Brussel's brothel at 32-34 Lonsdale Street, from Sergeant James Dalton:
Madam Brussels was far from the only elite brothel in the area. In 1867 Police Commissioner Standish introduced the visiting Prince Alfred
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
, Duke of Edinburgh, to a brothel run in Stephen Street by Sarah Fraser. Other "orderly" brothels also included those of "Scotch Maude" and Biddy O’Connor.
In October 1891, the mace
Ceremonial mace
The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon...
of the Victorian parliament was stolen. It was claimed that it had found its way to Annie Wilson's "Boccaccio House", in the Little Lon district, where it was supposedly used in a mock parliament. It was not recovered. The connection between Victoria's politicians and the brothels of Little Lon was reinforced when Chief Secretary Sir Samuel Gillott
Samuel Gillott
Sir Samuel Gillott was an Australian lawyer and politician, commonly known as a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne.-Early life:...
was revealed to have had ongoing financial dealings with Madam Brussels.
Understanding the people of Little Lon
Recent writers have emphasized the vibrancy and complexity of Little Lon's population of migrants and itinerant workers, and challenged the stereotype of the area as a miserable slum. This also seems to have been born out by the major archaeological studies conducted in the area in 1988 and 2002, which discovered a wide variety of objects from abandoned cesspits and rubbish dumps. Many were typical of domestic use in the nineteenth century, but a number gave indications of a flourishing community and occasionally, prosperity. Dr. Alan Mayne has commented; "Little Lon was clearly not, as the slummer genre would have it, an unstable mishmash of listless and directionless deviants. Nor were its inhabitants passive victims to poverty." By the end of the nineteenth century, the area had become home to a diverse migrant population of Chinese, German Jews, Lebanese and Italians.Changes in the early twentieth century
Leanne Robinson comments that in the early twentieth century the Little Lon district began to change significantly. Newspapers had increasingly demanded a clean up of the area, John NortonJohn Norton
John Norton may refer to:*John Norton, 5th Baron Grantley , British peer and numismatist*John Norton , Victorian Gothic revivalist, remodelled Tyntesfield*John Norton , Olympic medalist...
's The Truth being particularly vocal in its attacks, especially on Madam Brussels, the "queen of harlotry." Workshops and small factories increasingly took over the area. Many of the hotels and brothels were gradually being demolished and "prostitutes found themselves forced into... areas such as Gore Street and the notorious 'Narrows' around the Fitzroy Town Hall" Policemen had greater powers and prostitutes were subject to new laws. Around 1914, the buildings between 6 and 34 Lonsdale street, including Madam Brussels former brothel (which had closed in 1907) were demolished and replaced by small factories.
However, people continued to live in the area until the 1950s, when much of the district was compulsorily acquired for redevelopment by the Federal Government. In the early 1990s, a former resident of the Little Lon district was interviewed. Marie Hayes lived in her parent's home in Cumberland Place (in the northern half of the district) until she married in 1940. Of Little Lon she said
The area today
In the northern half of the district, all buildings and streets were demolished in the late 1950s to make way for Commonwealth buildings.Today, only a few nineteenth century buildings survive in the southern half of the area. These include- 17 Casselden Place, a former house built in 1877. Typical of cottages built in the mid nineteenth century and originally one of a terrace of six. This is the only nineteenth century single story dwelling in the area to survive.
- Oddfellows Hotel, built c.1853 at 35-9 Little Lonsdale Street. Although now a licensed premises, this building has had a number of uses, including a Chinese furniture maker's factory.
- Black Eagle Hotel built c.1850 at 42-4 Lonsdale Street, now a shop.
- Factory at 25 Little Lonsdale Street. A former shop and forge, built about 1868 for engineer Alexander Lugton. This is one of few surviving examples of the small businesses that operated in the area in the nineteenth century. The company expanded in the late nineteenth century and eventually took over a number of buildings in the district.
- Elms Family Hotel, on the corner of Spring Street and Little Lonsdale Street. This is the only commercial business in the area that has operated continuously on the same spot in the district since the mid nineteenth century, although the building has been remodeled.
- Church of England Mission building, next to the Elms Family Hotel, one of a number built in the district by Church missions to cater for local residents.
- 118-162 Little Lonsdale Street, 100 metres west of the area. A small streetscape of former shops and dwellings between Exploration lane and Bennetts Lane, that most resembles the Little Lon of the nineteenth century.
Several other buildings in the district have been redeveloped or incorporated into modern office blocks.
These include
- "P.N.Hong Nam" Building at 268 Exhibition Street. This was built as a factory and shop c.1910.
- "Khyat and Co" Building at 76 Lonsdale Street. Built as a factory in 1922.
- "Coopers Hotel" at 282 Exhibition Street. Originally built as a hotel for James Cooper in the 1850s, but later delicensed. The building served as a Mission building, a home for girls, and later a post office before being reopened as a hotel.
Major archeological digs were conducted in the area in 1988 and 2002. Many of the objects uncovered are on display at Museum Victoria in a recreated "Little Lon" streetscape.
External links
- Alan Mayne et al.(c.1996) Museum of Victoria webpages on Little Lon
- Alan Mayne Little Lon at emelbourne.net.au
- Jeremy Smith (2004) Unearthing the secrets of Little Lon