Editing Hoddle Grid (section)

{{Short description|Layout of the Melbourne central business district}}
{{Use Australian English|date=March 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
[[File:Melbourne city centre aerial.jpg|thumb|Aerial view of the city centre looking east. The [[Yarra River]] is on the right and the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] is in the background.]]
[[File:Satellite image of Melbourne at night.jpg|thumb|Satellite image of Melbourne at night, showing the [[grid plan]] of its major roads and streets.]]
The '''Hoddle Grid''' is the contemporary name given to the approximately {{convert|1.61|x|0.80|km|adj=on}}  grid of streets that form the [[Melbourne central business district]], Australia. Bounded by [[Flinders Street, Melbourne|Flinders Street]], [[Spring Street, Melbourne|Spring Street]], [[La Trobe Street]], and [[Spencer Street]], it lies at an angle to the rest of the Melbourne suburban grid, and so is easily recognisable. It is named after the surveyor [[Robert Hoddle]], who marked it out in 1837 (to [[Lonsdale Street]], extended to La Trobe Street the next year), based on the city grid established in the first survey of Melbourne conducted by [[Robert Russell (architect)]] in 1836, establishing the first formal town plan. This grid of streets, laid out when there were only a few hundred settlers, became the nucleus for what is now Melbourne, a city of over five million people.