Editing Prahran (section)

==History==
[[File:Chapel street prahran in 1889.jpg|thumb|left|[[Chapel Street, Melbourne|Chapel Street]] scene in 1889]]
[[File:The Prahran Telegraph.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Prahran Telegraph]]'' front page from April 1918]]
[[File:SouthYarra---Prahran-Market.jpg|thumb|[[Prahran Market]]]]
[[File:Prahran town hall.jpg|thumb|right|[[Prahran Town Hall]]]]
[[File:Prahran city hall and police station.jpg|thumb|right|Prahran City Hall]]

In 1837 George Langhorne named the area Pur-ra-ran, which was thought to be a compound of two Aboriginal words, meaning "land partially surrounded by water".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://stonnington.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/ARCENQ?RNI=1563367 |title=A commemoration by the City of Stonnington of the 150th Anniversary of the first meeting of the Prahran Council |date=27 February 2006 |publisher=City of Stonnington |pages=3}}</ref> The word has more recently been identified as a transcription of "Birrarung", the name for the [[Yarra River]] or a specific point of it.<ref name=ABC/> When Langhorne informed the Surveyor-General [[Robert Hoddle]] of the name, it was written as "Prahran".<ref name="Coopers">{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=John Butler |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofprahran00coop/mode/2up |title=The history of Prahran: from its first settlement to a city |publisher=Prahran Council |year=1912 |edition=1st |pages=8}}</ref>

Prahran Post Office opened on 1 April 1853.<ref name="PostOffice">{{Cite web | last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | access-date = 11 April 2008}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=February 2024}}

Describing Prahran, as it was in the mid 1850s, F. R. Chapman remembered:
{{cquote|In the very early times Chapel-street had many vacant spaces. On the west side, about the middle, a man could be seen ploughing his farm... and on the same side was a small brick church, or more probably a school-room used as a church, which was known as Mr Gregory's.<ref>{{cite journal | title = South Suburban Melbourne: 1854–1864. | journal = Victorian Historical Journal | date = 1917 | volume = 5 | issue = 20 | pages = 183| url = http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/117657 | access-date = 25 September 2013}}</ref>}}

[[File:Chapel street prahran 1906.jpg|thumb|[[Chapel Street, Melbourne|Chapel Street]] scene c1915. The large building second from the right between Read's Store and the Love & Lewis building was the [[Charles Moore and Co.]] department store (built 1903-1906 prior to the construction of Read's Emporium)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242048695 |title=Romance of Business |newspaper=[[The Herald (Melbourne)|The Herald]] |issue=10,392 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 February 1909 |accessdate=25 January 2024 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> which was demolished in the 1960s to make way for single storey carpark.]]

The '''Prahran Brotherhood''' (1910–1919) was a men-only pressure group aiming at raising the status of the district.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119783647 |title=Packerism |newspaper=[[Melbourne Truth]] |issue=605 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=18 July 1914 |accessdate=23 February 2025 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Ostensibly non-sectarian but closely associated with the Congregational Church, it opposed gambling, wine bars opening on Sundays, and preference to unionists.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11620768 |title="Reign of Terror" |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=20,341 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=2 October 1911 |accessdate=23 February 2025 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

Between the 1890s and 1930s Prahran built up a huge shopping centre, which by the 1920s had rivalled the Melbourne Central Business District. Large emporiums (department stores) sprang up along Chapel Street. Prahran also became a major entertainment area. The Lyric theatre (also known as the fleahouse), built on the corner of Victoria Street in 1911, burnt down in the 1940s. The Royal was the second old theatre built. The Empress (also known as the flea palace), another popular theatre on Chapel Street, was destroyed by fire in 1971.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xWIQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p5ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=5764,20437&dq=the+empress+flea+%7C+palace+%7C+fire+%7C+1971+chapel-street&hl=en]{{dead link|date=September 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110665378 |title=Theatre fire third in 10 years |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=45 |issue=12,851 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=1 July 1971 |accessdate=26 July 2024 |page=13 |via=National Library of Australia}} </ref> The site was operated by the cut-price clothes and homewares chain Waltons for the next decade and was later developed into the Chapel Street Bazaar.

In the 1960s, in an effort to boost the slowly growing local population and inject new life into the suburb, the [[Government of Victoria (Australia)|Victorian Government]] opened the Prahran [[Housing Commission of Victoria|Housing Commission]] estate, just off Chapel Street, together with a larger estate, located just north in [[South Yarra]]. Further complementing the high rise developments was a low density development between Bangs and Bendigo Streets.

In the 1970s, the suburb began to [[gentrification|gentrify]], with much of the remaining old housing stock being renovated and restored. The area had a substantial Greek population and many took advantage of the rise in property values during the 1980s, paving the way for further development and a subsequent shift in demographics.

During the 1990s, the population increased markedly, with demand for inner-city living fuelling a [[medium-density housing]] boom, which continues in the area, as part of the [[Melbourne 2030]] planning policy. It was during the 1990s that solidification of the area's gay community occurred, with many gay and gay-friendly businesses, the last of these {{which|date=February 2025}} closing around 2012.