Cities' characters accompany their advances as shadows attend the footsteps of man. An ordinary citizen knows but little of the poetry or the prose of his city's life. For example, there is the pleasure-loving watering-place, half-mermaid and half-siren, that lures man to lotus eating.
Then there is the city where industry is on the move like the flying shuttle of a weaving machine. That is the city of action. Within its walls are men with strong arms, brows damp with sweat, faces and hands grimed. Such a city is the embodiment of industrial manhood. Prahran is halfway between those two types of city.
The History of Prahran From its first settlement to a city. Compiled (1912) and revised (1924) by order of the Prahran Council. By John Butler Cooper
John Butler Cooper Online
10 comments:
Not bad, I like that. It might even explain why half the population struggle to pronounce Prah-Raan.
Poor Anne, apparently.
Actually I found this googling the pron. not of Pran but of Baillieu, as you do.(Having read somewhere of Bewley)
Bewley, hey? Is it a French thing? When I lived in Wick-Ham, we had a family there called Beauchamp, but everyone knew them as Beech'm.
(David Bowie called his publishing company Bewley Brothers)
It was from Shott's Original Miscellany Curious Surname Pronuciations...
Beauchamp is there, as is Woolfhardisworthy. Pronounced Woolsey.
(Not Throat-Warbler Mangrove, anyway.)
Any French names via a summer-setting? Ciderhangoversha?
That sounds like a recipe for inertia in the vickery...
Ectually, there is Devereux.
Pronounced Dever-uks.
(Lucky Ed had an A, ay.)
and Captain Mannering is Mainwaring, and Bucket is Bouquet.
Do you remember there was a brickworks where the Como Hotel is now?
and the Newbridge Hotel where Country Road is.
and the Jam Factory is not called that for nothing.
Prahran and all of Chapel St used to be very industrial.
The Imperial Hotel was a bloodhouse.
The Brickworks - vaguely.
Gone the same way as Richmond - I do remember Vickers Ruwolt before Victoria Gardens. Guess Ikea is the industry of the times.
I enjoyed browsing through the photos at the site, Brownie. I browsed by year, some good pics there
Rarely has a local history been written with so much poetry. There should be more of it.
When I first got to Melbourne, I thought, 'Pran must be the name of somebody's autistic Asian nephew' ...
Maybe the next one commissioned could be a mash of John Cooper Butler and John Cooper Clark...
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