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NEWTOWN WORKERS CLUB
Living in the 'burbs wasn't always parking your assets at the end of the Eltham train line. In 1850, it was settling in Fitzroy - or as it was then named, Newtown. It was a time when you cooked offal in suspended pots over your fireplace and some guy travelled around to your allotment with a water barrel. It was the kind of place where 'city gentlemen' twirled their pencil moustaches, dreamed about property development and guffawed over their future wealth. And when sewerage systems weren't in place, residents - ahem - were forced to 'make-do' in their backyards. Backyards became unsavoury by the presence of the privy, so the council acted. The Fitzroy laneways that we know today were created so that nightmen had easy access to dwellers' backyards to empty their pans. How glamorous.
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Once the depression of the late 1800s walloped the wealthy, Newtown became Fitzroy and Fitzroy was nicknamed 'Notorious Fitzroy'. Reports of gangsterism, crime, poverty and immorality tarnished Fitzroy's name. Gertrude Street became famous for its brothels, which eventually turned into cheap housing for immigrant families who often shared single rooms. Housing prices plummeted and local governments attempted to 'clean up' Fitzroy. Slum-clearance programs included cheap government housing. Fitzroy became famous for its floods, rowdy bars and redbrick skyline. It's low property prices, rich history and general crumminess appealed to the academics of the 1970s, students of the 1980s-1990s and now Young Urban Professionals of the 21st century.
Today, we yearn for a bygone Fitzroy - one that was heaving with students, musicians and artists all eating Charmaine's ice-cream; where Flamenco dancers stomped loudly at The Spanish Club and bands played proudly at the Punters. Once upon a time, it seems, no one complained about noise and there was no need to curse new residents. Alas, swanky apartments are shooting up faster than a barrista whips up your morning latte. The restaurants along Brunswick Street aren't roach-filled and the new shops aren't necessarily cutting edge; the multiple interior design stores are catering to the cashed up.
Amidst the decor shops, pretty stationary outlets and high fashion haunts there's one venue that's connecting old Fitzroy with the new. Newtown Workers Club harks back to the days when Irish workmen ordered a pot and a pint and drank away their earnings; when there weren't noise complaints, let alone a sewerage system - never fear, The Newtown Workers Club is fitted out with toilets in perfect working order. The Rob Roy is no longer, but the famous stone façade still stands, and there isn't a cheap pizza joint in sight.
Newtown Workers Club
51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Mon-Sun 4pm-1am
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