Hawke Street | Melbourne Streets

photographer: Stephen Hatcher 2019.

The street is thought to have been named after Edward Hawke.

In the early 1850’s this area was wide open and unobstructed bush land unlike its built form of today. It was free of buildings and the land would have had easy sight of Port Phillip bay and the ships therein.

W.M. Tennent writes “ Hawke street is most desirably situated, is a most healthy and elevated position and commands extensive views of the shipping in the bay and of all surrounding districts” The Argus October 6^th 1853.

Hawke street has 4 cross streets that intersect with it, them being King street, Spencer street, Adderley street and Railway Place. When the founding fathers of Melbourne came up with the names of the new streets, naming Hawke street as they did makes perfect sense. King street is thought to have been named after the then reigning monarch of England, Spencer street is thought to have been named after Lord Spencer, head of the Whig party in the English house of commons. Adderley street is thought to have been named after Charles Bowyer Adderley, an old Staffordshire family and his wife, the daughter of Sir Edmund Craddock-Hartop, 1^st Baronet Adderley and finally Railway place was named due to its location adjacent to main train lines leading into Spencer street train station.

Admiral of the English Fleet Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, KB, PC (1705-1781) son of Edward Hawke, a barrister and Elizabeth Hawke (née Bladen). Hawke benefited from the patronage of Colonel Martin Bladen, a Member of Parliament and his maternal uncle.

In 1737 Hawke married Catherine Brooke; they had three sons and one daughter.

During his lifetime Hawke went on to achieve a victory over a French fleet at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759 during the Seven Years’ War, preventing a French invasion of Britain. He developed the concept of a Western Squadron, keeping an almost continuous blockade of the French coast throughout the war.

Admiral Hawke was influential in the decision to give Captain James Cook command of his first expedition that left in 1768. When at a meeting in the Royal Geographical Society it was suggested that a civilian should lead the expedition Hawke is supposed to have remarked that, he would sooner have his right hand cut off than allow this to happen. Cook named a series of prominent places that he came across in the ‘New World’ after Hawke as a sign of his gratitude.

Towards the end of their life, Edward and Catherine Hawke had a country house in Sunbury-on-Thames and lived alternately there and at a rented home in North Stoneham, Hampshire. Hawke died at his house in Sunbury-on-Thames on 17 October 1781 and was buried at St. Nicolas’ Church, North Stoneham.

Back in Melbourne’s gold rush period, West Melbourne’s Hawke street was part of the great north-western expansion of the city of Melbourne that occurred during the start of the 1850’s.

Charles Laing, Architect and Surveyor’s December 8^th 1847 “Plan of North Melbourne” shows a city that extended only as far as La Trobe street and included the then “far off” burial ground which is now known as the Queen Victoria Market, however no other official streets are shown beyond that in the north-western direction, just open bush land.

1847 Charles Laing

Fast forward five years later to Charles Laing’s 1852, “Plan of the City of Melbourne and its Extension Northwards” we can easily see many new roads including Hawke street adjacent to the Benevolent Asylum at North Melbourne.

1852 Charles Laing

Crown Land sales occurred in May 1853, therefore, we can safely say Hawke Street came into existence sometime after 1847 and before Laing’s 1852 map.

The Argus, May 1853 Crown Land Sale. First known record of Hawke Street in a Melbourne Newspaper.

The Hawke street of the Victorian gold rush era was predominantly a residential street in a predominantly residential neighborhood that surrounded it and other street all the way back in Roden, Stanley, Rosslyn, Dudley, Batman and Jeffcott Streets to the city in 1853 from “notices to let” entries in local newspapers.

The Argus 1853 Desirable property

Government Land Sale. Town Lots. County of Bourke, Melbourne, Parish of North Melbourne. (The North Melbourne lots lie between Hawke, Roden, Stanley and adjacent to the Benelovent Asylum). May 1853. (3) Click image to view.

Take a walk today down Hawke Street and you will see it is no longer 100% terrace houses. When CBD rents became too high, commercial activities moved in and build factories such as the industrial chemist of Mr. S J Marshall at 1-11 Hawke Street in 1920 as well as other manufacturing buildings that now house the Apollo gym café and the old Don Kyatt building further down Hawke street towards railway place.

Melbourne City Council have records of street cards for every street in the municipality and the image below shows the card for Hawke Street.

(2) Click image to view.

1 Hawke Street

West Melbourne VIC 3003

Also known as Address 611-617 King Street & 1-11 Hawke Street West Melbourne
Previous Address Samuel John Marshall Chemical Co, (3 to 5) & (7 to 11)
Constructed (1st) 1853. (2nd) 1920 August

Style Inter-War Period : 1915 – 1940

Architect (1st) Thomas Stevens. (2nd) James A Wood
Builder (1st) Thomas Stevens. (2nd) Able Peters