Marvelous Melbourne Essay

762 Words4 Pages
During the 1880s, Melbourne had considerably grown from a dusty old town into an outstanding city; it even had the nickname of “Marvellous Melbourne”. Melbourne’s population was approaching 300000 and it had considerably grown since it was founded. At this time, Melbourne was the second largest city in the British Empire. The middle classes lived in detached villas on large blocks of land, while the working class lived in comfortable cottages in the Northern and Western suburbs. Large industries were placed in the Western suburbs and the extremely wealthy lived in massive mansions near the Yarra River. Almost all suburbs had access to a network of train and trams which were said to be the most modern in the world. Because of the economic boom of the gold rush, much of the inner part of Melbourne had outstanding Victorian architecture and housing. Melbourne was well known for its vast collection of building; ranging from cosy cottages to 12-story buildings. With the distinct Victorian architecture in mind, architects designed extraordinary buildings such as the State Library, University of Melbourne and the Royal Exhibition Building. Many houses and buildings had wrought iron lacework to decorate the verandas. They also had even slated roof and several buildings had domes or spires to their rooftops. Any person walking through the street of Melbourne in the 1800s could see the amazing architecture the city had to offer. The clothing of Melbourne city was said to be the best and always in fashion. Men’s clothing were quite similar for the working class and middle classes. However, woman’s clothing had many differences and qualities for the various society statuses. Well off or women that were in the middle classes had to dress accordingly to the “in” fashion. During the 1880s this meant middle class women would wear tightly woven corsets and long vintage dresses.
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