Walking Tour: Robin Boyd’s Neighbourhood
Guided 2 hour/2.5km walk: architectural and social history.
South Yarra’s layered architectural heritage, landscape and social history character make it one of Melbourne’s most iconic suburbs. It’s the neighbourhood where Robin Boyd designed his family home, Boyd House II, or ‘Walsh Street’, as locals fondly refer to it, in 1957.
Many other leading architects contributed to the development of South Yarra, including Reed & Barnes, Frederick Romberg, Walter & Richard Butler, Harold Desbrowe-Annear, Anketell Henderson, Yuncken Freeman, and Neil Clerehan, resulting in a rich diversity of styles.
This part of Naarm/Melbourne also holds rich traditions and is a significant cultural site for the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung and Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, who have occupied this area for millennia.
Each of our Walking Tours offers a different slice of the suburb!
Robin Boyd’s Neighbourhood traces a route on which you will learn about the area’s transformation, when grand Victorian homes and gardens were replaced by modern houses and flats. The Walking Tour commences at the Tecoma Pavilion in the Royal Botanical Gardens, before weaving its way through Anderson, Walsh and Marne Streets between Domain and Toorak Roads, where you’ll find Arts and Crafts to Deco, mid-century modernist to contemporary – all sitting side by side.
Held once a month on Saturday mornings and afternoons, our Walking Tours are a leisurely-paced 2.5km and take 2 hours. Robin Boyd Foundation volunteer guides provide storytelling along the way.
Photograph: Michael Pham.
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Walking Tour: Stories of South Yarra
Guided 2 hour / 2.5km walk: architectural and social history.
South Yarra’s layered architectural heritage, landscape and social
history character make it one of Melbourne’s most iconic suburbs. It’s
the neighbourhood where Robin Boyd designed his family home, Boyd House
II, or ‘Walsh Street’, as locals fondly refer to it, in 1957.
Many other leading architects contributed to the development of South
Yarra, including Reed & Barnes, Frederick Romberg, Walter &
Richard Butler, Harold Desbrowe-Annear, Anketell Henderson, Yuncken
Freeman, and Neil Clerehan, resulting in a rich diversity of styles.
This part of Naarm/Melbourne also holds rich traditions and is a
significant cultural site for the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung and Bunurong
people of the Kulin Nation, who have occupied this area for millennia.
Each of our Walking Tours offers a different slice of the suburb!
Starting at the Rotary Melbourne Peace Park opposite the Robin
Boyd-designed Domain Park Towers, Stories of South Yarra explores a
precinct bounded by Park and Millswyn Streets, where a wealthy enclave
was established during the gold rush. Ornate Victorian boom style
architecture adorns the main streets, while laneways are filled with
contrasting working-class cottages. As we walk, you’ll discover South
Yarra’s layered social history as a burgeoning early industrial and
commercial area. Held once a month on Saturday mornings and afternoons, our Walking
Tours are a leisurely-paced 2.5km and take 2 hours. Robin Boyd
Foundation volunteer guides provide storytelling along the way.This tour has been researched and is delivered in collaboration between GML Heritage and Robin Boyd Foundation volunteersPhotograph: Mike Lam.