SMITH ST REFLECTIONS

Smith Street is a street in inner northern Melbourne. By the 1860s, Smith Street was a busy and popular suburban shopping strip. Smith Street contains restaurants and cafés and also has numerous shops selling cheap household goods. North of Johnston Street there are factory outlets selling athletic and fashion clothing.

Parts of Smith Street also serve as a meeting place for the local Indigenous Australian community. Smith Street is somewhat more downmarket than nearby Brunswick Street and has not become as fashionable though it is slowly gentrifying.

During the late 1990s, Smith Street was frequented by heroin users and dealers. This earned it the sobriquet 'Smack Street', which, whilst arguably no longer apt, has stuck. In the last few years a number of bars and clubs have emerged on Smith Street, some of them open all night.

The street has been honoured of late by the rise of the local band The Smith Street Band, which has received international acclaim. This is despite the lead singer recently claiming that "none of us live on Smith Street and now everyone time I go there I get quite frustrated that it seems to be becoming more and more gentrified."

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.