Fitzroy North

Fitzroy North is an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District.

Fitzroy North is an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area are the cities of Yarra and Moreland. At the 2011 Census, Fitzroy North had a population of 11,473.

Also referred to as North Fitzroy in reference to its southern neighbour, Fitzroy North has a distinct character, noted for its prevalence of wide streets, intactVictorian and Edwardian era terraced housing and for the Edinburgh Gardens, a large inner-city park formerly home to the Fitzroy Football Club. Fitzroy North is adjacent to, and shares a postcode and neighbourhood character with Clifton Hill, both being government subdivisions set on elevated ground and to the same layout by Clement Hodgkinson in the 1870s, and distinct from the earlier narrow and more crowded private subdivisions in the lower lying areas of Fitzroy and Collingwood to the south.

Fitzroy North Post Office opened on 2 February 1874.Fitzroy North Primary School opened in 1875.

Housing stock includes many fine one and two storey terraces, many dating to the late Victorian period and including characteristic ironwork, verandahs, and stone embellishments. This is one of Melbourne's finest and most expensive inner-city locations. John McMahon, twice elected Mayor of Fitzroy built, firstly in 1886, two townhouses at 53/55 Alfred Crescent, and then in 1890 a large and impressive mansion which he called "Avonmore" at 75 Alfred Crescent.Both were designed by Olaf Nicholson, the architect. On one side of the crescent, is a large park, overlooked by John's and other houses called Edinburgh Gardens, with a famous football oval, bordered by Freeman Street, Brunswick Street, St Georges Road and Alfred Crescent. This park was saved for the people of Fitzroy by John McMahon, when he obtained permanent possession during his first year of Mayorship. An attempt was made by the Government of which Mr. Vale was a member, to have a large portion of it excised for public housing. Mr. McMahon had Minister Gaunson permanently gazette the land for the people. John also built a terrace of ten shops which he called "Gladstone Terraces" atSt. Georges Road.John McMahon was also the chairman and founding president of the Fitzroy Football Club. The Brunswick Street Oval was the home ground of the Fitzroy Football Club until 1967, playing in the Victorian Football League. A linear park, incorporating a section of the Capital City Trail bike path, runs along much of the northern edge of the suburb, on the easement for the Inner Circle railway line, which closed in 1948.