Two storey Victorian shopfronts with verandah posts, and the corner pub Jack Irish used as the Prince of Prussia.
What Fitzroy looks like
Two storey Victorian shopfronts line Brunswick Street, timber and cast iron verandah posts over the footpath. Facades run in different colours from one block to the next, and a few keep rendered parapets and retaining arches above the ground floor shops. Trams run the length of the street, tracks set into the asphalt.
Bluestone laneways run behind the strip, connecting Brunswick and Smith Streets. Street art covers many of their walls, from small tags to full building sides. Murals line for its whole length, covering walls and fences the whole way down.
stands on Napier Street, a two storey rendered building with a corner clock tower. Most of it dates from the 1880s. The , on Fitzroy Street, is a rendered corner building from 1843. It is the area's oldest standing structure, now part of St Vincent's Hospital rather than a working pub.
Corner pubs recur through the grid, turreted brick buildings with decorative parapets over the ground floor bar. Verandahs or hanging signs run along the footpath beneath them. , on Napier Street, keeps its stained glass windows and nineteenth century pub front. , on Brunswick Street, opens straight onto the footpath behind an unmarked door.
Shot in Fitzroy
Offspring used the Black Cat on Brunswick Street as one of its regular haunts. Jack Irish shot the Napier Hotel on Napier Street as the fictional Prince of Prussia pub, first in three television films and then across three series for the ABC.
Jack Irish, TV films 2012 to 2014 and series 2016 to 2021
The Napier Hotel
Played the Prince of Prussia
The Napier Hotel played the Prince of Prussia in the three Jack Irish television films and the ABC series that followed them. Its own stained glass windows and nineteenth century pub front appear on screen undressed.
Offspring, 2010 to 2017
The Black Cat
The Black Cat has been a bar on Brunswick Street since 1982. It appeared as one of the regular haunts in the series Offspring, its street level bar and open footpath front much as they look today.
King Street runs the same two storey Victorian shopfronts, cast iron verandah posts over the footpath and painted facades block to block. The lanes behind it carry murals almost the whole way, close to the density of Fitzroy's own. Newtown's terraces run a little taller in places and its verandahs are more often iron lace than timber posts, so a wide shot needs the right block. Try searching Victorian shopfront verandahs now.
Redchurch Street and the lanes off Brick Lane run the same two storey Victorian shopfronts, painted signage over the ground floor. The side streets behind them are painted end to end with murals, a scale Fitzroy's own laneways share. Shoreditch's brick runs darker and its verandahs are mostly canvas awnings rather than posted timber, so a frame that includes the roofline gives the city away. Try searching Victorian shopfronts painted murals now.
Milwaukee Avenue's ornate brick storefronts and pressed metal cornices date from the same 1880s to 1900s window as Fitzroy's own shopfront strip, and the alleys behind carry murals of their own. Wicker Park has no post supported verandahs at all, so a shot that includes the footpath and its cover gives the city away. Keep the frame on the upper storeys and the painted brick. Try searching ornate brick storefronts now.
