This episode of “This Must be the Place” is the second of our ‘walking tours’ – in which we revisit the walks of the 1980 book “Melbourne on Foot: 15 Walks Through Historic Melbourne”. This tour was recorded in the way-back-machine, in September 2017. In it, Elizabeth and David tour St Kilda with one the book’s authors, Professor Graham Davison of Monash University. We’ve split it into two parts as there was, and is, a lot to see in St Kilda. If you’d like to hear about the genesis of the 1980 book in general, listen to the Richmond episode (http://soundcloud.com/david-nichols-738987609/revisiting-melbourne-on-foot-1980-book-richmond-walking-tour-retraced). Some of the walks in the book originated as urban history material for students. They were also partly inspired by the book ‘Chicago on Foot’ and the Chicago school tradition of urban walking. Plus, they were pitched at a wider readership: the authors – who comprised a mix of academics and of community activists – encouraged readers to visit parts of the city that they perhaps overlooked or were reluctant to see historic merit in. Like Richmond, since 1980 St Kilda has undergone a shift in status. For example, several grand mansions that during the 20th century were made into flats and boarding houses, have returned to single-family dwellings of the large and fancy kind. This reflects St Kilda’s variable trajectory over time from what was once a fashionable middle class seaside suburb, to a scruffy and down at heel area over the course of the 20th century (see Hal Porter’s reflections of St Kilda in the 1940s), and of late being gradually expunged of its few remaining seedy elements. In St Kilda you can often see traces of successions of uses and of rebuilding – for example being the shop facades of Fitzroy Street can be seen the remains of what were originally residential buildings. One relative constant has been real estate returns – Graeme discusses Dalgety and other early property speculators making 4000% returns in the original subdivision of the area. This first part of the St Kilda tour takes in around a third of the walk as set out in the book – from the old train station (now a light rail stop set amidst assorted cafes), past the hotels and coffee palaces of Grey and Fitzroy Streets (including David’s recollections of the Seaview Ballroom in the 1980s), and taking in several notable mansions and flats around Jackson, Dalgety and other streets. Stay tuned for The Esplanade and Acland Street in part 2.