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St Francis Street

Located between Elizabeth and Swanston streets, St Francis Street extended from La Trobe to Lonsdale streets. Named in 1861 after St Francis Church, situated adjacent on Lonsdale Street, this lane was one of four that had been subsumed by the Melbourne Central shopping complex in the latter decades of the twentieth century.

St Francis Church was designed by Samuel Jackson and built between 1841 and 1845. It is the earliest surviving Catholic Church in Victoria, and the oldest church in Victoria on its original site. In the late nineteenth century, the St Francis schools were located on St Francis Street.

Biheng Zhang

References
Sands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1892. Details
'St Francis Catholic Church, Melbourne: VHR No H0013 File No 602326 (1-3)', in Victorian Heritage Register On-Line, 2000, http://www.doi.vic.gov.au/doi/hvolr.nsf. Details
Bate, Weston, Essential but unplanned: The story of Melbourne's lanes, State Library of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1994. Details