State Library of Victoria

Hoddle’s Grid: Street history of Melbourne A photographic exploration of the history of the streets of Melbourne. Hoddle’s Grid gives you a unique perspective of Melbourne’s central business district through the history of the buildings and streets in photographs and pictures. The State Library of Victoria presents hundreds of photographs and pictures from the Library’s collection to cast a new light on an old city, and show you a grand old Melbourne in all its glory against the Melbourne of today. Hoddle’s Grid was created by and named after Robert Hoddle (1794–1881), a senior surveyor in the 1830s who mapped the central grid layout of the streets in the centre of Melbourne. Select or search for a destination you wish to explore or use ‘Around me’ and your GPS to locate the mapped images closest to you. You can even take part in challenges to hunt down the locations that match the Mystery Photo checkpoints!