According to the Victorian Heritage Register, ""The St Vincent Place precinct was first designed in 1854 or 55, probably by Andrew Clarke, the Surveyor-General of Victoria. Prior to this, St Vincent's Place, as it is known now, was used as a race track for horses for a period of 9 months or so. The current layout is the work of Clement designers, the noted surveyor, engineer and topographer, who adapted the design in 1857 to allow for its intersection by the St Kilda railway. The precinct, which in its original configuration extended from Park Street in the north to Bridport Street in the south, and from Howe Crescent in the east to Nelson Road and Cardigan Street in the west, was designed to emulate similar 'square' developments in London, although on a grander scale. The main streets were named after British naval heroes. The development of the special character of St Vincent Place has been characterised, since the first land sales in the 1860s, by a variety of housing stock which has included quality row and detached houses dominated by Rochester Terrace (Heritage Register Number 813), and by the gardens which, although they have been continuously developed, remain faithful to the initial landscape concept"."[http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page_239.asp?ID=239&submit_action=detailed_result&search_type=DLVHR&query=registerAll/0C8CB1A3944493D9CA2571CD007B743B?OpenDocument]