Melbourne officially has the second coolest street in the world, in a win for TikTok influencers across the city.
Gertrude Street in Fitzroy has officially taken out the silver medal thanks to Time Out‘s tip top annual list of the world’s coolest streets.
What criteria do they use, I wonder? Proportions of microbreweries? Ratio of avant-garde-fashion-wearing-girlies? Number of cafés serving $9 oat iced lattes? How many pairs of weirdly shaped sunglasses are found in the gutters?
I jest, I jest. The way the ranking actually works is through a big quiz, where people are asked what the coolest street in their city is. Time Out‘s editors and contributors then whittle down that list.
To this non-Melburnian, Gertrude Street taking out the second spot seems pretty well-deserved.
In its ranking, Time Out highlighted Gertrude Street as one of the places in Fitzroy which has “added a wealth of independent retail, drinking and dining joints to its cultural portfolio” despite the suburb’s wider gentrification.
The pub also described Gertude Street as having a “locals-only, if you-know-you-know” energy. I’m nervous but intrigued.
View this post on Instagram
A big congratulations to Gertrude, who ever she may be.
But it turns out Melbourne has actually slipped in the cool rankings. Last year it had the number one coolest street in the world: Smith Street in Collingwood. Ah well, you can’t get the win every year.
Gertrude Street lost out top spot to Rue Wellington in Montreal, Canada, which apparently becomes pedestrian-only in summer. I absolutely love that.
More car-free streets please!
View this post on Instagram
Coming in third was Great Western Road in Glasgow, Scotland while fourth was Yongkang Street in Taipei. Some pretty stiff competition there.
Another Aussie street also made it onto the list: Enmore Road in Sydney.
Yes, the far cooler and also less stressful cousin of Newtown’s King Street came in at number 24. Time Out highlighted the Enmore Theatre as a highlight and TBH, I can’t disagree.
Though it does appear that Time Out may have accidentally used a pic of King Street instead of Enmore Road. So maybe King Street deserves to make the list after all.
This Time Out piece that named Enmore Road one of the 33 coolest streets in the world, has sadly used a photo of King Street pic.twitter.com/Qmh3Ok8RlQ
— Naaman Zhou (@naamanzhou) August 27, 2022
It’s been a good year for Melbourne, which was also given the esteemed title of Australia’s most liveable city by The Economist earlier this year.
IMO, all of this is evidence in favour of a cheeky little Melbs citybreak. Or maybe an interstate move.
