Brunswick Street is a shopping district of Melbourne, and was named after Captain Brunswick Smythe.

Shops opened up at the South end of Brunswick Street in the 1840s and by 1854 the strip was in competition with Bourke Street as a retail destination.

For some decades, the suburb of Fitzroy was a working-class area of low rents and cheap shops. This area began to attract students, artists, and bohemians. The T. F. Much Ballroom started in 1970, and became the heart of Melbourne’s music scene with performances by Daddy Cool, Spectrum and other improtant 1970s music acts.

Brunswick Street developed a status as a nexus of Melbourne’s indie music and post punk/new-wave subcultures, which in turn drew in waves of suburban tourists in their teens and 20s. Of course, Gentrification followed, and soon the few remaining regular shops closed and were replaced by cafés, fashion boutiques, and bars, a shift that has played a large role in Fitzroy being named one of the most unique neighbourhoods in the world.