Once known as Emerald Hill, it wouldn't be a stretch to call South Melbourne one of the city's gems. Characterised by heritage streetscapes with Victorian terraces and a village feel, it sits just two kilometres south of the CBD, has a beach nearby and a thriving food scene.
There's also the suburb's beating heart: the South Melbourne Market. Established in 1867, the red brick building bordered by cafes and fruit stalls has long been a go-to for locals and tourists alike.
"I just love the atmosphere, there's always something happening," says Agathe Kerr, originally from France and now one of the market's traders. Her stall, Agathe Patisserie, has been a fixture of South Melbourne Market for 2?? years, with shoppers patiently enduring long queues for a chance to buy one of her croissants.
Kerr says she loves all of Melbourne's food markets, "but the South Melbourne Market, I don't know - there's something different about it".
"There's a really good mix of fresh products and also trendy clothes, and I love the little pop-ups they have in the middle," she says. "There's a good mix of people. You have young families with children, you've got older people who have been shopping there for a long time, and now I think there are a lot more foodies too."
For this former Parisian, South Melbourne feels a little bit like home. The quaint houses and cobbled bluestone lanes have "a bit of a French provincial feel sometimes," says Kerr. "I like that too."
Christina McGrath and her partner Martin have been South Melbourne residents for 10 years, and have always loved the area.
"It's just sort of nestled away a little bit from the hustle and bustle," says McGrath. "It's a very pleasant place to live."
McGrath appreciates the neighbourhood's proximity to the city, the tram services that make it easy to travel there by public transport, and being able to walk almost everywhere.
"I tend to walk down to the beach more than anywhere else," she says. "But I always change the way I go because there's always something different to see.
"The other thing that people may not realise is the air is very fresh here. It comes straight off a strait and you get a nice, cool sea breeze on hot days, which is lovely too."
Since South Melbourne's gentrification in the 1980s, the area has become a hub for cafes and restaurants, which dot laneways as well as Clarendon, Coventry and Cecil Streets.
A number of the suburb's traditional pubs remain - character-filled local The Palace Hotel was named Melbourne's best pub by Time Out in 2016, and the Railway Hotel is a neighbourhood icon - but they've been joined by European-inspired wine bars such as Bellota and Smalls.
And it's here that coffee empire St ALi began, in a converted warehouse on Yarra Place. Purchased by Salvatore Malatesta in 2008, the business grew into caffeine royalty over the past decade, credited with elevating roasting and brewing to new levels in a coffee-obsessed city.
Lachlan Ward, retail operations manager at St ALi, likes the variety South Melbourne offers.
"There's a great mix of creative businesses and industry, as well as being quite close to tourist attractions like Crown and everything on Southbank. So you get your mix of locals, people in suits and tourist trade as well," he says.
Over the past few years, Ward has seen new apartment buildings attract a younger demographic, but says the suburb's "real sense of community" remains unchanged.
"We've got a few businesses in South Melbourne and probably something that stands out is that people who live here are pretty proud of their local area," he says. "It's one of the older suburbs and we've found that people who live in the area live and breathe it."
Steve Fairbairn, sales director for property developers Landence Group, believes South Melbourne has flourished in recent years.
"It's always had beautiful leafy streets with terrace homes, the proximity to the city's always been unquestionable, but it's now become quite gentrified," he says. "It's got incredible cafes, a great vibe, great shopping; it's a really fun, exciting, engaging place to live."
Landence Group is developing The Evermore, a two-tower apartment project on Dorcas Street, on the cusp of South Melbourne and Southbank.
"Our location is quite unique in that you can walk to Clarendon Street and South Melbourne and everything it has to offer, but you're also on the Southbank fringe which brings you even closer to the city," Fairbairn says.
Designed with owner-occupiers in mind, The Evermore has a range of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, plus a four-bedroom penthouse. Amenities include a full gymnasium, an outdoor swimming pool, saunas, a cinema, dining and lounge facilities and a library.
Fairbairn says the response from downsizers and first-home buyers keen to reside in the inner city has been very positive.
"It gives you that taste of South Melbourne but also that proximity to all of those other features that Melbourne offers," he says. "I think it really does offer that true essence of living in the heart of Melbourne."
