Gertrude Street runs east from the bottom of Brunswick Street and is, for many locals, the more interesting end of Fitzroy. Where Brunswick Street trades on its reputation, Gertrude has quietly become the suburb's most rewarding strip: a tight run of contemporary galleries, designer boutiques, wine bars, and some of Melbourne's best small restaurants, packed into a few blocks of two-storey Victorian shopfronts.
It is also the historic heart of Fitzroy's Aboriginal community, a connection that survives in organisations and businesses along the street and gives it a depth that the glossier parts of the suburb lack. Come in the late afternoon, when the galleries are still open and the wine bars are filling up; the annual Gertrude Street Projection Festival in winter lights up the whole strip after dark.