Welcome to MacArthur Square, a small public square in beautiful Carlton.
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History of the Square: Gang warfare in the 1920s
The square and its surrounding streets have a colourful past, being just a stone’s throw from the scene of a gang shootout in 1927, killing one of Australias most notorious gangsters, Squizzy Taylor.
Taylor’s criminal career started early, with a group of troublemakers police dubbed the Bourke Street Rats.
Taylor's convictions ranged from petty larceny to armed robbery — his first conviction, for theft, came when he was just 17.
But police suspected his involvement in much more serious crimes they could never secure convictions for, including murder.
He had arrived at a house in nearby Barkly Street to confront a gang rival, shooting him to death as he laid in bed. During the shoot out, Taylor was hit and later succumbed to his wounds in St Vincent’s Hospital.
For more reading on the 1920’s underbelly of the surrounds:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-13/house-where-melbourne-gangster-squizzy-taylor-was-shot/9629642
History of MacArthur Square: Development and Subdivision
MacArthur Square dates back to the earliest days of subdivision in Carlton; first appearing on the lithographed subdivision plan of November 1857 for the “Carlton Allotments” showing a “Reserve for Ornamental Enclosure”.
With nearby Murchison Square, MacArthur Square is included in the register of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). The MacArthur and Murchison Squares are of State historical and architectural importance as the two most intact squares from an important phase of urban improvement initiated by the Surveyor-General Andrew Clarke.
At the west end of the Reserved land is a drinking fountain and monument to Councillor William Levers, erected by his brother Councillor George Levers, in 1915.
The existing bluestone kerbstones and coursed bluestone gutters likely pre-date 1896.
Nineteen of the twenty trees in MacArthur Square are part of the original/early, planting from the nineteenth century. The single young tree is a replacement of an original planting. Following the devastation caused by Dutch Elms disease, elms are now rare across the world. The 2 elm tree rows have benefited from an unusually large open space and have matured to produce an almost complete canopy cover to the Reserve.
In the Melbourne Planning Scheme, MacArthur Square, the whole of the perimeter roads and the private land abutting the roads are included in the Carlton heritage precinct as heritage overlay HO1.
For more reading on the historical significance of the square, including Aboriginal heritage of the surrounding area:
https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hdp.au.prod.app.com-participate.files/4914/7071/5069/Macarthur_Square_Heritage_Review.PDF