Prowse Street, Brunswick, 1940s

Weatherboard cottages and factory, c1940-60. Photographer Lyle Fowler. Part of the Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. Image H94.150/123.

Today, Prowse Street is a long street running parallel to Sydney Road (it's to the west of Sydney Road). It starts at Albion Street and after a few dog legs ends up in Cameron Street which runs parallel to the Upfield Bike Path and ends up at Woolacott Street in Coburg.

The street is named after William Prowse who lived in Sydney Road, Brunswick as early as 1863. He is listed as a slaughterman working from his Albion Street abattoirs by 1865. Prowse Street first appeared in the Sands and MacDougall Street Directories in 1890. 

When William Prowse died in March 1911 aged 86, he was living at 60 Cassells Road, Brunswick. It was said that he had lived in Brunswick for 60 years and been in Albion Street West for nearly 50 years. (Coburg Leader, 24 March 1911)

Originally from Newton Abbot in Devonshire, William Prowse was one of nine children, eight of whom came to Australia to live. 

Prowse and his wife had only one son - Thomas William - who reading between the lines of his will was unable to live independently. (He left £2,000 to be invested and the income was to go to the maintenance of his son Thomas William Prowse who was to live with Thomas Edward Cowell (a plumber) and Louisa Ellen Cowell of Cassells Rd., Brunswick. If they died the money was to go to a trustee who would decide where son would live. Prowse hoped he’d go to a respectable person in the country (preferably a farmer)’.)
 
So when he died, Prowse left most of his considerable estate (worth £15,000) to his nieces and nephews (23 of them, 17 of whom staked a claim to his estate.) They were only eligible, he said, if they lived in Victoria and were not involved in the Roman Catholic Church. This ruled out his brother Charles's nine children. He had married an Irish Catholic and three of children were in religious orders. These provisions were contested and a judge ruled that the claimants did not need to live in Victoria, but he upheld the Catholic clause.

Probate papers include a description of Prowse Street in 1911: 

Public Record Office of Victoria, VPRS 28/P3 Unit 216, item 120/511. 

It tells us that ‘Prowse Street ... is little more than a right of way being only about twenty feet in width.’ And this is a pretty good description of the street as shown in Lyle Fowler's photograph, taken some time between 1940 and 1960.