Geek sleek chique tour of places to hide in Brunswick from People's Tour on Vimeo.

Brunswick is a suburb in the north of Melbourne that mostly tries to resist its recent moniker, “the New Brunswick.” It’s about 6 km from the City, with Parkville, Carlton and North Fitzroy to its south. Brunswick has a mix of restaurants, pubs, shops, and cafes where its newer residents – students, artists, and young professional singles or families – mix with its older, predominantly immigrant residents.

Brunswick local before-it-got-trendy and People’s tour guide Francesca Sculli shows us places to find peace or to hide, or do both, in Brunswick.

Before you picture quiet, shaded parks, darkened church pews or as far away from Sydney Road as you can get, Francesca’s tour stops are not the usual suspects (despite her thoughts to the contrary). She narrows down exactly the type of “quiet” you may be seeking, introducing us to unique Brunswick hideouts that are “geek,” “chique” and “sleek”.

Listen now or download for later

This tour goes for 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and has five tour stops.
Download audio file (francesca-tour-FINAL.mp3)
Download the geek-chique-sleek tour (5 megabytes)

Tour guide

Francesca is a self confessed surrealist. She has worked in various occupations, most notably as a cake smasher in performance duo ‘slit’. She likes music, dabbles in art and the artistry of circus, and lives in a suburb that is considered cool but wasn’t when she moved there.

Francesca has dabbled in cake decorating and marriage. She has contemplated life as a Buddhist nun but gets around town with motley bunch ‘Quiche Lorraine’, which distracts her from this path quite a lot.

Francesca’s current phase is to ask people face to face if they will be her Facebook friend. She has been informed that this defeats the purpose of Facebook.

Tour map

Geek sleek chique map

Music

Music by b(if)tek, “Read to me” from Frequencies will move together (2003).

Music is used under Australian Fair Use law and/or with permission of the copyright owners.

Tour stops and links

Brunswick Library
Francesca’s local public library on Dawson Street.

Brunswick City Baths
Francesca’s local gym and swimming pool conveniently opposite Brunswick Library.

The Republic of Moreland
The blog that first brought attention to (and rejection of) the term, “the New Brunswick.”