The inner-city spot where hipsters feared to tread, until maybe now

Yet it's surrounded by Melbourne's hipster heartland: Collingwood (Clifton Hill was actually once called East Collingwood), Fitzroy North, Fitzroy and Northcote. They're all a tram or train stop away. So how exactly did this 'burb remain hipster free, and will that change?

I ask Stewart Kyle, agent with Nelson Alexander Fitzroy, if it's getting an edge. "To be honest, not quite yet," he replies. "You get a lot of young families with kids. Parkville and Clifton Hill are very similar."

He's selling a warehouse apartment at 2/41 Dally Street, in the heart of leafy Clifton Hill, this Saturday (for the second time - it passed in three months ago). It's the perfect hipster house.

So who's looking? "Mostly first-home buyers are in that bracket," says Kyle. The bracket for this property is quite clear: unusually, it's being advertised with its reserve price, $900,000. So who's keen? "Some investors, but it's mostly young couples," says Kyle. "Some are already living in the area, but there's a lot of interest from people in Ivanhoe, Glen Iris, as well as Northcote, Fairfied and Thornbury. They're looking to be closer to the CBD, and for tree-lined properties along parks, and Fitzroy North is too expensive."

If the buyers are looking for that inner-city lifestyle, will they be disappointed in Clifton Hill? The Clifton Hill side of Queens Parade looks promising (the other side is Fitzroy North). Birkenstock has opened up a huge store. There's a new corner pub ??? Clifton Hill Brewpub ??? brewing its own beer.

Head towards Smith Street and you'll spot a rejuvenated Melbourne Bicycles at 37 Queens Parade. This is the home of the kids ByK bikes and what was, once, Australia's biggest selling bike store. ByK inventor Warren Key bought the shop from his parents ten years ago, and has flipped the aging 40-year-old shop over the past few months. It's now got that spruced up modern warehouse look, outside and in.

Key remembers Clifton Hill when it was factory central. "The family business started in 1978, and I started in early '80s. All the spots in the back were factories making things; the hardware store on the corner [of Smith Street] was a shed storing coal for hospitals! It didn't change until the mid '90s." According to Key, Clifton Hill used to be a transient place where people could afford to live and study.

"People could live here and be part of something else, now it's a seemingly wealthy suburb. The affordability has gone through the roof," says Key. He brought in Malachi Moxon to lead the internal and external change of the store, which had a grand reopening last week. "It's a good community store," says Moxon. "I wanted to make it loveable again."

This suburb really does put the "c" into community. There's always something for the locals to get het up about. Recently it was the proposed East West Link, a road joining the Eastern Freeway at Clifton Hill with the Western Ring Road.

Locals are now cross about plans for Sambell Lodge, a low cost aged care facility on Gold Street, which will result in the demolition of the St Andrews Church (circa 1905).

A plan for a 16-storey apartment block at 26-56 Queens Parade (on the Fitzroy North side) raised the ire of many, with fears it would overshadow Edinburgh Gardens. It, and another development at 249-265 Queens Parade, are "pending VCAT", according to Yarra City Council. Developers seem very keen to bring new "residential opportunities" to Clifton Hill. But whether the residents agree is another thing.

Five things you didn't know about Clifton Hill

• Clifton Hill Railway Station is the joining point of the South Morang and Hurstbridge lines.
• The Merri Creek Trail (and Merri Creek itself) forms one of the 'burb's borders.
• It shares the 3068 postcode with North Fitzroy.
• It's home to two in-demand primary schools: Clifton Hill Primary School (aka Gold Street) and Spensley Street Primary School.
• According to Domain Group data, the median price for a house here is $1.28 million.