In the 1850s what was an as yet unnamed district of Melbourne south of the Yarra River was occupied on its hills by large estates, an extant survivor being Como House, served by a population of around 8,000 workers in cottages set in often swampy, flood-prone lower-lying areas.A settlement along what is now High Street, Malvern Road and Chapel Street, became Prahran, and the minister of the chapel after which the street was named, Rev.