[2] Immediately adjoining the CBD, Carlton is known nationwide for its Little Italy precinct centred on Lygon Street, for its preponderance of 19th-century Victorian architecture and its garden squares including the Carlton Gardens, the latter being the location of the Royal Exhibition Building, one of Australia's few man-made sites with World Heritage status.

In 1927, Squizzy Taylor, an Australian gangster, was wounded in a gunfight with rival, John "Snowy" Cutmore, at a house in Barkly Street, Carlton, and later died at St Vincent's Hospital.

[5] In the 1960s, the residents in some parts of the suburb were forced to move from their homes due to redevelopment by the Housing Commission of Victoria.

[8] Another allowed a vacant lot in Cardigan street to be turned into a park, and another saved a number of terraced houses from demolition.

These are configured as a mixture of 4 and 5-storey walk-up flats and 22-storey high-rise towers which are in the process of being redeveloped as mixed-tenure housing.

The development of new apartment buildings to accommodate international student market since the late 1990s has transformed the once low-rise skyline of Swanston Street, so that its predominant height is about 10–11 storeys.

Though many terraces in Carlton no longer function as residences and have either been converted for mixed-use or facaded as part of larger developments.

[13] Lygon Street is home to a large concentration of Italian restaurants, and is the birthplace of Melbourne's "café culture".

Besides that, Cinema Nova on Lygon Street shows many Australian and international art-house films, while Readings Bookstore has been a hub for literary and musical connoisseurs since the 1970s.

Ray Lawler's seminal 1955 play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is set in a Carlton terrace.

The Carlton Club, which was built in 1889 by Inskip & Robertson, is notable for its decorative Australian native kangaroo gargoyles and polychrome Florentine arches.

The Carlton Post Office and Police Station are both fine Renaissance Revival styled buildings.

[14] Although Lygon Street is most renowned for its cafes and restaurants, it is also home to some notable retail stores including Readings bookstore and Cinema Nova.

The next most common countries of birth were China (14.0%), India (5.0%), Malaysia (3.9%), England (2.1%) and Vietnam (2.0%)[11] 46.2% of people only spoke English at home.

[11] The area is noted for its diverse population that has been the home in earlier days of Jewish and Italian immigrants.

A large number of low-income residents live in the substantial public housing estates that were built during the 1960s.

However, like many other inner-city suburbs undergoing a process of gentrification, the Greens have been gaining an increasing share of the vote.

This includes the University Square redevelopment, where the state-of-the-art Law and ICT buildings and a new underground carpark are located.

MUR was founded in 1884 as D company, 4th Battalion of the Victorian Rifles, and changed to its current name and role in 1948.

Rod Eddington's East West Link Needs Assessment does mention however, that there will be subway(s) in Carlton, as a part of the proposed 17 km Metro Tunnel.