Melbourne is not only known for its great food, fashion and sporting culture, its art scene is constantly trending. Street art in particular can be found all over the little alley ways and lanes. These amazing graffiti artwork are flocked by international and local tourists daily. Since I work in the city, I go for walks during lunch time and I’ve passed through a lot of lanes in my time and I’m constantly amazed by the quality of work a lot of these graffiti artists are doing.
Of course I have not walked through every alley way or lanes in the city but from what I have seen so far, I thought I should put these places together into a do-it-yourself walking tour haha that you folks can check out for yourself. The tour starts at QV, 180 Lonsdale St since that is where I work :D. You can however skip that part of the tour and start at Chinatown at Little Bourke St instead which is the first stop. See map below for the walking trail. It would approximately take you around 40mins to walk but of course, it might take you longer due to some impromptu photo shoots and selfies that you will not be able to resist.
The list of places we’ll visit are:
- Croft Alley
- Duckboard Place
- ACDC Lane
- Centre Place
- Union Lane
- Drewery Lane (bonus)
Croft Alley
Located in Chinatown, just off Little Bourke St within the block between Russell St and Exhibition St. If you walk down Chinatown and you see the giant dino-worm hybrid artwork then Croft Alley is just behind you.
This particular alley is probably not as well known as the other graffiti lanes in the Melbourne CBD (for tourists that is) since I was the only one there. The alley has a dead end which I believe leads to a bar. I didn’t go and check it out as I was a little spooked by being in an alley way on my own haha but the artwork was worth the feeling. Ps. I took these shots really quickly hahaha.
Duckboard Place / ACDC Lane
Make your way to Exhibition St towards Flinders Lane where you’ll find Duckboard Place which connects to ACDC Lane, two alleys at one stop. ACDC Lane is named after the famous Australian rock band. Not sure why but it’s better than its old name Corporation Lane haha. Plenty of awesome graffiti here.
Hosier Lane
If you keep walking down Flinders Lane towards Swanston St you’ll stumble across our next destination, Hosier Lane. This lane is where the tourists are at! It must be the most famous graffiti lane in Melbourne. It’s used a lot as a location for photo shoots. I for one have had my photos taken here back in my modelling days hahahaha kidding (sort of) see below for evidence ;). New artwork appears all the time so you can come back once in a while.
Centre Place
From Hosier Lane, make your way towards Swanston St via Flinders Lane and you’ll see our next stop, Centre Place. This alley is particularly busy all the time especially at lunch time where many people choose this place to eat and hang out, who wouldn’t? It has such a cool vibe :).
Union Lane
After Centre Place, make your way towards Collins St, turn left and head towards Elizabeth St then turn right again into Little Collins St where you’ll find the narrow Union Lane.
Drewery Lane
To get to Drewery Lane from Bourke St Mall, walk through Myer or David Jones and if you see Caledonian Lane, you’re getting close. I would have added Caledonian Lane here but I couldn’t really take pictures of the artwork since the new shopping centre Emporium was built, a lot of delivery trucks park on the street covering them. After walking through this lane, you’ll end up at Lonsdale St and right across you’ll spot Drewery Lane. There is not a lot of graffiti YET on the walls of this lane. I’m sure soon enough it will be filled with wonderful artwork. There is a particularly awesome sculpture though that you can check out.
Once you leave Drewery Lane then it’s up to you if you want to go back to QV and visit me at work haha. And so that ends our walking tour. Hope you enjoy it. I’ll definitely do this walk again in a few months’ time as I’m sure I will get to see new artwork then.
P.s. Kudos to the graffiti artists and their amazing talent 🙂
Cheerio,
Jeeps
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