Melbourne's laneways

"Who could fail to see the romance inherent in a cobbled street built for carting away crap by night, right?"

Karl Quinn, Sydney Morning Herald

I suspect that for the next couple of weeks this blog may be a bit tourist orientated as we guide our Scottish friends around Melbourne and surrounds. So I sort of apologise, but not really because there is a lot to love about Melbourne.

Today I took them into Melbourne city and at least half of the time was spent wandering through the packed little laneways for which Melbourne has become famous. To be fair we did not wander through Hardware Lane (above) because we were not up that end of town, but we did several others, and this was a particularly nice picture. I have to confess that I am not so familiar with Hardware Lane because it is at the west end, but I do know of it because of the original Laurent patisserie on its corner. It looks a little more open than some of the others in the centre and east end.

A brief history. The original grid plan of the city consisted of wide streets running north/south and east/west with narrower ones running parallel in between. And in between these were lots of little lanes. Their purpose was for collecting rubbish and sewage, and making deliveries.

“Laneways were for rubbish, sewerage collection, some were privately owned — they were almost part of the property. And they were where all the things happened that you wanted out of sight. Over time they attracted undesirables, criminals.” Herald Sun

But back in the 70s and 80s the centre of Melbourne was dead at night and the whole place was almost dying. Those laneways were just dark and potentially threatening little alleys. Then they developed the Arts Centre, Southgate and the Casino and Geoff Kennett - the premier in the 90s changed the licensing laws to allow drinks to be served without food. A few enterprising people saw this as an opportunity and little bars started to pop up in out of the way little lanes - no doubt the rents were cheap. The first of these is said to be Meyers Place (below).

And I guess once you are on to a good thing it explodes. So along with the proliferation of tiny little hole in the wall bars and cafés came the street art and now Melbourne is world renowned for it all - the food, the drink, the art, the studios and craft shops and other interesting spaces that have sprung up in the buildings above these little lanes. Vibrant being the word most used. Sydney has tried to follow suit but I gather has been hampered by their licensing laws and maybe a lack of appropriate little lanes. I do confess I don't know a lot about Sydney but I don't think it has managed to quite compete with what we have here in Melbourne. And perhaps part of the reason too is that these laneways are also a shaded passageway through the centre of Melbourne which provides all sorts of passing trade.

I have to say as we threaded our way through these immensely busy and dark little laneways, festooned by artistic graffiti, and featuring interesting little shops in between the cafés, I understand the lovely French waitress in Narbonne, who had visited Melbourne, when she said with enthusiasm 'j'adore Melbourne, c'est 'très coooool!'

For it was. Tiny little cafés or even if they were not tiny they gave the impression of being tiny, blackboard menus, eclectic food, dim lights, grungy but smart at the same time. Très, très cooool!

And it wasn't just tourists inhabiting the cafés. There were lots of locals taking a break from shopping - for there are hundreds and hundreds of shops too - everything from Chanel to Woolworths.

No doubt there are other cities in the world with similar areas, but every time I go to our own I am just amazed at how they have grown and thrived in such a relatively short time, transforming the city from a staid business centre to a modern cultural mecca. Every time I see something new and I regret not taking my camera, and oops, forgetting that my phone is a camera too for there is so much to photograph. This time I saw another little café which had sprung up in a lane off a lane. A tiny little previously derelict space for dustbins that is now a beautiful little café. And yes it is all a little dark - they are very narrow - but in the summer this is good. It gets very hot here and the darkness promotes cool - of the climate kind.

"there's a lot to celebrate in the way this city picked itself up by its bootstraps, embraced its heritage and remade itself for a new age." Karl Quinn Sydney Morning Herald