Hosier Lane

Hosier Lane is a cobbled bluestone laneway on the southern edge of the central city grid, running between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane and opening onto Flinders Street opposite the Atrium entrance to Federation Square. It has been a tourist draw since the late 1990s, when it was opened as a street art gallery in 1998 through the City Lights Initiative, and it is now the best-known of the city's painted lanes.

What makes Hosier Lane different from a gallery is that the work never stays still. The lane has long been treated as a de facto free-to-paint area where artists do not need a permit, so pieces are painted over, layered and replaced all the time, and the walls you see will not match photographs taken a few months earlier. The art often carries political themes. In November 2013 the All Your Walls event brought more than 100 artists to repaint Hosier Lane and neighbouring Rutledge Lane, and in early 2020 a group of masked people colour-bombed the lane, painting over many works, which police investigated as vandalism.

Rutledge Lane, which branches off Hosier Lane, is worth a look while you are there; in 2013 the artist Adrian Doyle painted it entirely in a single colour, Empty Nursery Blue, with council consent. The lane is also a favourite backdrop for fashion and wedding photography, so you will often see photo shoots under way.

Hosier Lane is more than walls. MoVida, the restaurant led by chef Frank Camorra, is in the lane, and there are cocktail lounges including Misty, so a look at the art can easily turn into a meal or a drink.

The lane makes an obvious starting point for a walk through Melbourne's lanes and arcades, most of which began as service routes in the 1837 Hoddle Grid and were pedestrianised from the 1990s. Centre Place, between Flinders Lane and Collins Street, has its own stencil art along with cafés and boutiques, and Degraves Street, reached by an underpass from Flinders Street Station, is lined with cafés. AC/DC Lane, off Flinders Lane between Exhibition and Russell Streets, was renamed in 2004 in honour of the band, and a lightning bolt was added above and below its sign a month after the renaming.

There is no charge and no opening time, as the lane is a public street open to pedestrians and vehicles. Watch for cars on the cobbles, wear comfortable shoes and allow half an hour for the lane itself, or a couple of hours if you continue through the other lanes and arcades.