Flinders Lane is a minor

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

and

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way of transport, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. Originally, the word referred to a main road or open street which was frequented thoroughly. Different terms *Roa ...

in the

Melbourne central business district The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

. The

laneway An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane), or a path, walk, or av ...

runs east–west from Spring Street to

Spencer Street Spencer Street is a major street and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. The street was gazetted in 1837 as the westernmost boundary of the Hoddle Grid. Spencer Street is named for John Spencer, forme ...

in-between

Flinders Flinders may refer to: Places Antarctica * Flinders Peak, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula Australia New South Wales * Flinders County, New South Wales * Shellharbour Junction railway station, Shellharbour * Flinders, New South Wa ...

and Collins streets. Originally laid out as part of the

Hoddle Grid The Hoddle Grid is the contemporary name given to the approximately grid of streets that form the Melbourne central business district, Australia. Bounded by Flinders Street, Spring Street, La Trobe Street, and Spencer Street, it lies at a ...

in 1837, the laneway was once the centre of Melbourne's rag trade and is still home to boutique designers and high-end retailers including

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

, now perched alongside numerous upscale hotels like the

W Hotel W, or w, is the twenty-third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''double-u'',Pronounced in formal situation ...

Melbourne and Adelphi Hotel,

loft apartment A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

s, cafes and bars. Many historic buildings are found on Flinders Lane with a history of strict height limits helping to preserve the buildings from redevelopment. Despite the loss of some significant buildings over time, it is still known for its

SoHo SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

atmosphere and chic, well-preserved historic buildings.

History

Garment Trade

In the 1880s, large soft-goods import warehouses established Flinders Lane as the heart of the clothing trade. This was because of the Lane's proximity to wharves and railway stations, and centrality to Melbourne's population. For over one hundred years ‘The Lane’ was an Australian institution due to its clothing and textiles (the schmatte trade). Buyers could come from the country and ‘do’ the Lane in one session, which featured many Jewish migrant businesses. For a large part of the twentieth century the garment trade remained an important industry in Flinders Lane. The number of clothing firms on the street reached 610 in 1939, and this level of activity was maintained until the early 1960s. In the 1960s and 1970s these businesses began to close due to changing requirements for space and labour, rising rents and traffic congestion.

Hells Angels Shootings

On Monday 18 June 2007, a shooting incident occurred on the corner of Flinders Lane and William Street when

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

member Christopher Hudson shot and killed Brendan Keilar and wounded two others. Keilar was posthumously awarded the

Royal Humane Society of Australasia The Royal Humane Society of Australasia (RHSA), formerly the Victorian Humane Society, is an Australian charity dedicated to the recognition of those who risk their own lives in saving or attempting to save the lives of others. It also provides ...

's medal for bravery as he was shot and killed after intervening to save one of the victims.

Notable buildings

Flinders Lane has many notable multi-storey warehouses and buildings, many included on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

, including: * Murray House (1880) * Leicester House (1886) by T J Crouch * Chapter House (1891) by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a British Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was bo ...

* Ross House (1898) by Sulman & Power * Tomasetti Warehouse (1899) by H W & F B Tompkins *

Milton House Milton House may refer to: ;in Australia * Milton House (Melbourne), Victoria *Milton House, Milton, in Milton, Queensland ;in the United States * Milton House (Denver, Colorado) in Potter Highlands Historic District, a Denver Landmark, designed b ...

(1901) by Sydney Smith & Ogg * Manchester House (1911) by Bates Peebles & Smart *

Majorca Building The Majorca Building is a historic office building in Melbourne, Australia, completed in 1930. Located at 258-260 Flinders Lane, it was designed by Harry Norris in an exotic Spanish /Moorish style, in strongly coloured faience. History Flind ...

(1928) by

Harry Norris Harry Albert Norris (12 June 1888 – 15 December 1966) was an Australian architect based in Melbourne, Victoria. He was especially known for his 1930s Art Deco and Streamline Moderne commercial work in the Melbourne central business district, ...

Other buildings now lost include: * 'Australian Building' (1889) by Henry Kemp (a 12-storey Queen Anne building third tallest in the world when completed), demolished 1980 * Champions Hotel (1905) on the corner of

Swanston Street Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically bisects Melbourne's city centre and is famous as the wor ...

, demolished 1972 *

Western Market :''Western Market is also a former name for Plaza Miserere.'' Western Market is one of the oldest structures in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The current structure, built in 1906, was the North Block of the original Western Market ...

(1841) on the block bounded by

Market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

, Collins and

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

streets, demolished 1961 *

New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company provided investments and loans for trade and commerce in New Zealand and Australia. Notable people * James Beard, the 1889 New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Building architect * John Logan Cam ...

Woolstore (1882) at 522 Flinders Lane, demolished 1973

Transport

There is a short section of the street between Collins and

streets that the route 58 tram runs down. Though there is no other public transport running down Flinders Lane itself, the street is well connected due to the surrounding rail, tram and bus infrastructure.

References

{{Melbourne CBD Streets Streets in Melbourne City Centre