One thing great about Melbourne is that there are a variety of nicely laid out walks. This makes it easier for visitors like me who may have a few hours to spare and don’t want to spend the whole time shopping. I checked out one of the suggested routes recently that took me through the city’s historical lanes and arcades.
The Melbourne Visitor (tourism) Centre in Federation Square is the best place to start. I picked up a map that outlined the route – “Arcades and Lanes” – I wanted to do and which also had info on the highlights. This walk is just 2.5 km and the map indicates around 1.5 hours walking time. The first sight, besides Federation Sq. of course, is Flinders Street Station.
Crossing the road took me to a old pub – Young and Jackson’s. The route is a round trip walk so you can come back to this pub for a drink if you wanted to.
The next highlight is Degraves St – lots of cafes here – but I think what I was really pleased to run into were two street buskers playing old time jazz. As one of the other passers by said, “it’s New Orleans”. It contrasted nicely with the lunch time crowd of office workers.
Further up is Centre Place, another buzzing lane full of cafes and one of Melbourne’s most colourful places, in my opinion. You can get some great photos here with all the bright signs and graffiti.
Next, across Collins Street is Block Arcade. This covered arcade maintains its Victorian characteristics well with the wrought iron touches, glass roof panels and tiled floors.
The end of Block Arcade sits Block Place which is another picturesque cafe filled area.
Royal Arcade, famous for its Gog and Magog statues – they strike on the hour, is across Little Collins St. If you feel like having some coffee or hot chocolate or need to pick up some specialty chocolates, a branch of chocolatiers Koko Black is here.
Once leaving Royal Arcade, I found myself in the middle of the shopping district. So it was very tempting to do a bit of shopping – which is what I ended up doing. I went into the H&M in Melbourne’s GPO. But since I wanted to complete the route, I kept this diversion short.
From here, the time between sights stretches out a bit but I did get myself over to Niagara Lane. Unfortunately by now the sun was high overhead making taking good photos really difficult. Niagara Lane has a row of very well preserved red brick warehouses. You can see the hooks hanging off the tops of the buildings – which would have been how they hoisted things up in the past.
Cobblestoned Hardware Lane was a little lacklustre in that I think it was already past the peak lunch hour and so the street seemed quiet. I ended up taking a photo of a reflection in one of the windows. However, I did walk past a very interesting narrow lane that had been completely covered with graffiti.
From here, the walk heads back down toward where I started. Before then, I found Howley Place and Capitol Arcade and I had a great cup of coffee from the tiny, hole-in-the-wall Switchboard Cafe, which is in Manchester Unity Arcade. I think it was the ideal spot to have a rest since I was just one road over from being back at Flinders St. Station.
All in, I probably spent just over two hours on this walk given my shopping diversion, all the photos and a pause to listen to some jazz. It was an easy, cheap (except for the shopping) and relaxing way to get to know Melbourne a bit better. Other recommended routes are available from the Melbourne Visitor Centre.