Flinders Lane is a minor

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of d ...

and

thoroughfare A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi- lane hig ...

in the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " cit ...

of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The laneway runs east–west from Spring Street to

Spencer Street Spencer Street is a major street and thoroughfare in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria. The street was gazetted in 1837 as the westernmost boundary of the Hoddle Grid. Spencer Street is named for John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spence ...

in-between Flinders and Collins Streets. Originally laid out as part of the

Hoddle Grid 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 an ang ...

in 1837, the laneway was once the centre of Melbourne's

rag trade The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

and is still home to boutique designers and high-end retailers including

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel i ...

, now perched alongside numerous upscale hotels like the

W Hotel W Hotels is an American upscale lifestyle hotel chain owned by Marriott International that is marketed towards a younger age group. History W Hotels was launched in 1998 with W New York, a conversion of the former Doral Inn hotel on Lexington ...

Melbourne and Adelphi Hotel, loft apartments, 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 is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

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 member Christopher Hudson shot and killed Brendan Keilar and wounded two others. Keilar was posthumously awarded the Royal Humane Society of Australasia's medal for bravery as he was shot and killed after intervening to save one of the victims.

Notable buildings

City Library building, Flinders Lane, Melbourne

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 I ...

, 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 Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

* Ross House (1898) by Sulman & Power * Tomasetti Warehouse (1899) by H W & F B Tompkins * Milton House (1901) by Sydney Smith & Ogg * Manchester House (1911) by Bates Peebles & Smart * Majorca Building (1928) by

Harry Norris Harry Norris (12 June 1888 – 15 December 1966) was an Australian architect, one of the more prolific and successful in Melbourne in the interwar period, best known for his 1930s Art Deco commercial work in the Melbourne CBD. His designs were ...

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, demolished 1972 * Western Market (1841) on the block bounded by Market, Collins and

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

Street, demolished 1961 * New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Woolstore (1882) at 522 Flinders Lane, demolished 1973

Transport

There is a short section of the street between Collins and Market 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