Hardware Lane, Melbourne

Hardware Lane is one of those Melbourne spots where you stroll in for a coffee and accidentally stay long enough to consider ordering dinner… and maybe dessert. Stretching north to south between Bourke and Little Lonsdale Streets, it even switches names halfway through—because in Melbourne, even the laneways like a costume change. North of Lonsdale, it becomes Hardware Street, as if preparing for its next act...

By daylight, the lane buzzes with cafés, restaurants, hairdressers, and the occasional fast-food joint for those feeling less “culinary adventure” and more “quick rescue mission.” Come evening, the red brick pavement glows under warm lights, the traffic barriers go up from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and you might even catch a live jazz set drifting through the tables like the soundtrack to a European holiday you forgot you booked.

Its past is just as colorful. Back in 1857, it was Wrights Lane, and even earlier, it played host to Kirk’s Horse Bazaar—a bustling 1840s marketplace where traders haggled over horses instead of brunch menus. It later became home to Melbourne’s Tattersall’s Club, where bookmakers and punters settled their bets, proving that lively negotiation has always been part of the lane’s DNA.

By the late 1800s, Wrights Lane was lined with hotels: Kirks Bazaar Hotel on one corner, the Governor Arthur Hotel on the other, and the Shamrock Hotel holding court at the Lonsdale end. Today, not a single hotel remains, but the lane has kept the flair for hospitality—just with better coffee and fewer horses...

Keep an eye out for Dynon’s Building at numbers 63–73. Designed by William Pitt—renowned for his work on some of the city's finest Gothic revival buildings, including the Princess Theatre—its four handsome warehouses give the lane a touch of historical swagger.