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Correspondence file between E. Finn and Town Clerk, City of Melbourne, re Finn Place, 10 March 1874, courtesy of Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre.
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Finn Place
Finn Place was located between Exhibition and Spring streets, extending to the north from Little Lonsdale Street. It was located directly opposite Griffin Lane on Little Lonsdale Street. It no longer exists today. Finn Place was possibly named after Edmund Finn, an Irish journalist and author who wrote under the name Garryowen. He arrived in Melbourne in 1841, and in 1880 published a history of the city.
In 1895, Finn Place was the location of the Harp of Erin Hotel, an Irish pub and hotel. The laneway was also, somewhat ironically, the site of the home of the mission deaconess of the Church of England. In its early years Finn Place was a popular site for stables and cabinet-makers, being the residence of Sim Choong Loong's furniture factory, and the John Daly stables. By 1950, however, the character of the lane had drastically changed, as its major occupant had become a Commonwealth Government office block.
- References
- Sands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1892. Details
- Sands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1930. Details
- Bate, Weston, Essential but unplanned: The story of Melbourne's lanes, State Library of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1994. Details
