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Arcade Alley
Arcade Alley runs north off Little Bourke Street between Swanston and Elizabeth streets.
The 1858 Melbourne Directory listed the warehouses of J. and J. Bennett, wholesale ironmongers, and Levy Brothers, importers of fancy goods, in the alley, which may have received its name from the adjacent Queens Arcade in which Levy Brothers occupied numbers 37 to 56. [Weston Bate, Essential but unplanned, p. 33]
In 1860, Arcade Alley contained a hairdresser and several stores owned by David Masterton. By 1895, the alley contained cigar-makers, dealers and warehouses, and also housed Buckley & Nunn's delivery wagons and stables. Conveniently located opposite the major retail emporiums, Arcade Alley also contained several bulk stores belonging to Buckley & Nunn and Myer.
Arcade Alley now separates David Jones from Myer in the heart of the retail district, and has been extended to Lonsdale Street by Arc Lane.
- References
- Sands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1860. Details
- Bate, Weston, Essential but unplanned: The story of Melbourne's lanes, State Library of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1994. Details
