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Crombie Lane

Crombie Lane runs north-south between Lonsdale and Little Bourke streets on the block between King and William streets. In 1860, Crombie Lane contained the businesses of an engineer and dressmaker and a general store, as well as a boarding house run by a Mrs Cousins. In 1892, Jessie Grover wrote to the Inspector of Nuisances about her neighbours, Wrights and Edwards, and the nuisance caused by their premises in Crombie Lane at the rear of Lonsdale Street: 'The open drain on the ground has been covered up so as to serve more space [for the store]. The drain has consequently been neglected for over one year'. Lanes were plagued by such sanitation and health problems. Crombie Lane and its surrounds hosted residences and shops belonging to Melburnians of a wide variety of occupations. Milliners, engravers, plumbers, printers, confectioners, mechanics, importers of antiques and merchants in leather, poultry, food and wool, all inhabited the area in 1935. Crombie Lane also contained a testing laboratory for the Metropolitan Tramways Board at this time. In 2008, the laneway contained two car parks.

Edwina Byrne

References

Sands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1860. Details

'1-3 Coverlid Place, H7822, File 1519', in Victorian Heritage Register On-Line, 2000, http://www.doi.vic.gov.au/doi/hvolr.nsf. Details

Bate, Weston, Essential but unplanned: The story of Melbourne's lanes, State Library of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1994. Details