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    Eagle Alley, from Little Leichardt Street to Lonsdale Street, 1950, by Australia Dept. of Housing and Construction Victoria/Tasmania Region, courtesy of State Library of Victoria.
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Eagle Alley

Eagle Alley is located between King and William streets. It extends north from Little Lonsdale Street, doglegs to the west, and then continues north to La Trobe Street. It is situated opposite Manton Lane on Little Lonsdale Street. The lane was originally an unnamed right-of-way extending from La Trobe Street to Hawke Place. In 1890, it became Eagle Alley, and by 1895 the connection between Eagle Alley and Hawke Place was closed, replaced with a wood yard. The laneway was predominantly used for residential purposes in its early years, hence the location of the West Melbourne Laundry on the corner of King Street, La Trobe Street and Eagle Alley in 1895.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Melbourne's laneways often had a reputation for being the location of unsavoury characters. A 1905 complaint to the City of Melbourne notes the presence of undesirable characters in the Little Lonsdale Street vicinity, including Eagle Alley. Having been forced by police to leave the eastern areas of the city, 'they have only moved them to the locality we have mentioned'.

Alexandra Gerner

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
Amendment C105 - CBD Laneways Review, City of Melbourne, 2007, http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=195&pg=3065&bp=1902&coll=8. Details
Unit 642, File 2067, 9 June 1905; VPRS 3181/P000, City of Melbourne Town Clerk's Files Series 1; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details