Just a few photographs from a recent brief visit to Melbourne. It’s been more than 15 years since my last visit and boy, has the city been transformed. Memories from this trip: street art, laneways, cakes and coffee …
Melbourne’s street art is one of the city’s top tourist attractions. Over the past 20 years, the city’s street art scene has flourished. As early as 1984, Keith Haring had actually painted murals in the city. Of course, street artists never intend to create tourist attractions; just like anywhere else in the world, empty city walls were a way for them to express themselves, ‘talk’ to one another and ‘to’ the city using images and tags. Melbourne’s network of alleyways and hidden backlanes provided a ready canvas while the city’s dynamic arts and cultural life had always attracted artists. The tourism authorities naturally, latched onto street art as a way to promote the ‘hipness’ of Melbourne – using it for ‘creative tourism’, which purist aficionados and street art practitioners view with some suspicion. Urban underground art and tourism do not make the easiest bedfellows, as discussed in this article.
When I got to Hosier Lane, I was surprised at the crowds there. There were tourists of different nationalities and ages, all taking photos and videos, no doubt to be shared on millions of Instagram feeds. It was quite difficult trying NOT to be in other people’s photographs.
Wandering through the city centre, I made my way to AC/DC Lane – named after the rock band as a tribute, which I thought was a cool thing to do. It was surprisingly empty.
The street art is varied, from painterly murals to tags to stencils to posters, which makes it visually interesting. It’s hard not to look like a tourist when you’re stopping to look at the walls all the time.
“Laneway culture” is another aspect of Melbourne / Australian city life and has become another tourist attraction. Basically, laneways are the alleys between buildings in the city centre which provide ‘backdoor’ access to the buildings. In the past, the city centre was pretty quiet at night and so were these alleys. But in the 1990s during the recession, young entrepreneurs started businesses and cafes in these lanes to take advantage of cheap rents. Laneways now house eclectic shops and boutiques, bars, restaurants, cafes and with their buzzy atmosphere, are very much part of the city’s urban renewal. I was in Adelaide two years ago and saw laneways there buzzing with bars and restaurants too.
Melbourne is also famous for good coffee, and it seems there’s a coffee joint on every street. Rejoice, coffee lovers!
Cafes are open early for breakfast, and the menus looked familiar … avocado on toast, eggs benedict, pancakes, the classic fry-up … Basically, the same as the brunch menus at trendy cafes back home in Singapore. So that’s how our brunch trend started – which really shouldn’t surprise me since so many Singaporeans study in Melbourne or holiday there, and Australian chefs and restarauteurs have made their mark in Singapore’s dining scene.
I wandered through The Block Arcade on Collins Street and admired the astoundingly pretty cake display in the window of Hopetoun Tearoom. Found some inspiration for possible future homebakes!
Actually, The Block Arcade and other similar ‘malls’ that straddle parallel streets, are the originally ‘laneways’ dating from the 19th century. They’re essentially covered pedestrian lanes lined with shops – very useful on rainy days, and architecturally appealing.
Melbourne has also earned a reputation as a dining city. When I got off my flight from Singapore, I overheard fellow passengers planning what to do for the day: head out to lunch at a well-known restaurant, go shopping and buy chocolates, take a coffee break at a famous cafe for its famous coffee, look for the famous apple strudel (apparently, a trending thing among a particular demographic of Singaporeans).
There’s certainly no shortage of places for dining and drinking. Wandering along the South Bank, across the Yarra River and back to the City Centre in the evening, there was an unmistakeable vibe of ‘the good life’ from the lights and music of the bars and restaurants, and everywhere the buzz of happy conversation.
These attractions make Melbourne a great weekend destination. Apart from these, there’s still other places to visit – galleries, museums, the botanic gardens, and more. Well, there’s always next time …
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