Hosier Lane

Hosier Lane runs from Flinders Street south toward the Yarra and is the most famous of Melbourne's street art laneways, photographed by more visitors than almost any other spot in the city. The cobblestoned lane is covered from ground to roofline with murals, paste-ups, and tags in a constantly changing collage. Work ranges from large commissioned pieces by internationally known artists to wild-style lettering by anonymous writers, all overlapping and competing for space.

The lane is best seen on foot at eye level — details get lost in photographs. At weekends, you will find artists working here during daylight hours. Rutledge Lane, which runs off Hosier Lane, is less photographed and often has more interesting recent work. Both lanes are a short walk from Federation Square.

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A story
Melbourne's approach to street art is unusual in international terms: the City of Melbourne has formally permitted and encouraged street art in specific laneways since the early 2000s, treating it as a legitimate form of public art rather than vandalism. Hosier Lane is the result — a laneway where the art changes continuously as artists paint over each other's work. The council's decision followed years of cat-and-mouse with graffiti writers and was partly influenced by the argument that a graffiti-covered laneway attracted tourists while a plain laneway attracted nothing.

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