Union Lane

Union Lane was classified as a public lane.

Named 1864.

Located at or near: 286-288 Little Collins St.

Probable or possible origin of name: Union Hotel, Little Collins Street.

Location is approximate.

For more information, see: Bate, W., Broome, R., Davis, N., May, A. J., & Stitt, H. (2024). The story of Melbourne’s lanes: Essential but unplanned (pp. 58, 173). ISBN 978-1-875173-12-9.

"Because only relatively high-value production justified a central location, Union Lane, off Little Collins Street near the heart of the city, contained electroplaters, brass finishers, locksmiths, an engraver and lapidary, a stereotyper, a wholesale newsagent, and a watchmaker in 1895. No dwellings remained. At the same time the offices of mining companies, which had dominated Tavistock Lane (earlier Tavistock Place, towards the west end of Flinders Lane) since the 1860s, were upgraded, and famous Bank Place, off Collins Street, was almost rebuilt to house solicitors, assignees, conveyancers, liquidators, accountants and (harbinger of further change) Mrs Walpole's typewriter office. Eldon Chambers sheltered the Society for the Assistance of Persons of Education (fallen on hard times?) and the Dragon Whist Club. At the Mitre Tavern John Garden provided business lunches, and in basements beneath Bank Place, conveniently, there were wine merchants. Alfred Place, at the Paris end of Collins Street, had sloughed off its earlier livery stables, builder's yard, cabinet maker, estate agent and boarding house in favour of a German Association and a firm of printers and publishers who produced Melbourne Punch, Once a Week and the Australasian Schoolmaster." p. 58.