Coates Lane

Formerly Coates Lane East/Coates Lane No.1.

Named 1872.

Located at or near: 23-25 Little Collins Street.

Probable or possible origin of name: Walter Coates/Coates family, owners, adjacent land, then on Yarra bank, 1840.

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. 23). ISBN 978-1-875173-12-9.

"In the lanes of sector IV (as in the others), among many small factories, were the fledglings of a new technological phase, like the appearance in the twentieth century of Australian Rubber Mills in Coates Lane and a gramophone repairer in Coromandel Place. The ice cream giant, Peter's American Delicacy Company, was born in Meyer Place, and broadcasting began from 3LO and 3AR in Melbourne Place in the 1920s. Hidden away in 1935 were craftsmen in gold, stained glass and copper, a 'sanitary' plumber, and (in Alfred Place) Felton, Grimwade and Duerdin, makers of surgical implements. Otherwise the rag trade was dominant, as it had been from the 1880s. 'The Lane' spread through dozens of narrow inlets off Flinders Lane, especially between Russell and Exhibition streets. Many were anonymous in 1895 when only La Trobe, Ramsden, Watson, Argus, Oliver and Hosier were named. Finding people was much easier by 1935, although there may have been fewer street signs than names in Sands & McDougal's Directory-for Oliver, Hosier, Freemasons, Ellis, Chester, Hockins, Lush, Moore, Malthouse, Corporation and Higsons lanes, and for Henderson, Ramsden and Watson places, Argus Alley and George Parade. Makers of dresses, shirts, underwear, suits, uniforms, coats, mantles, and furs crowded in behind the large soft goods importers who fronted Flinders Lane itself. There were also allied trades like leather work, pleating, spokestitching, and sewing machine repairs." p. 23.