Photo Essay: Melbourne's Inner-City Laneways

Taking a casual stroll around Melbourne's grid-patterned central business district, you'd be hard pressed not to come across at least one of the city's bustling laneways.

Tucked in between major thoroughfares, the laneways are often narrow, cold in the shade and breezy due to the tall buildings around, but they are some of the best spots to pick up the vibe of (arguably) Australia's coolest and most cultured city.

Chic clothing boutiques stocking hard-to-find local designers, hole-in-the-wall bars which may only be around for a few weeks, or cafes serving some of the best espresso in the country - you can find all this in Melbourne's laneways. Not to mention the visual feast of graffiti and wall art that adorn many of them.

And city authorities have come to the party. Graffiti is not painted over or washed off. Special licenses are granted for laneway bars and annual music and arts festivals are held in these narrow corridors. Such has been the success of these laneways in promoting the city's social and cultural life that Melbourne's great interstate rival to the north, Sydney, is now looking to follow her example and rejuvenate it's own neglected inner-city lanes and alleys.

So next time you're in Melbourne, spend some time exploring the city - look around that unpromising corner, follow that dirty alleyway and see where it leads you. You never know, you may stumble across that one-off place that helps make your visit all the more memorable.

But of course I'm not going to tell you exactly where all the coolest laneways are - after all, finding them is half the fun!