Hardware Precinct Highlights Cafés Outdoor adventure shopping

Amongst Melbourne’s labyrinth of beautifully restored lanes, Hardware Lane stands out above the rest. Tucked away between Queen and Elizabeth streets and crossing Little Bourke Street, the red-brick paved lane with its canopy of café umbrellas and flowering window boxes is where Melbourne’s café culture began. The precinct is popular with the cosmopolitan set who find it perfect for sitting, sipping chardonnay and watching the world go by.

Nearby Little Bourke Street offers the city’s best collection of outdoor adventure stores, including Paddy Palin and Mountain Designs.

Little laneways, like Niagara Lane, dot the precinct and add to its charms. The ecclectic range of specialty stores means you can buy fresh flowers, seek out hard-to-find records, or invest in a work of modern art. At night, people come out to enjoy some of the city's funkiest bars and to groove away to live jazz until the early hours of the morning.

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