Few buildings encapsulate Melbourne’s late-Victorian elegance like the Block Arcade. Inspired by Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, its delicate stucco, floor mosaics and iron lace work are simply breathtaking. Note the ceiling mural crowning the l’Occitane store at the Collins St entrance, commissioned by the Singer Sewing Company in 1907 and executed by designer Phillip Goatcher, once the highest-paid scene painter in the world.

Completed in 1893, the arcade itself was a popular destination for affluent, Victorian-era Melburnians, whose custom of promenading along this block of Collins Street was known as ‘doing the block’. These gilded days live on at the Block Arcade’s time-warped Tea Rooms 1892, famed for its mouthwatering cake displays. Just off the northern end of the arcade, Block Ln is home to cult-status record store Basement Discs.

Practical Info

282 Collins St, Melbourne

Opening hours: Mon-Thu 8am-6pm, Fri to 8pm, Sat to 5pm, Sun 9am-5pm

Transport: Train to Flinders St

theblock.com.au