Meyers Place, Melbourne — Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

Every great cultural movement needs a birthplace, and Melbourne's legendary laneway bar scene started right here in Meyers Place in 1994. Originally known as Nicholas Lane, this narrow passage is one of the CBD's oldest laneways, and it became ground zero for one of the most significant shifts in Australian hospitality culture. The first laneway bar in Melbourne was created here by Six Degrees Architects on a shoestring budget of just $30,000, with much of the fit-out built from materials scavenged from dumpsters. What made this possible was a 1994 law change that allowed bars to operate without serving food, breaking the old requirement that had kept Melbourne's drinking culture tied to traditional pubs and restaurants. The result was revolutionary. Meyers Place Bar won the 1995 Merit Award and the inaugural Melbourne Prize in 1997, signalling that the city's cultural establishment recognized something genuinely new was happening. From this tiny, scrappy beginning, an entire industry blossomed: the Melbourne laneway bar culture that would transform abandoned alleys across the CBD into one of the world's most celebrated bar scenes. Every speakeasy-style door, every hole-in-the-wall cocktail bar, every hidden rooftop drinking spot in Melbourne owes a debt to this pioneering laneway. Questo's Melbourne bar culture trail starts at the spot where it all began, a narrow passage that changed how an entire city drinks.