Block Arcade

This might be the most beautiful interior in Melbourne. The Block Arcade was built between eighteen ninety-one and eighteen ninety-three, right at the peak of the city's gold rush wealth, and the architects Twentyman and Askew made absolutely sure everyone knew Melbourne had money. Look at your feet first. Those mosaic tiles on the floor were imported from Italy and laid by Italian craftsmen. Now look up. That glass canopy is supported by cast and wrought iron, and the timber shop fronts are among the tallest and most elaborate surviving examples of Victorian retail architecture in Australia.

The name comes from the social ritual of doing the block, which was Melbourne's version of the evening promenade. In the eighteen eighties and nineties, the fashionable set would walk a circuit around Collins Street, from Swanston Street down to Elizabeth Street and back, showing off their outfits and catching up on gossip. It was the social media of the Victorian era. The arcade was built right in the middle of this route, giving the promenaders somewhere glamorous to walk through.

The design was inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele the Second in Milan, which was then the most fashionable shopping arcade in Europe. If you have ever been to Milan, you will recognise the vaulted glass roof and the mosaic floors. Melbourne was trying to be the Milan of the south. And in the eighteen nineties, flush with gold money, it very nearly pulled it off. Inside, you will find the Hopetoun Tea Rooms, which have been serving afternoon tea since nineteen ninety-two in a room that has barely changed since the arcade was built. The queue often stretches out the door, which tells you everything about how Melburnians feel about this place.