Hosier Lane is Melbourne’s most famous street art location. 

In years gone past it deserved this reputation, unfortunately now it does not. 

Now it is dirty, untidy, some say unsafe, and any artists work that is created there is unlikely to last very long at all.

Melbourne City Council’s decision some time ago to remove the “legal” painting status from a number of other laneways in Melbourne, leaving Hosier Lane as the only legal laneway in the CBD has certainly contributed to this messiness. Hosier Lane is now more a laneway of tags than anything else.

Matt Adnate’s “Marlu” and a couple of other artworks that are “up high” are a saving grace as is Melbourne’s most important mural, the emotional tribute to women murdered in Australia, “Stop Killing Women” by Sherele Moody that has lasted over a year (with a few repair jobs).

We have recently seen some of our best graffiti writers return to Hosier, like Dvate, Bailer, Ling, Sofles and others, but even their brilliant graffiti writing does not last very long.

The Melbourne Street Art Collective regularly run events in Hosier Lane, such as “Christmas in Hosier” and “Halloween in Hosier” where a dedicated group of artists try to bring colour and life back to the laneway with their murals, stencils and paste-ups, but as with most art in the lane these efforts are quickly subsumed by the tagging and crappy painting.

One particular person has been particularly destructive in Hosier Lane over the past couple of years. He persists in filling the laneway with amateurish hearts and music notes, often trying to claim other peoples work by drawing them around their smaller and larger works. It is such a shame that there is no attempt by the Melbourne City Council to stop this destructiveness.

So, while Hosier Lane is still busy and vibrant with tourists it is such a shame that people are visiting our most famous street art location and finding it in it’s current state. We can only hope that the Melbourne City Council makes some effort to restore Hosier Lane to it’s former glory.