Melbourne Street Art Hives of Activity

This is a boundary crossing tour that explores where and why particular spaces are prone to collective works in the street art culture. What kind of psychogeographical factors contribute to where graffiti writers, taggers and any other kind of street artists choose to concentrate elements of their work? What factors make up a communal area where street art is created? That is what this tour seeks to discover through visiting some of the areas where a graffiti community has evidently congregated.

Stop 1. Wedged Hive

Hop off the number 96 tram at stop 16 and walk north up Nicholson Street until you find, wedged between two ‘undecorated’ buildings, a house behind a fence that has become a hive of activity. Immediately after the façades of the adjacent walls end…

Stop 2. Junkyard Gallery

As the graffiti culture transgresses boundaries, so will we - by emulating the guerrilla experience of a street artist. Continue to walk down Nicholson Street, and cross to the right side of the road until you reach an abandoned fenced off car yard…

Stop 3. Crowns

Continue north up Nicholson until you reach the first laneway after the corner of Brunswick Road and Nicholson Street, or catch the 96 tram to stop 22, walk about 50 metres, and turn left into the lane. One large grey wall will attract anyone and…

Stop 4. Open Lot

Walk another 800m north on Nicholson Street until you come across some large gates with some large locks. You’re not the first ones to ‘trespass’, and you certainly won’t be the last – so push the gates as open as the chains will allow, go inside…

Stop 5. Collaborations

The final destination on this tour is at the corner of Nicholson and Blyth Street, and to get here you can either walk, or take the 96 tram to the last stop (how convenient!). This site boasts two different kinds of collaborations in very close…