String Bean Alley

String Bean Alley is a laneway of shipping containers inside Queen Victoria Market, holding twenty-six independent traders in bespoke fitouts. It reopened after a makeover funded through the market's $250 million renewal, bringing twelve new businesses in alongside the traders already there, and it now runs to its own hours rather than the main market's.

Twenty-six containers, one laneway

The trading mix is deliberately narrow and deep: locally designed, sourced or produced fashion, vintage, jewellery, art, craft, skincare, toys and books. That makes it the part of Queen Vic Market people go to specifically rather than pass through, and it is a very different experience from the produce sheds a minute's walk away, which trade on volume and early starts. The containers are permanent fitouts rather than stalls, so the traders are the same week to week and the laneway has the feel of a small retail strip that happens to sit inside a much larger market. Fairy lights strung above the alley do a lot of the work after dark.

The opening hours are the thing to get right, because they are not the same as the market's. String Bean Alley trades Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then again on Wednesday evenings when The Night Market season is running.

Good to know before you go

Friday and Saturday 8am to 3pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm, plus Wednesday evenings in Night Market season. The alley is closed Monday and Tuesday even though parts of the wider market are not. Bring a card, since permanent traders take them. Public transport is by far the easiest approach: the market is on the free tram zone and a short walk from Melbourne Central. Combining a visit with the produce sheds means starting early at the sheds and finishing here, because the alley opens later and closes later than the fresh food halls. This is Wurundjeri country.