Built on the original site of the Georges department store The Block Arcade has had an association with the finest of fashion and style for over 110 years.

After the great fire of 1889 The Block Arcade was rebuilt on the bluestone footings of the original grain stores that first occupied this prime CBD location.

The Block's French Rennaissance-revival design was inspired by the Galleria Vittorio in Milan (with which Melbourne is now a sister city) and is one of the finest examples of a 19th Century shopping arcade. It is renowned for its impressive etched glass roof with decorative wrought iron and timber supports and has the largest area of mosaic floor in Australia.

The arcade was restored and refurbished in the late 1980s, with the complex being upgraded to modern retail and commercial standards while remaining faithful to the original Victorian vision. The work involved the reinstatement of original timber shopfronts, the repairing, cleaning, painting and illuminating of the upper facades to Collins and Elizabeth Streets, and the design of a new entry canopy for Elizabeth Street (now home to Linda Gorringe Couture). The complex is classified by the National Trust and is on the register of the National Estate.

The Block derived its name from the tradition of "doing the block". In the 1880s and 1890s fashionable Melbournians would parade in their finest dresses, suits, hats and accessories along Collins Street and Elizabeth Street and around "The Block", chatting and socialising with friends before retiring for a cup of tea, often in in the Hopetoun Tearooms, still a favourite of The Block Arcade.