The first time I stumbled across Campbell Arcade I’d been living in Melbourne for quite some time already. I was more of a tram person and hadn't really explored underneath the city, but discovering this underworld in the pedestrian underpass linking Flinders Street Station to the infamous Degraves reinforced how every space in Melbourne can be turned into a display of creativity. Just when you think you’re in for a bland commute you find yourself in the middle of a sub-city art exhibition.

Campbell Arcade opened on 31 August 1955 and still remains in all its Art Deco glory with black marble columns and pink-tiled walls lined with glass display cases that look like art-filled fish tanks. The art that lives inside these fish tanks is there because of the Platform Artists Group- a non-profit public art organisation established by artists Andrew Seward and Richard Holt in 1990. Twenty years later and Platform is Melbourne's longest living artist-run initiative and public art project in the CBD.

There is another Platform site nearby in the Majorca Building in Centre Way Arcade off Flinders Street and a pedestrian poll conducted in 2005 by Connex estimated that more than 35,000 people a week pass through the Platform exhibition sites, making it one of the most visible sites for public art in Melbourne.

Of course, Campbell Arcade has more to offer than art. There is a small selection of shops to browse, like MUFF Clothing Consignment- the vintage and recycled clothes store and Sticky Zines- the expansive zine store, which is also run by the Platform Group and stocks zines from the Unites States, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan and New Zealand. You ain’t seen a zine till you’ve seen a Sticky zine.

Many of you may walk through Campbell Arcade every day and not stop to observe. Next time take a moment to look around. The last time I wandered through the Arcade there was a piece of fluorescent yellow paper and a pen stuck to the tiled wall and at the top of the ink-scribbled paper was one simple question: ‘How are you feeling today?’ Even though the most visible word written below this was ‘HORNY!’ it still filled me with a reassuring warmth that someone took the time to ask.