[2] Dudley Street begins at Footscray Road and heads east as a six-lane, dual-carriageway road, nearly immediately intersecting with Wurundjeri Way and then under the North Melbourne rail lines, and continues east as a four-lane, single-carriageway road, crossing Spencer and King streets, and ends at the intersection with Peel Street in the Melbourne CBD, on the western border of the Queen Victoria Market.

At its western end, the Depression-era slum camp known as Dudley Flats was occupied by unemployed and homeless people in the 1930s.

[4] The western end of Dudley Street underwent major reconstruction, which included lowering of the outer lanes to provide a clearance of 5 metres under the existing rail bridges, a new intersection at Wurundjeri Way and a remodelled intersection at Footscray Road; work commenced in April 1999 and was completed in November 2000.

[5] The road was signed Metropolitan Route 32 in 1965, from Footscray Road, before turning south to run along Adderley Street and La Trobe Street to meet Victoria Parade in Carlton.

[7] Dudley Street is entirely contained within the City of Melbourne local government area.