Brisbane's ugliest duckling is about to get a $2.5 million facelift.

Burnett Lane, which runs parallel to the Queen Street Mall between Albert and George Streets, will be lit and street-scaped to encourage people to use it as a new inner-city thoroughfare.

An artist's impression of the revamped Burnett Lane. Credit:Brisbane City Council

Last year, it was an embarrassing mess of rubbish bins, upside-down signs and garbage strewn across the roadway.

Today, in the week before the transformation begins, Burnett Lane might be a little neater, but it is still a nightmare of inner-city neglect.