Visit Sydney Australia

Darlinghurst

Darlinghurst is a densely populated inner-city suburb located immediately east of the Sydney central business district and Hyde Park. Once a slum and red-light prostitution district, Darlinghurst has undergone urban renewal since the 1980s to become a rather upmarket, cosmopolitan and diverse area. Darlinghurst has a diversity of activities with a matrix of inner-urban cultures. Its human-scaled development and intricate streetscapes are reminiscent of some parts of European cities such parts of Prague or the Marais Arrondissement in Paris. Places such as Victoria Street (which joins Darlinghurst and Kings Cross) are known as culturally rich destinations.



The main thoroughfare of Darlinghurst is considered to be Oxford Street which is well-known around the world as the centre of Sydney's gay community, and is home to a number of gay venues and the Sydney Mardi Gras. In recent years, Oxford Street has garnered a reputation for being Sydney's primary nightclub strip , popular with both gay and straight clubbers, surpassing the notorious red-light district of Kings Cross in popularity. Victoria Street offers a variety of cafes and restaurants. However, if you are up for more serious dining, Stanley Street will be the place to head to with cuisines ranging from Japanese to Thai to Italian and fusion.

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Markets

East Is East Night Markets
278 Palmer Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia
Trading: Thursdays (fortnightly)  6.30pm  9.30pm
Type: Art & Craft, Artisans, Baby & Kids/Children, Designers, General, Twilight, Vintage/Retro, Fashion, Handmade, Community
Phone: 0451 118 330

In the 1820s, Colonial Architect Francis Greenway was commissioned to design a gaol that would overlook Sydney as a constant reminder that Sydney was a convict town. The walls of the jail were built by convicts from 1822-1824 to Greenway's design but his plans for the gaol itself were abandoned because Greenway himself was a former convict. The gaol was built using the plans of a jail in Philadelphia which is shaped like the spokes of a wheel, with wings radiating from a central point leaving narrow segments of space between.

It was used as a prison from 1840 till 1912, during which time a total of 79 people were executed there. In 1912 the gaol's replacement at Long Bay was complete and the Darlinghurst establishment was transferred to this site. The old gaol buildings were used as an internment camp during The Great War. In 1921, it was converted for use as a school for tertiary education. There are three known haunted rooms in the old Gaol buildings; one of them is a classroom which was used to house prisoners prior to hanging. lights have been known to come on and doors lock by themselves and bad smells have been noticed near the stairs from time to time. Numerous sightings of ghosts have been reported.
Oxford Street, Darlinghurst. UBD Map 3 Ref Q 13
Public transport: Bus No. 389 from Circular Quay, alight cnr Oxford & Bourke Sts.

Oxford Street is the major commercial thoroughfare of Darlinghurst, running from the south-east corner of Hyde Park, through Taylor Square and beyond into Paddington, Woollahra and Bondi Junction, respectively. In recent years, Oxford Street has garnered a reputation as Sydney's primary nightclub strip. The western section, which runs through the suburb of Darlinghurst, is widely-recognised as Sydney s main gay district and Oxford Street is closed to traffic once a year in early March for the world famous Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The section to the east of Taylor Square, running through the suburb of Paddington forms an upmarket shopping strip, noted for fashion, gifts and homewares, and represents the home of the new medical faculty of the University of Notre Dame Australia as well as the University of New South Wales  College of Fine Arts, Victoria Barracks, Paddington Bazaar and St Vincent s Hospital, Sydney amongst other locations. Oxford Street Mall with artificial tram tracks that have been installed to commemorate the actual tram line that passed though here prior to 1960,

Stanley Street is one of the suburb s two important secondary restaurant strips (with Victoria Street) and is often referred to as Sydney's first 'Little Italy'. It was influenced by post-WWII Italian migrants who had disembarked at nearby Woolloomooloo. Today, the restaurants range from Japanese, Thai and Italian and the prices range from basic to moderate. The annual June Italian Fiesta draws thousands as the street is closed for food festivities.

Victoria Street is the other major cafe strip. Restaurants range from basic to upmarket, most with al fresco seating. Several popular restaurants, such asTropicana and Bar Coluzzi, are often packed with locals taking a snack on-the-run.

Victoria Barracks, located in Oxford Street, houses the Headquarters Land Command and Headquarters Training Command, as well as the Army Museum of NSW which is housed in the original District Military Prison, constructed in 1800. The barracks was constructed of Hawkesbury sandstone by way of convict labour between 1841 and 1846.

The Barracks were originally occupied by regiments of the British Army who vacated the site in 1870 and was the premier military training site in Australia until 1901. For a brief period during the 1930s Victoria Barracks was home to the Royal Military College, Duntroon when the College was forced to close its buildings in Canberra and relocate to Sydney due to the economic downturn caused by the Great Depression.
Location: Lincoln Crescent, Woolloomooloo.

Located on the corner of Oatley Road and Oxford Street is the Paddington Reservoir, a water reservoir which provided water to the Botany Swamps pumping station for the provision of water to parts of Sydney between 1866 and 1899. In 2006 work began to restore and reuse the space of the then derelict Paddington Reservoir.

The facility reopened in 2008 as a sunken garden known as the Paddington Reservoir Gardens or Walter Read Reserve, with a rooftop reserve located above the preserved eastern chamber. The facility integrates the remains of the original brick, timber and iron structure with modern elements of sculptural, structural and functional significance which provide access to the sunken garden via stairs and an elevator as well as ramped access to the rooftop reserve.

The suburb was originally known as Eastern Hill and then Henrietta Town, after Governor Lachlan Macquarie s wife, whose second name was Henrietta. The loyalties changed with the change of governors and the suburb became Darlinghurst in honour of Elizabeth Darling, the popular wife of Governor Ralph Darling, during the early 19th century. The suffix hurst  is derived from the Old English word hyrst, meaning wooded area.