Paddington, New South Wales
From Freepedia
Paddington is a bustling, cosmopolitan suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It is one of the most historically rich, culturally vibrant and recognisable suburbs in the city of Sydney. The suburb is located roughly 3km from the central business district, lying on the arterial route of Oxford Street, Sydney. The suburb is famous today for its plethora of boutique and chain fashion stores, as well as many good cafés and fine restaurants which line the roads. The suburb is also well known for its beautiful Victorian terrace houses, which although were slums for much of the post-WWII period, are now a highly sought-after commodity.
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Geography and demography
The suburb of Paddington is located approximately 3km east from Sydney city's centre. The suburb is located primarily on the northern slope down of a ridgeline, the top of which Oxford Street now runs along. The suburb is characterised by a mesmerising and often bewildering array of interconnecting streets and laneways, some too narrow for many of today's cars. These streets contrast to some other much wider avenues, such as Paddington Street or Windsor Street. Paddington is bordered to the West by Darlinghurst, the East by Centennial Park and Woollahra, the North by Edgecliff and Kings Cross and the South by Moore Park. Paddington is also a part of the Municipality of Woollahra Local Government Area and of the City of Sydney LGA. The population of Paddington, as of the 2001 census, was 11, 817 people (ABS, 2001). The area has a high level of foreign ancestry, with only 25% of people in the 2001 census identifying that their parents were born in Australia. In contrast, 67% had parents who were born in North-West European nations, such as England and Ireland. 70% of people in the suburb live in the typical Victorian terrace house, with the majority of the rest living in apartments. The suburb is a high-wealth area, with 40% of families indicating they earnt more than $2000 per week.
History
In the early 1820s, entrepreneur, ex-convict and gin distiller Robert Cooper set to build a grand Georgian estate at the top of Paddington's ridgeline, affording him excellent views of the area. Robert Cooper gave a name to the area he set his home in, choosing to name the suburb after a borough in London, also called Paddington. He named the estate Juniper Hall, and it is to this day Paddington's oldest home. Paddington's first cottages were built around the still-standing Victoria Barracks, which was at the time a major army base. In the latter part of the 19th Century, many terrace houses were constructed to house the city's burgeoning working population, and an emerging middle-class. Over time, these houses filled up almost every parcel of land in the suburb, eventually causing the suburb to become an overpopulated slum. The unfashionable nature of the suburb continued until the mid-1960s, when gentrification took hold. It was in this time that suburb's affinity with the homosexual population of Sydney began to become more plain, as its inner-city location (and proximity to Darlinghurst and Kings Cross and trendy vibe proved attractive for a niche group in Australia. The suburb is now a fine example of unplanned restoration and renewal, with its favourable location and heritage charm pushing real-estate prices ever higher. The old boot-repair and linen shops have given way to designer fashion outlets and gourmet food. The suburb also features, since 1973, a thriving bohemian market which takes place every Saturday in Paddington Public School.
Aboriginal history and culture
The city of Sydney is home to more rock engraving sites than any other city in Australia. It was an area which had been occupied by many distinct Aboriginal language groups for thousands of years. The suburb of Paddington was, and still is, considered to be part of the land associated with the stories and rituals of the Cadigal people. These people belonged to the Dharug (or Eora) language group, and were also the traditional owners of what is now the Sydney central business district. It is known that the ridge upon which Oxford Street was built was also a walking track used by Australian Aborigines. Much of the Aboriginal population of Sydney was decimated by the smallpox outbreak of 1789, only one year after the First Fleet arrived in Sydney (City of Sydney, 2005). Settler's records from the time indicate that only three Aborigines belonging to the Cadigal tribe were left after this outbreak, however some anthropologists maintain that the tribe dispersed into other areas of the shared Eora language group. History for Aborigines living in Paddington is hard to find, but it is known that at the time when Robert Cooper began to build the first house in Paddington, there were approximately 200 Koori people living in Woolloomooloo in huts which Governor Macquarie had built for them to reside in. Presumably many of these people continued to use the land which was rightfully theirs.
Paddington has never been a suburb with a dense Indigenous population. In the 1930s when parts of Sydney such as Redfern and Glebe became hubs for Aborigines entering the labour force, Paddington continued to be a white-man's working suburb. Along with the principals of Terra Nullius adopted elsewhere in Australia, as soon as the British colonisers arrived in Sydney, they declared the land to be empty, and therefore were able to claim it as their own. Recent history has shown us that this was certainly not the case, and events such as the Mabo Decision, the advent of native title and the Wik decision have helped to give back some of the land that Aboriginal people were dispossessed of. Unsurprisingly, little of this has been in the Sydney area. Currently in Paddington, only 41 people, or 0.3% of the local population, are from Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. The land is so heavily excavated and densely built-upon that there is no land available for claim, and with the fragmentation and distanciation of the Cadigal people from their land, it would be almost impossible to prove a consistent community bond throughout the years of colonisation.
Landmarks of significance
Paddington Town Hall
Paddington Town Hall was built in the late 1800s at a cost of £15,000. It opened in 1891 and still stands as a hugely impressive example of European architecture in Sydney. Its clocktower stands at 32 metres high, and sitting as it does on the ridge of Oxford Street, dominates the Paddington skyline. The hall now houses radio studios, a cinema, a local library and is a venue for private functions.
Juniper Hall
Juniper Hall was built by Robert Cooper, an ex-convict, in the 1820s and is the oldest house in Paddington. It is a huge, dominating structure which lies diagonally opposite the Paddington Town Hall. It has undergone significant restoration and was owned for some time by the National Trust as a Heritage House. Today it is leased privately and is not open to the public, but can still be seen from Oxford Street.
Victoria Barracks
Victoria Barracks is a magnificent and gargantuan structure, set back from Oxford Street south of the Paddington Town Hall. It is constructed of Hawksbury sandstone, which was sourced from the area and beyond, and was built by convict labour over seven years, opening in 1848. For much of the early part of Australia's history, and indeed continuing from federation in 1901, the barracks were the premier site for military training in Australia. It is currently home to Headquarters Land Command and Headquarters Training Command. It is open every Sunday from 10am until 3pm.
Oxford Street
As well as being the location for the last three landmarks, Oxford Street deserves a mention as being a landmark in its own right. The street was originally used as an Aboriginal walking track, then as a toll route to South Head, and has had various incarnations as a shopping strip. Once serving the needs of the local residents, Paddington's Oxford Street has changed to now serve the fashion needs of a discerning middle and upper-class population, as well as a focal point for the tourist industry. Most visitors to Paddington come solely for the experience of shopping on Oxford Street.
Aussie Stadium
Once known as the Sydney Football Stadium, Aussie Stadium is a bohemoth of white metal and curving iron located on Moore Park Road in Southern Paddington. It is the home ground of both the Sydney Roosters and the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and can be seen best from the top of Oatley Road, just outside the Paddington Town Hall.
Transport
Paddington is serviced by public transport primarily in the form of buses. Oxford Street is the prime hub, carrying buses through Darlinghurst towards Circular Quay and Central Station in one direction, and towards Bronte, Bondi, or Bondi Junction in another. The main routes that travel Oxford Street are the 380 and 378, as well as the recent addition of the 352 which takes a snake-like route from Bondi Junction to Marrickville, connecting Paddington to the University of Sydney. Another route, the 389, runs from Circular Quay through the back streets of Paddington and Woollahra and continues to Bondi.
References
- Australian War Memorial (2005) Australian Military Units: Victoria Barracks (Sydney), website [1]
- Barani, City of Sydney (2005) Aboriginal People and Place [2]
External links
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street maps from Street Directory or Whereis or MSN Maps.
- Satellite photos from Google Maps and Terraserver.
