Priority precincts
We’re prioritising two of the biggest and best cultural precincts in town – Chinatown and Oxford Street. The idea is to build on each precinct’s unique character, support its economic development and promote its many attractions.
Chinatown
Sydney’s Chinatown has flourished in Haymarket since the 1920s and is still a focal point of the Australian-Chinese community. The bustling precinct – the largest Chinatown in Australia – is both historically significant and a contemporary attraction for local and international visitors.
In fact, Chinatown is the third most visited tourist attraction in Central Sydney, after the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
Watch this video about the changing face of Chinatown.
Drab lanes will be closed to traffic and opened up to people – offering local businesses the opportunity to set up open air markets and food stalls – and a disused pagoda is being transformed into a tourism information kiosk.
We’re also commissioning public art and some cool suspended lighting as the finishing touches. Sydney artist Jason Wing will produce an attention grabbing artwork, Beyond Two Worlds, to spread across the pavements and walls in Kimber Lane. The kiosk will feature a vivid red lantern motif designed by Brisbane artist Pamela Mei-Leng See.
Oxford Street
For a while, it wasn’t uncommon for people to think Oxford Street had changed, and not for the better. Once home to bohemia, the ‘Golden Mile’ to Sydney’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities and a Mecca to artists, designers, the fashionista and soon-to-be-famous, it became just another, well, street.
After intense consultations with the community, a plan to get Oxford Street’s mojo (manners, opportunity, joy, originality) back was unveiled. We’re working to re-establish the area as a cultural hub, where creativity congregates once more.
We are transforming a historic building – the Burton St Tabernacle in Darlinghurst – into a contemporary performing arts space with capacity to host theatre productions, classes, exhibitions and events.
We launched the Taylor Square Plinth Project, commissioning temporary public art installations to showcase local artists and engage the community. To date, work by Louisa Dawson, Dale Miles and Annie Kennedy have graced Taylor Square.
And we bought a building slap bang on Taylor Square (1-5 Flinders Street) which now houses temporary studios and a recycled fashion outlet run by the College of Fine Arts and Reverse Garbage.
There is more work ahead. Plans are afoot to re-ignite the diversity of the area, reclaim its reputation as a safe night-time destination, revive its reputation and re-position its place on the urban edge.
Towards 2030, we’re celebrating our cultural precincts to:
- breathe new life into established areas
- encourage cultural diversity
- support economic development.
Sydney 2030: green, global and connected. Go to the 2030 strategic directions.
