Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Potts Point

Small, densely populated inner-eastern suburb, joined to Garden Island in 1942. It contains significant nineteenth-century buildings as well as some of Sydney's earliest apartment buildings in the Art Deco style. It includes the locality of Kings Cross.

-33.858053919925, 151.22944077434

Name
Aboriginal
Currajeen
Commemorates
Property
Administered by
Part of
Type

McElhone Stairs

CC BY-SA 2.5 AU
,
2018

McElhone Stairs in Woollomooloo is one of three stairways that connect Brougham Street to Victoria Street the others being Hordern Stairs and Butler Stairs). The wide variety of experiences encountered on the stairs, from the arduous nature of the climb,  the vibrant and colourful users, the sexual encounters and the physical dangers have given them a special place in Sydney's artistic history.

Butler Stairs

CC BY 2.5 AU
,
2018

Stairways such as Butler Stairs were part of the Sydney City Council’s Victorian infrastructure boom, and the sophisticated level to which these stairways are detailed shows a level of civic pride and financial investment in pedestrian infrastructure that had not been undertaken previously in the city.