The Dictionary of Sydney
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'Reclaim the Streets', King Street, Newtown 1999

'Reclaim the Streets', King Street, Newtown 1999

By

Megan Hicks

Contributed By

Megan Hicks

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Reading the roads

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Demonstrations and protests Graffiti Roads

Organisation

Reclaim the Streets collective

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Newtown

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Hicks, Megan

Megan Hicks is a curator and writer. You can explore her work further on her blog Pavement Graffiti http://www.meganix.net

Reading the roads

At the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the streets of inner Sydney had been sealed and their hard grey surfaces lay like an empty slate waiting to be written on. Lines to regulate traffic were the first messages to appear on the paving, but traffic authorities are not the only scribes to write on the roadway. Others have left public announcements, private messages, slogans, jokes and artworks.

Demonstrations and protests

Graffiti

Roads

Reclaim the Streets collective

Collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces who hold direct action events to raise awareness of public access.

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Newtown

Inner-west suburb which developed along the main road south from Sydney. It became a prosperous shopping district in the late 19th century, and later a working-class and migrant suburb, now gentrified.

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