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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Subjects
Engineering and Infrastructure
Transport infrastructure
Footpaths

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Footpaths

Subject

Agar Steps

Butler Stairs

Caraher Stairs

Chard Stairs

Chifley Square

Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls

McElhone Stairs

Merriman Stairs

Moore Steps

Playfair Stairs

Stace, Arthur

The Corso

The decorated footpath

Rainbow crossing, Summer Hill

Writers' Walk

Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove)

Henry Deane Plaza

Chalk Urban Art Festival

Stace, Arthur

Boree Track

Centenary Square

Chifley Square

Cumberland Place and Steps

Customs Square

Darwin's Walk

Dee Why Square

East Circular Quay

Freedom Plaza Cabramatta

Macquarie Place

Martin Place

The Corso

Agar Steps

Beencke bridge

Butler Stairs

Giant Stairway

Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway

McElhone Stairs

Moore Steps

'Filthy Dog Owner' - Dog poo vigilantism, Enmore, 2001

'Lest We Forget' stencil - Remembrance in Marrickville, 2010

'Pom Power' preserved in concrete, St Peters 2007

A Gentle Hint - Labourer: 'Hi, Miss, I want that stone when you've done with it, please' 1868

A Glimpse of Sydney from Darlinghurst c1886

A cliff-face stair-way, Darlinghurst c1886

A lane in The Rocks c1915

A pavement artist in Sydney, 2010

Agar Steps leading up from Kent Street to Observatory Park c1989

Arthur Stace writing his message, Eternity

Beside a cafe in Marrickville, another DIY rainbow 14 April 2013

Butler Steps between Victoria and Brougham Streets c1888

Butler's stairs leading from Potts Point to Woolloomooloo c1945

Cambridge St, looking towards the Argyle Cut 1901

Caraher Stairs running from Lower Fort Street up to Princes Street, Millers Point 1924

Como Bridge July 2007

Detail of trigonometrical study of The Rocks showing Playfair Stairs 1855 - 1865

Flower sellers and trams on King Street c1890

Flower sellers in Martin Place c1940

Forbes Street stairs, Darlinghurst 1930s

Fruit stall in Springfield Avenue 26 May 1933

George Street, Sydney c1905

George Street, looking south, Sydney 1842

Gloucester Street, The Rocks c1901

Hordern's Stairs ascending to Hordern Place, Woolloomooloo c1975

IKEA welcome mat stencil, south King Street, Newtown 2 November 2011

King Street in the rain, c1900

Looking down the McElhone Stairs from Victoria Street towards Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo 1960

McElhone Stairs 1951

Mend Your Ways. Joyous emotion of Mr New Chum on suddenly discovering a proper bit of footway. 1864

Moore Stairs, between Talbot Wool Stores at East Circular Quay 1870

Moore Steps linking Circular Quay & Macquarie Street 1989

Moore Steps, leading up from Circular Quay to Macquarie Street 7 March 1973

Nightclub advertisement stencilled on footpath, Newtown 2008

Pavement artist, c1939

Paving representing the old shoreline of Sydney Cove outside Customs House, c1998

Rainbow coloured raindrops on south King Street, Newtown 2010

Sarves Him Right! 1871

Sitting on the Playfair Stairs c1901

Specials outside bar on Broadway, Chippendale 2009

Stairs for pedestrians in Sydney, NSW [Butler Stairs, Woolloomooloo] c1900

Steps link 'Loo with Potts Point 1951

Stone stairway between buildings c1925

Sutton Stairs, Millers Point December 1961

The Argyle Cut, The Rocks c1900

The Publican and the Priest, intersection of Shepherd Street and Broadway 5 November 2010

The front path of Benledi House in Glebe was chalked with a rainbow 30 April 2013

The permanent Rainbow Crossing installed by Ashfield Council on the public square in Lackey Street, Summer Hill 26 September 2015

Veronica House, Lower Fort Street, Millers Point: Caraher Stairs run up beside it 1924

Working on the footpath upgrade, Pitt Street, July 1999

Write Your Name in Concrete, Enmore 6 December 2008

Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove) by Brenda Croft 2000

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Footpaths

Agar Steps

Originally known as Flagstaff Steps, Agar Steps are located on the western side of Observatory Hill and connect Kent Street and Upper Fort Street.

Butler Stairs

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.

Caraher Stairs

Caraher Stairs was a large stairway designed by City of Sydney Engineer Edward Bell that connected Lower Fort Street in Millers Point to Princes Street North in The Rocks, demolished as a result of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Chard Stairs

Chard Stairs connect Forbes Street with William Street and resulted from a project to widen the original William Street in 1916

Chifley Square

Created by successive city councils through resumptions and rebuilding, Chifley Square was a venue for anti-conscription demonstrations during the Vietnam War.

Darwin's Walk, Wentworth Falls

Darwin's Walk starts from Wilson Park Wentworth Falls and runs across a boardwalk and bush track through open forest, shrub, and hanging swamps to the national park boundary. It was in the valley at the end of Jamison Creek that Charles Darwin stood in 1836, struggling for words to describe the 'quite novel' scene before him, the 'immense gulf' and the 'absolutely vertical' sandstone cliffs where 'a person standing on the edge and throwing down a stone, can see it strike the trees in the abyss below'.

McElhone Stairs

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.

Merriman Stairs

Merriman Stairs linked Argyle Street, Millers Point with Princes Street in The Rocks. They were constructed in 1859 and demolished in 1931 due to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Moore Steps

The design of Moore Steps that we see today follows a drawing signed by the City Engineer, Edward Bell, in 1868 but it was not the first design undertaken for this stairway.

Playfair Stairs

Playfair Stairs in The Rocks was an unusually shaped stairway, which did not fit neatly into the typical stairway typologies of the city. The stairway bent around the corner into Cambridge Street like an elbow.

Stace, Arthur

A former drunk who was converted to Christianity, Arthur Stace spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel, and unobtrusively writing Eternity in chalk on pavements all over Sydney. The identity of the Eternity Man was a mystery for over twenty years. Eternity has since become part of Sydney's mythology and iconography.

The Corso

The Kay-ye-my people walked for thousands of years along the track between the cove and the beach at Manly, but the first boardwalk was only built in 1855 when Henry Gilbert Smith began developing Manly as a resort. The Corso had a hotel at each end, and most of Manly's commerce along its length, until the rise of the car and the shopping mall in the twentieth century.

The decorated footpath

Paved footpaths are a familiar feature of our urban environment. Whether taking a purposeful walk, a social stroll, or a healthy jog, we expect the footpath to be there, providing a safe and sturdy platform beneath our feet. But pavements should not be dismissed as simply utilitarian.

Rainbow crossing, Summer Hill

Permanent crossing in the Lackey Street Piazza provided by Ashfield Council as a symbol of the gay community.

full record »

Writers' Walk

Walking trail along the waterfront at Circular Quay that commemorates 34 writers connected in some way with Sydney or New South Wales.

full record »

Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove)

full record »

Mosaic by artist Brenda L Croft set into the path at Farm Cove which commemorates historical and contemporary presence of local Indigenous people who travelled great distances to attend ceremonies here. The figures depict Sydney rock carvings.

Henry Deane Plaza

Commercial development of the area between the Railway Square bus station and the Devonshire Street Tunnel entrance to Central Station. It includes a retail plaza, the Henry Deane Building and Gateway House.

full record »

Chalk Urban Art Festival

Annual event celebrating artworks created by in chalk on the pavement. Venues have included Darling Harbour and Parramatta.

full record »

Stace, Arthur

full record »

The man who wrote Eternity on Sydney's pavements for over thirty years.

Boree Track

Bush road in Yengo National Park that began as an Aboriginal pathway. It runs from Boree Arm at the northern end of Wallambine, St Albans Common northwards to Big Boree and beyond, branching as the Boree Valley Road to Yengo in the west and Corobare/Wollombi in the east as it approaches the Hunter catchment. It was a major route and songline from the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) via the Macdonald River (Gunanday) to Kukyun, the Hunter River. Boree, a grassy oasis in the sandstone labyrinth, on the Boree track to Yengo, was a long-remembered corroboree ground.

full record »

Centenary Square

Section of Church Street which was closed to traffic in 1975 to create a pedestrian plaza which highlights several of the historical heart of Parramatta.

full record »

Chifley Square

Pedestrian plaza at the corner of Hunter and Elizabeth Streets, Sydney

full record »

Cumberland Place and Steps

Landings and steps between Harrington and Cumberland streets which is the oldest known pedestrian street in The Rocks. In use since 1807 it illustrates the close urban character of early Sydney and its rocky topography.

full record »

Customs Square

full record »

Forecourt of Customs House building at Circular Quay. Stone paving designed by architectural firm Tonkin Zulaikha Greer in late 1990s represents original shoreline of Sydney Cove.

Darwin's Walk

Walk starting from Wilson Park Wentworth Falls along a boardwalk and bush track through open forest, shrub, and hanging swamps to the national park boundary, where the walk meets Weeping Rock loop.

full record »

Dee Why Square

Pedestrian area and park in the centre of Dee Why business district.

full record »

East Circular Quay

full record »

Area on the eastern shore of Sydney Cove to Bennelong Point.

Freedom Plaza Cabramatta

Pedestrian shopping mall in the heart of Cabramatta.

full record »

Macquarie Place

The open space at the corner of Loftus and Bridge streets marked with an obelisk from which roads in the colony were measured. Originally the area was swampy mangrove land on the banks of the Tank Stream it has been a public meeting place since the 1790s.

full record »

Martin Place

full record »

Wide street running through Sydney's centre, from the General Post Office at the George Street end, and completed when Sydney City Council resumed property to extend the street all the way to Macquarie Street in the 1930s. Lined with elegant buildings of grand design and lavish materials it has been entirely pedestrian since 1979.

The Corso

full record »

Originally a boardwalk to cross the sand spit between the Manly pier and ocean beach, it is now an busy pedestrian mall lined with restaurants and shops.

Agar Steps

full record »

Stairway with 108 steps linking Kent Street with Observatory Hill. They were named for local identity Thomas Agar. With terrace housing along the southern side, they illustrate the small scale pedestrian networks linking residential areas which were typical of The Rocks. They overlook what was once the Kent Street quarry.

Beencke bridge

Pedestrian bridge over Berrys Creek which linked Greenwich and Wollstonecraft. It was replaced with a steel and concrete structure in 1964.

full record »

Butler Stairs

full record »

A set of 103 steps which connect Brougham Street, Woolloomooloo with Victoria Street, Potts Point.

Giant Stairway

Stairway of 916 steps leading onto The Three Sisters about 400 metres south east of Echo Point, Katoomba.

full record »

Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway

Eight hundred metre rainforest walk which links Concord Hospital and Rhodes Station as a living memorial to veterans who served in the South West Pacific area.

full record »

McElhone Stairs

full record »

Stairway of 113 steps, known colloquially as the 'Stairs of Doom' or 'Stairs of Death', which connects the socially and financially diverse suburbs of Potts Point and Woolloomooloo. They were originally called Challis Stairs.

Moore Steps

Stairs constructed at East Circular Quay to service the adjacent wool stores. The bas reliefs of two faces in the pedestals at the foot of the stairs were carved at some time between 1973 and 1978 by sculptor Saul Munro. His son Thorin has said that his father told him he had carved the faces at night, and when approached by police or security, he would (untruthfully) tell them he had received a commission to do them but had a day job as well.

full record »

'Filthy Dog Owner' - Dog poo vigilantism, Enmore, 2001

full record »

By

Contributed By

'Lest We Forget' stencil - Remembrance in Marrickville, 2010

full record »

By

Contributed By

'Pom Power' preserved in concrete, St Peters 2007

full record »

By

Contributed By

A Gentle Hint - Labourer: 'Hi, Miss, I want that stone when you've done with it, please' 1868

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Sydney Punch, March 7, 1868, p 114)

A Glimpse of Sydney from Darlinghurst c1886

full record »

By

Frederic B Schell

Contributed By

Internet Archive

[australasiaillus01garruoft_0227]

(From 'Australasia illustrated' edited by Andrew Garran ; illustrated by leading Australian and American artists, under the supervision of Frederic B. Schell, with over eight hundred engravings on wood, Sydney : Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co., 1892)

A cliff-face stair-way, Darlinghurst c1886

full record »

By

Frederic B Schell

Contributed By

Internet Archive

[australasiaillus01garruoft_0225]

(From 'Australasia illustrated' edited by Andrew Garran ; illustrated by leading Australian and American artists, under the supervision of Frederic B. Schell, with over eight hundred engravings on wood, Sydney : Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co., 1892)

A lane in The Rocks c1915

full record »

By

John Henry Harvey

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

A pavement artist in Sydney, 2010

full record »

By

Contributed By

Agar Steps leading up from Kent Street to Observatory Park c1989

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[CRS 1035/8007]

(NSCA CRS 1035, Central Sydney Heritage Inventory Photographs, 1989)

Arthur Stace writing his message, Eternity

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.pic-vn3107050]

Beside a cafe in Marrickville, another DIY rainbow 14 April 2013

full record »

By

Contributed By

Butler Steps between Victoria and Brougham Streets c1888

full record »

By

Sydney & Suburban Map Publishing Co

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.obj-231084368 (detail)]

(Detail of Street map of part of the suburbs of Wooloomooloo and Potts Point bounded by Butler's Steps in the north, Victoria Street in the east, William Street in the south, and Duke Street in the west, c1888, Sheet 7 from: [Large scale street maps of Sydney, c.1888]. Sydney : Sydney and Suburban Map Publishing Co., 1888)

Butler's stairs leading from Potts Point to Woolloomooloo c1945

full record »

By

Sydney Ure Smith

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

[Rare Books MC 919.441 B25S]

(from 'The Sydney book' written by Marjorie Barnard ; drawings by Sydney Ure Smith, Sydney: Ure Smith Pty Ltd c1947?, p24)

Cambridge St, looking towards the Argyle Cut 1901

full record »

By

Contributed By

Art Gallery of New South Wales

[Accession No: 5859]

Caraher Stairs running from Lower Fort Street up to Princes Street, Millers Point 1924

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[DL PX 144/vol. 1, 18]

Como Bridge July 2007

full record »

By

Alexander Kesselaar

(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Alexander Kesselaar via Flickr

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/akc77/875192807]

(alexkess)

Detail of trigonometrical study of The Rocks showing Playfair Stairs 1855 - 1865

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[Detail of City of Sydney – Trigonometrical Survey, 1855-1865: Block B2, CRS1042/4]

(Detail of City of Sydney – Trigonometrical Survey, 1855-1865: Block B2 )

Flower sellers and trams on King Street c1890

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a568023 / DL PX 163, 57]

(Dixson Library)

Flower sellers in Martin Place c1940

full record »

By

Harold Cazneaux

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a2057025 / PXD 806/25]

(Mitchell Library)

Forbes Street stairs, Darlinghurst 1930s

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[SRC5865 (032275)]

Fruit stall in Springfield Avenue 26 May 1933

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[001\001809]

(NSCA CRS 51/1586)

George Street, Sydney c1905

full record »

By

John Henry Harvey

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

George Street, looking south, Sydney 1842

full record »

By

Henry Curzon Allport

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a2600002 / PXE 711/396]

(Mitchell Library)

Gloucester Street, The Rocks c1901

full record »

Contributed By

Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences

(Tyrrell Photographic Collection)

Hordern's Stairs ascending to Hordern Place, Woolloomooloo c1975

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[Woolloomooloo photo collection: 63361 (063361)]

IKEA welcome mat stencil, south King Street, Newtown 2 November 2011

full record »

By

Linda Brainwood

Contributed By

Private collection

King Street in the rain, c1900

full record »

By

Frederick Danvers Power

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a422001 / ON 225, 14]

(Mitchell Library)

Looking down the McElhone Stairs from Victoria Street towards Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo 1960

full record »

By

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[SRC21844]

(069373)

McElhone Stairs 1951

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[PIX, 11 August 1951, p22 via Trove]

Mend Your Ways. Joyous emotion of Mr New Chum on suddenly discovering a proper bit of footway. 1864

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Sydney Punch, 11 June 1864, p 24)

Moore Stairs, between Talbot Wool Stores at East Circular Quay 1870

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Mitchell Library)

Moore Steps linking Circular Quay & Macquarie Street 1989

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[055195]

(NSCA CRS 1035, Central Sydney Heritage Inventory Photographs, 1989)

Moore Steps, leading up from Circular Quay to Macquarie Street 7 March 1973

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[025818]

(NSCA CRS 871, City Engineers Photographs II, 1967-1973)

Nightclub advertisement stencilled on footpath, Newtown 2008

full record »

By

Contributed By

Pavement artist, c1939

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[bcp_01193 / At Work and Play 01193]

(Mitchell Library)

Paving representing the old shoreline of Sydney Cove outside Customs House, c1998

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[019\019859]

Rainbow coloured raindrops on south King Street, Newtown 2010

full record »

By

Contributed By

Sarves Him Right! 1871

full record »

Policeman A41, unmindful of the bye-law as to the orange peel nuisance, is brought suddenly and unceremoniously to his sense of 'duty' by a most convincing argument, to the delight of the arabs who incontinently should 'Sarves him right!'.

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

(Sydney Punch, November 4, 1871, p216)

Sitting on the Playfair Stairs c1901

full record »

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[PXE 921 (v.2), 96]

(Mitchell Library)

Specials outside bar on Broadway, Chippendale 2009

full record »

By

Contributed By

Stairs for pedestrians in Sydney, NSW [Butler Stairs, Woolloomooloo] c1900

full record »

By

John Henry Harvey

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

Steps link 'Loo with Potts Point 1951

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[PIX, 11 August 1951, p22 via Trove]

Stone stairway between buildings c1925

full record »

By

Harold Cazneaux

By kind permission of the

Cazneaux family

Sutton Stairs, Millers Point December 1961

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[SRC21002 (067909)]

The Argyle Cut, The Rocks c1900

full record »

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

[Accession no: H2007.78/19]

The Publican and the Priest, intersection of Shepherd Street and Broadway 5 November 2010

full record »

By

Newtown graffiti

Contributed By

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/newtown_grafitti/5148305670]

(CC BY 2.0)

The front path of Benledi House in Glebe was chalked with a rainbow 30 April 2013

full record »

By

Contributed By

...

full record »

By

Contributed By

Veronica House, Lower Fort Street, Millers Point: Caraher Stairs run up beside it 1924

full record »

By

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[DL PX 144/vol. 1, 17]

(Dixson Library)

Working on the footpath upgrade, Pitt Street, July 1999

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[017\017625]

Write Your Name in Concrete, Enmore 6 December 2008

full record »

By

Contributed By

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottdavies/3096280812/]

(Scotticus_)(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Wuganmagulya (Farm Cove) by Brenda Croft 2000

full record »

Contributed By

City of Sydney Archives

[019\019347]

(NSCA CRS 904/B009)

Transport infrastructure