Oxford Street stretches eastward from Sydney’s CBD towards the coast. It has a depth of character unlike any major street or road across anywhere in Sydney. There is no place quite like Oxford Street.
The evolving story of the strip is rich and fascinating. Bicycle NSW friend and BIKEast advocate Andrew Moss has delved into the distant and recent past to find out more. Thanks Andrew!
Oxford Street, with its heritage shopfronts and central location, is an iconic Sydney strip. However, traffic speeds and volumes have gradually increased to the detriment of the colourful atmosphere that once attracted hordes of people from across the city for shopping and entertainment. (Source: Tripadvisor)
Ridgeline dreaming track to bustling high street
Oxford Street evolved from an Aboriginal track or 'muru' that crossed east along the ridgeline and journeyed travellers through to the southern headland of the harbour. This muru was an important thoroughfare for generations of Gadigal people. A walking track. A dreaming track full of meaning and stories.
Through the years of colonisation Oxford Street grew into a thriving early Sydney high street and later a more fashionable boulevard of entertainment, thriving clubs, restaurants and interesting retailers.
The western end of Oxford Street, Sydney in the later 19th century was full of street life with plenty of space for pedestrians among the slow-moving trolley buses and horse-drawn carriages (source: Universal Images Group)
The creative and colourful years
For decades in the twentieth century, Oxford Street was a vibrant eclectic creative hub, the home for some of Australia’s most fashionable designers, prominent artists, chefs and food retailers. Oxford Street for a long time was known for being cool and alternative, full of diversity, colour and character. Oxford Street had its finger on the pulse of new ideas and trends. Oxford Street didn’t know how to be beige, bland or boring.
From the 1960s, LGBTIQ bars, clubs, restaurants, saunas and shops appeared giving the strip its celebratory name ‘The Golden Mile’. It became synonymous with queer life in Sydney and the centre of annual Mardi Gras celebrations.
Colourful crowds on Oxford Street during Mardi Gras (Source: Sydney Mardi Gras/Ann-Marie Calihanna)
By the 70s Oxford Street was very much the place to discover a host of independent retailers, each with their own signature personality and style. It was Sydney's unique fashion destination, set apart from the mass market cookie cutter chain stores you would find elsewhere. Some described Oxford Street as Sydney’s Portobello Road. Shabby in places but definitely chic and stimulating.
In the 80s and 90s Oxford Street was definitely Sydney’s coolest precinct. Fashionable, stylish, streetwise. The ‘it’ place to be seen. Many leading Australian designers began their careers along Oxford Street. Street culture thrived alongside high fashion. It was cutting edge, a setter of trends, a place of pulsating diversity and energy. Locals loved it. And visitors from everywhere would come to Paddington on the weekend just to be a part of the action. Everyone was welcome. Oxford Street was full of life, fun and colour.
The gradual decline
But since these heady interesting times Oxford Street has become tired and went into gradual decline. The once hip Oxford Street has become a shadow of its former self.
The fun vibrant personality of Oxford Street has bit by bit slowly eroded away.
The shops became less quirky, individual and interesting. The chain stores moved in. Westfield opened at Bondi Junction. By 1998, a clearway had been introduced on Oxford Street. The traffic became heavier, more constant, more noisy. People noticed. Locals and visitors went elsewhere and instead chose more pedestrian-friendly shopping streets such as Crown Street, Surry Hills and Queen Street, Woollahra. People wanted a more pleasant experience away from the cars and the traffic hurrying through on their way to somewhere else.
It’s been like this for a while now. Oxford Street over time has lost its stylish self-confidence, its glamour and ability to impress. For those that vividly remember the not so distant past, this reality is especially disappointing.
Oxford Street in 2014. 6 lanes for cars with peak-hour clearways. At peak hour, buses fly past inches from the kerb, severely impacting amenity for pedestrians. Although cars can park off-peak, it has not been possible to use the parking lane for public realm enhancements such as kerb extensions, wider footpaths, seating and café tables, trees or bike parking. (Source: Andrew Quilty/Sydney Morning Herald)
The Activate Oxford Street report was published in 2014 in an attempt to turn the fortunes of the Oxford Street. This excellent interactive Sydney Morning Herald investigation from that time dives deep into the personalities and politics that have hampered change on the strip.
Where to now?
And so Oxford Street is literally at a crossroads with itself.
Will Oxford Street meander along and continue be the same traffic choked strip we see today? Inevitably facing a lack-lustre future?
Or will Oxford Street make the transition to become once again a more vibrant street, a pleasant people orientated place that locals and visitors find engaging and flock to again?
The proposal by Transport for NSW and City of Sydney to add a protected cycleway to Oxford Street is not just about bikes.
It is an opportunity to reconfigure the street, diversify its transport mix, improve the urban environment and transform Paddington for its next chapter. Businesses, residents and visitors will benefit from widened footpaths, lower speed limits, reduced through traffic and an upgraded public realm that prioritises space for people, entertainment and footway dining rather than cars.
Oxford Street is ripe for reinvention. It needs to boldly embrace this time as an exciting opportunity.
Oxford Street must learn from the mistakes recently made. It has all the credentials. It can again be fun, bold, creative, a magnet for people, cool and eclectic, independent and vibrant. It has a rich and vital past history to build upon. Oxford Street has the future potential to become Sydney’s most special precinct once again.
How can you help advocate for a better Oxford Street?
- Sign our petition to show support for the cycleway
- Become a Bicycle NSW Member
- Join your local BUG
- Sign up to our campaign for Better Streets
- Donate to the Environmental Trust which funds our campaigns for safer infrastructure and a healthier environment.