This guided walking tour explores Sydney’s Victorian and Federation-era architecture in the heart of the CBD. We examine how buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries reflect changing ideas about prosperity, identity and civic life. Along the way, stories of people, institutions and urban development bring the city’s past into focus. Suitable for anyone interested in Sydney history, architecture and walking-based learning.
This walk will go ahead whatever the weather, except where the guide deems there to be a threat to health and safety. In this situation you will be contacted with an alternative date. Please ensure your mobile phone number is up-to-date with WEA before enrolling and ensure that you have it with you on the day in case the tutor needs to contact you.
The tour starts at Downing Centre and finishes at Sydney Hospital. Some of the buildings we pass include:
- Mark Foy’s Department Store
- St Andrews Church
- Town Hall
- Queen Victoria Building
- Great Synagogue
- Strand Arcade
- GPO
- Chullwalla Chambers
- Sydney Hospital
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Identify the main features of Australian commercial architecture styles over the period, such as Italianate, Gothic Revival, American Romanesque and French.
- Understand the various forces – economic, social, technological and political – that shaped Sydney’s urban development and architecture over the period.
- Recognise and describe a number of key Sydney CBD buildings from the 1850s to 1914.
