Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 running from Whitlam Square

Whitlam Square

Whitlam Square, located in Sydney, Australia, constitutes an important intersection of major streets in the south-eastern portion of the city's Central Business District...

 on the south-east corner of Hyde Park

Hyde Park, Sydney

Hyde Park is a large park in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Hyde Park is on the eastern side of the Sydney central business district. It is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore of Port Jackson . It is approximately rectangular in shape, being squared at the...

 in the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 of Sydney to Bondi Junction in the Eastern Suburbs

Eastern Suburbs (Sydney)

The Eastern Suburbs is a general term used to describe the metropolitan area directly to the east and south-east of the Sydney central business district in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Eastern Suburbs can refer to the suburbs within the local government areas of Woollahra, Waverley, Dover...

. Close to the CBD in particular, the street is lined with numerous shops, bars and nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

s. In recent years, Oxford Street has garnered a reputation as Sydney's primary nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 strip, and has subsequently seen a large increase in the number of crimes committed in the area.

The western section, which runs through the suburb of Darlinghurst

Darlinghurst, New South Wales

Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney...

, is widely-recognised as Sydney's main gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 district and Oxford Street is closed to traffic once a year in early March for the world famous Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

The Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...

. The section to the east of Taylor Square, running through the suburb of Paddington

Paddington, New South Wales

Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...

 forms an upmarket shopping strip, noted for fashion, gifts and homewares, and represents the home of the new medical faculty of the University of Notre Dame Australia

University of Notre Dame Australia

The University of Notre Dame Australia is a private Roman Catholic university established in 1989 in the Western Australian port city of Fremantle, . While the University of Notre Dame Australia has "strong collegial links" with the American University of Notre Dame located in Notre Dame, Indiana,...

 as well as the University of New South Wales

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

' College of Fine Arts

College of Fine Arts

The College of Fine Arts is the creative arts faculty of the University of New South Wales and is located on Oxford Street, Paddington, Sydney, Australia.- History :...

, Victoria Barracks

Victoria Barracks, Sydney

Victoria Barracks is an Australian Army base in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Victoria Barracks is located in the suburb of Paddington, between Oxford Street and Moore Park Road...

, Paddington Bazaar and St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney

St Vincent's Public Hospital, Sydney is located in the inner city suburb of Darlinghurst. Though part of the New South Wales state public health system it remains under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity.-History:...

 amongst other locations.

History

In May 1909 the Sydney Council resolved to widen Oxford Street from 66 ft to 100 ft by resuming the entire north side of the street between Liverpool and Bourke Streets. The project was carried out in five stages between 1910 and 1914. The result was a new boulevard and the creation of a Federation streetscape which remains today largely intact.

Trams

Trams in Sydney

The Sydney tramway network once served Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth , and one of the largest in the world. It was extremely intensively worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any...

 to Bondi

Bondi Beach, New South Wales

Bondi Beach is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, Australia. Bondi Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council, in the Eastern Suburbs...

 and Bronte

Bronte, New South Wales

Bronte is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bronte is located 8 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the Waverley Council local government area of the Eastern Suburbs....

 beaches travelled down Oxford Street until the line was closed in 1960, replaced by the current bus service.

Paddington Reservoir

Located on the corner of Oatley Road and Oxford Street is the Paddington Reservoir, a water reservoir

Water reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 which provided water to the Botany Swamps pumping station for the provision of water to parts of Sydney between 1866 and 1899. In 2006 work began to restore and reuse the space of the then derelict Paddington Reservoir. The facility reopened in 2008 as a sunken garden known as the Paddington Reservoir Gardens or Walter Read Reserve, with a rooftop reserve located above the preserved eastern chamber. The facility integrates the remains of the original brick, timber and iron structure with modern elements of sculptural, structural and functional significance which provide access to the sunken garden via stairs and an elevator as well as ramped access to the rooftop reserve.

Victoria Barracks

Victoria Barracks, located in Oxford Street, houses the Headquarters Land Command and Headquarters Training Command

Headquarters Training Command

Headquarters Training Command was the headquarters of the Australian Army's Training Command , which was one of the Army's three commands. The other two where Land Command and Special Operations Command. In 2002 it relocated from Georges Heights, Sydney to Victoria Barracks, Sydney.In 2010 Training...

, as well as the Army Museum of NSW which is housed in the original District Military Prison, constructed in 1800. The barracks was constructed of Hawkesbury sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 by way of convict labour between 1841 and 1846.

The Barracks were originally occupied by regiments of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 who vacated the sight in 1870 and was the premier military training site in Australia until 1901.
For a brief period during the 1930s Victoria Barracks was home to the Royal Military College, Duntroon

Royal Military College, Duntroon

The Royal Military College, Duntroon is the Australian Army's officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, in the Australian Capital Territory, in 1911 and is situated on picturesque grounds at the foot of Mount Pleasant near Lake Burley Griffin, close to the Department of Defence...

 when the College was forced to close its buildings in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 and relocate to Sydney due to the economic downturn caused by the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

.

Heritage buildings

The following buildings are on the Register of the National Estate

Register of the National Estate

The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...

:

• Victoria Barracks (1841-48)

• Paddington Town Hall (1890-91)

• Paddington Public School (1870 and 1892 buildings)

• Uniting Church and Parsonage (1877)

• St Matthias Church Group (1859-61)

• Former St Mattias Rectory (1873)

• St Matthias Church Hall (1882)

• Post Office (1885)