King Street, Newtown:

King Street is today the central thoroughfare of the suburb of Newtown in Sydney, New South Wales. It's in this street that the residents of the area are most visible, confirming Newtown's reputation as a cosmopolitan community with a higher than average concentration of students, homosexuals and those with an artistic twist who tend to dress with colourful flair. The street can be divided geographically into two sections, North and South. King Street is particularly notable for the many picturesque Victorian and Edwardian era shops and other buildings that line the street. King street is believed to follow the line of ancient Aboriginal track that led from the Sydney Cove area south-west across to Botany Bay. It has also become quite residential above the shops including a large number of apartments. It is known as the best preserved Victorian era street in Sydney and development controls ensure that it will not change. What was once considered too unfashionable to be worth developing is now a sacred part of Sydney.

North King Street, running east-north-east to west-south-west between the University of Sydney, past Newtown railway station at the junction with Enmore Road, is the stretch that most people associate with King Street. This area is a very busy thoroughfare, with traffic jams that rule rather than the exception, heavy foot traffic, and a profusion of restaurants, cafes and fashion retailers.

South King Street was by contrast the down-market section, with less traffic and fewer retailers, running southwards from the station to Sydney Park. In recent years, the far northern section seems to have lost most of its lustre, while the central section has become almost glamorous, and South King Street has attracted a cluster of design shops and homewares shops, which along with assorted small quirky businesses and cafes, has made it one of the most interesting strips in Sydney. It is sometimes referred to as the "Paris end" of King Street.

References:

• Information on King Street from WikiPedia
• Image from Google Images