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Kings Cross, New South Wales

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Kings Cross is an inner-eastern locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is bounded by the suburbs of Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutters Bay and Darlinghurst.[1]

Kings Cross
Sydney, New South Wales
Coca-Cola billboard, Kings Cross
Coordinates33°52′25″S 151°13′25″E / 33.87373°S 151.22357°E / -33.87373; 151.22357
Population4,948 (2019)
Location2 km (1 mi) east of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)City of Sydney
State electorate(s)Sydney
Federal division(s)Sydney
Localities around Kings Cross:
Potts Point Potts Point Elizabeth Bay
Woolloomooloo Kings Cross Rushcutters Bay
Darlinghurst Darlinghurst Darlinghurst

Colloquially known as The Cross, the area was once known for its music halls and grand theatres. It was rapidly transformed after World War II by the influx of troops returning and visiting from the nearby Garden Island naval base. It became known as Sydney's night entertainment and red-light district, earning the nickname "Sin City"; however, many nightclubs, bars and adult entertainment venues closed due to the Sydney lockout laws.[2] Today, it is a mixed locality offering services such as a railway station, gyms, supermarkets and bakeries as well as entertainment venues including bars, restaurants, nightclubs, brothels and strip clubs.

History

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Trams and trolley buses pass through Kings Cross intersection in the 1950s
 
William Street and Kings Cross from the air in the 1950s

British settlement

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The intersection of William Street, Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street at the locality's southernmost limit was named Queen's Cross to celebrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee in 1897. Confusion with Queen's Square in King Street in the city prompted its renaming as Kings Cross, after King Edward VII, in 1905.

During the early 19th century the Darlinghurst area, which extended to include current day Kings Cross, was one of Sydney's most prestigious locations, being far enough to escape the noise and smell of the central city but close enough for easy travel. An additional attraction was the commanding harbour views to the east and north and (from some points) views to the west as far as the Blue Mountains.

In 1828, the Governor of New South Wales Sir Ralph Darling subdivided the area, then known as Woolloomooloo Hill, into large allotments which he granted seventeen estates to favoured subordinates and leading businessmen. They built a series of grandiose mansions with sprawling gardens of up to ten acres (4 ha). The remnants of these gardens helped give the area its leafy character, and many of the mansions are commemorated through street names such as Roslyn, Orwell and Kellett. Most of the grand estates were ultimately subdivided with all but a handful of the great houses demolished. One of the surviving homes, located nearby in the suburb of Elizabeth Bay, is Elizabeth Bay House, a quintessential example of Australian colonial architecture. Others, now used for other purposes, include Tusculum in Manning Street and Rockwall.[3] A prominent past resident of this era was David Scott Mitchell.[3]

Early Subdivision Plans

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The estates that Governor Darling granted to the emerging merchant class and professional elite shaped the development of the area that came to be known as Kings Cross. The mansions built on these estates such as Tusculum remain today as leading examples of architectural design in colonial Australia.[4][5]

Subdivision plans also known as estate maps were produced from the mid-19th to mid-20th century and advertised estates and subdivisions of land for sale. They illustrate the urban development of Sydney as large estates were divided up and transformed into the suburbs of Sydney.[6][7]

The estates and mansions are commemorated through street names such as Roslyn, Orwell and Kellett, as documented in the gallery of subdivision maps.[8][9]

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    Barncleuth Estate, Darlinghurst – Hardie and Gorman – Elizabeth Bay Rd, Rushcutter's Bay Rd, 1883.[10][11]
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    Tusculum, Potts Point – Richardson & Wrench – Victoria St, Tusculum St, Macleay St, Albert St, Manning St, 1904.[12]
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    Darlinghurst, Bayswater Rd subdivision – Richardson and Wrench; Raine and Horne – Bayswater Rd, Woolcott St, Surrey St, Roslyn St, 1916
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    Potts Point, Orwell House Estate – Raine and Horne – Hughes St, Victoria St, Orwell St, Macleay St, Orwell Lane, Hughes Lane, Hughes Place, 1921.[13]
  •  
    Springfield House and grounds, Darlinghurst – Hardie and Gorman – Earl St, Earl Place, Springfield Ave, Llankelly Lane, Orwell St, Elizabeth Bay Rd, Barncleuth Square, Roslyn St, Macleay St, Darlinghurst Rd, 1923.[14]
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    Alberto Terrace – Richardson and Wrench, Hardie and Gorman – Kellett Lane, Kellet St, Darlinghurst Rd, Bayswater Rd, Victoria St, William St, Woolcot St, Brougham Lane, Penny's Lane, Goderich Lane, 1923.[15]

Bohemian district

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The Kings Cross district was Sydney's bohemian heartland from the early decades of the 20th century. The illegal trading of alcohol, known as sly grog, was notorious in the area up until mid-century, led by rival brothel owners, Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh.[3] For most of the 1900s, the "Cross" was an entertainment centre which hosted numerous clubs and cafes as well as the Kings Cross Theatre, one of Sydney's earliest movie houses. The area was also home to a large number of artists, including writers, poets and journalists such as Kenneth Slessor, Christopher Brennan, Hal Porter, George Sprod and Dame Mary Gilmore, entrepreneur Mayfield B. Anthony, actors including Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty, and painters Sir William Dobell and Rosaleen Norton.[3]

 
Kings Cross circa 1960.

From the 1960s onwards Kings Cross also came to serve as both the city's main tourist accommodation and entertainment mecca, as well as its red-light district. It thereby achieved a high level of notoriety out of all proportion to its limited geographical extent. Hundreds of American servicemen on R & R (rest and recreation) leave flocked to the area each week in search of entertainment. Organised crime and police corruption were well entrenched in the area – one of Sydney's most notorious illegal casinos operated with impunity for many years, although it was known to all and located only yards from Darlinghurst police station. Much of this activity can be related with Abe Saffron, commonly known as Mr Sin or "the boss of the Cross".

A positive influence in the area during that time was the Wayside Chapel, run by Rev Ted Noffs. His church was open most of the time, providing a "drop in centre" and counselling services to many of the itinerants who were drawn to the area. The Ted Noffs Foundation Inc, established in 1971,[16] continues his work supporting young people and their families who are experiencing drug and alcohol problems and related trauma.

Juanita Nielsen, a journalist and publisher, campaigned against property development in the Kings Cross area during the 1970s until her sudden disappearance on 4 July 1975. A coronial inquest determined that Nielsen had been murdered, and although the case has never been officially solved, it is widely believed that Nielsen was killed by agents of the developers.[3][17] Some of the projects she campaigned against were delayed, halted or modified due to a combination of community campaigns and green bans placed by the NSW Builders Labourers Federation.[18]

 
El Alamein Fountain

As a celebration to commemorate the Stonewall Riots, the inaugural Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras pro-gay rights protest march was held on the evening of 24 June 1978. After the protest march, participants were subject to police harassment in Hyde Park, following the revocation of the original protest permit.[19] Some participants headed to Kings Cross where police arrested 53 people, although most of the charges were later dropped.[3]

Australia's first widely known transgender person, Carlotta, rose to prominence in Kings Cross whilst working in cabaret at Les Girls, The Tender Trap, and her appearance on soap opera Number 96.[3]

From the late 1960s, drug-related crime was one of the area's main social problems. In 2001, despite controversy, Australia's first Medically Supervised Injecting Centre was established (where users of illegal drugs can inject themselves at a safe injection site in clean conditions) at a shopfront site in Kings Cross. The injecting room is credited with reducing the occurrence of fatal overdoses in the injecting drug user community, as well as reducing the number of needles left in the street, with an interim evaluation report in 2007 claiming:[20]

The reduction in opioid-related overdoses was much more substantial in the immediate vicinity of the MSIC than in other neighbouring areas. ... Counts of discarded needles and syringes collected locally indicated a decrease of around 50% following the establishment of the service.

 
Kings Cross station on the left, present day

Today

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Today, the ongoing operation of tourist accommodation, the proximity to social housing and health care, and the convenient public transport to the city result in a diverse population, both resident and passing through at Kings Cross. Since the introduction of controversial lockout laws in March 2014 several nightclubs and pubs in the area have closed down.[21][22] In February 2021, the NSW government announced the end of lockout laws in March 2021 hoping to revitalise the area.[23]

Heritage listings

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Kings Cross has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

Landmarks

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Fire Station & Kirketon Road Centre, Darlinghurst Road
  • The El Alamein Fountain is at the entrance to the Fitzroy Gardens on the corner of Darlingurst Road and Macleay Street was commissioned as a memorial to soldiers who died in 1942 during World War II in two battles at El Alamein, Egypt. It was designed in 1961 by the New Zealand-born architect Robert Woodward. Its dandelion design, which has since been copied for fountains around the world, was Woodward's original design.
  • The Coca-Cola billboard, which has since been turned off and replaced in 2016 with a new sign. Pieces of the original sign were auctioned off on eBay with proceeds going to the Wayside Chapel.
  • The Fire Station at the intersection of Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street was designed by the Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, and built from 1910 to 1912. It is an example of the Federation Free Style and is now listed on the Register of the National Estate.[26]
  • Kings Cross railway station is an underground railway station on the Eastern Suburbs & Illawarra Line of the Sydney Trains network.
  • The Les Girls building, now known as the Empire Hotel, stood prominently on the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Roslyn Street, in the heart of the Cross. From 1963 until 1993 the building was home to the legendary Les Girls "drag queen" show, starring Carlotta. Throughout the 1990s the building, still retaining its original 1960s features, became the home to alternative cabaret, including the much-loved Sunday nightclub The Tender Trap.

Culture

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Events and celebrations

  • The Kings Cross Food and Wine Festival is a local annual event held in autumn by the Potts Point Partnership, a business action group.[27][28]

Popular culture

  • The television series Kings Cross ER: St Vincent's Hospital prominently features medical emergencies that occur in Kings Cross and surrounding areas. The show frequently examines issues in Kings Cross such as violence, homelessness, prostitution, illicit drugs and gang-related incidents. The title was inaccurate as St. Vincent's Hospital is located in Darlinghurst.
  • Kings Cross has made several appearances in popular Australian culture including Paul Kelly's song "From St Kilda to Kings Cross" from the album Post.
  • The 1999 Australian crime film Two Hands starring actor Heath Ledger was partly filmed in Kings Cross.
  • Clare Werbeloff became known as the Kings Cross Bogan following her eyewitness account of a shooting outside a Kings Cross nightclub, which turned out to be a hoax. Her politically incorrect report to a television news cameraman spread online via YouTube and made her an internet celebrity.[29] Afterwards she starred in a lingerie photo shoot for Ralph magazine and in several Australian television shows.[30][31][32] She also starred in a photo shoot in a 2011 Spanish FHM magazine.[33]
  • The novel The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarsky is set in a fictitious girls' school in Kings Cross and involves the disappearance of one of the teachers while on a school excursion in 1967.[34]
  • The novel Down in the City (1957) by Elizabeth Harrower is mostly set in Kings Cross.
  • Justine Ettler's The River Ophelia, a controversial 1995 novel, is believed to be set in King's Cross though the location is never revealed in the book.[35]
  • Australian crime drama series Underbelly: The Golden Mile was set in Kings Cross. It was a dramatic representation of Kings Cross organised crime in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • The Australian television series Love Child was set in Kings Cross. It is a fictional drama series based on the lives of teenagers going through underage pregnancy during the 1960s.
  • The Australian television series Les Norton was set in Kings Cross, as the lead character is a bouncer in a Kings Cross illegal gambling casino in 1985.
  • Australian television series Last King of the Cross set in Kings Cross in the early years of John Ibrahim rise in Kings Cross and Oxford Street.[36]
  • A documentary titled The Rise & Fall Of Kings Cross will air on Seven Network in 2025.[37]

Population

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As of 2019, it is estimated 4,948 people live within the locality's 0.17 km2 (0.066 sq mi) area.[38] In 2018, the local area (including Potts Point and Woolloomooloo) was recognised as the second most densely populated in Australia.[39]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Gregory's Sydney Street Directory, Gregory's Publishing Company, 2007
  2. ^ "Sydney lockout laws to be scrapped almost entirely from 14 January". The Guardian. Australian Associated Press. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Fitzgerald, Shirley (2007). "The Strip on the strip" (PDF). City of Sydney. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Tusculum". Sydney Living Museums. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Tusculum Mansion". State Library of New South Wales Catalogue. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Subdivision plans". State Library of New South Wales. 19 June 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  7. ^ State Library of New South Wales; Whitnall, Avryl (2002), Villas of Darlinghurst, State Library of New South Wales, ISBN 978-0-7313-7117-4
  8. ^ "Kings Cross Subdivision Plans". State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  9. ^ "Kings Cross Subdivision Plans". Trove - National Library of Australia. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  10. ^ Mention of a sale in July 1883;"Property Sales". The Evening News. No. 4958. New South Wales, Australia. 9 July 1883. p. 4. Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ see also: Reuss & Nott (Firm); Hardie & Gorman Pty. Ltd; Gibbs, Shallard & Co (1882), Barncleuth Estate Darlinghurst : for auction sale, Gibbs, Shallard & Co, retrieved 17 February 2019 and Hardie & Gorman Pty. Ltd; John Sands (Firm); Reuss & Nott (Firm) (1884), Barncleuth Estate Darlinghurst, for auction sale on the ground on Saturday Octr. 25th 1884 at 3 o'clock, John Sands, lith, retrieved 17 February 2019
  12. ^ "FOR £28,000". The Sun. No. 5324. New South Wales, Australia. 30 November 1927. p. 15 (FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "£2510- A FOOT". The Sun. No. 951. New South Wales, Australia. 19 June 1921. p. 2. Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "SOCIAL SIDELIGHTS". The Sun. No. 1530. New South Wales, Australia. 24 July 1932. p. 28. Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ Not all changes were controversy free –"ALBERTO TERRACE CHARGES". The Daily Telegraph. No. 13, 766. New South Wales, Australia. 22 January 1924. p. 7. Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "About". website. Ted Noffs Foundation. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
  17. ^ McGuiness, Padraic P (3 March 2004). "Juanita Nielsen, casualty of ideological war". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
  18. ^ Green Bans Art Walks Project (23 June 2023). "Green Bans Timeline: 1971-74". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  19. ^ Ross, Liz (3 April 2023). "Revolution Is For Us: Gay Liberation, Unions and the Left in the 1970s". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  20. ^ National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (2007). "Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre Evaluation Report No. 4: Evaluation of service operation and overdose-related events" (PDF). University of New South Wales. Retrieved 23 December 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ^ Dumas, Daisy (14 March 2016). "Going, going, gone: 10 iconic bar closures and moves in Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 16 March 2016.
  22. ^ Spicer, David (30 July 2015). "Hugo's Lounge in Sydney's Kings Cross forced to close after revenue drop, owner blames lockout laws". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 10 October 2016.
  23. ^ "NSW Government to scrap controversial lockout laws in Kings Cross". www.abc.net.au. 8 February 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  24. ^ "El Alamein Memorial Fountain". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H01847. Retrieved 18 May 2018.   Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC BY 4.0 licence.
  25. ^ "Protecting heritage and character in Kings Cross". Medianet. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  26. ^ The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company, 1981
  27. ^ "Kings Cross Festival".
  28. ^ "The Potts Point Partnership".
  29. ^ Kennedy, Les; Marcus, Caroline (24 May 2009). "Bogus bogan exposed: top cop disarms cult of 'chk chk boom'". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  30. ^ "Chk chk boom chick Clare Werbeloff strips for Ralph". 21 June 2010.
  31. ^ "Clare Werbeloff: Actress". IMDb.
  32. ^ "Clare Werbeloff Uncovered aka Chk Chk Boom Girl in the July 2010 Ralph Magazine". July 2010.
  33. ^ "Clare Werbeloff Uncovered in 2011 FHM Magazine". 2011.
  34. ^ Allen & Unwin - Australia. p. 94.[permanent dead link]
  35. ^ "River Ophelia by Justine Ettler". Abe Books. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  36. ^ Knox, David (2 September 2024). "King's Cross & Oxford Street were "a pretty wild time back then" | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  37. ^ Knox, David (13 November 2024). "Upfronts: 2025 Seven Network". TV Tonight. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  38. ^ "About the profile areas | Kings Cross | profile.id". profile.id.com.au. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  39. ^ "These are Australia's most densely populated suburbs". The New Daily. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
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