Breathing Life Back Into Oxford Street
There is no doubt that Oxford Street has been dying a slow death for a long time. Whenever I walk up it or peer out at it from my bus journey home – I feel nostalgia for a time when this once bustling boulevard thrived with life.
Last year, the proposed panacea was “redevelopment”. By building higher, by designating creative space, by putting bars on rooftops – oxygen would soon pump back into this central strip. At least, that’s what we were told.
However, we’ve seen this approach play out just down the road in Kings Cross. Yes, Covid cut into the energy of our inner-city villages. But new developments have so far stimulated little and even dialled the effervescence down further.
Once article last week posited that the light-rail was the answer. But with every single bus heading east stopping along it, access to Oxford Street has never been the problem.
The answer to reinvigorating Oxford Street’s once vibrant heart, is to enable it to become the place for surrounding suburbs to meet. If locals can re-embrace the precinct through regular participation and ongoing social contribution – an ambience will be generated, that will attract.
One easy way to jump-start this change is to reimagine Taylor Square – to transform it into a place where locals flock in the afternoons and evenings, seeding ambience and buzz.
In fact, Taylor Square on the Darlinghurst side of Oxford Street already has a world-class square designed for public use. Apart from the markets on Saturday, though – it barely gets used.
This space is a legitimate boon for Sydney. Rather than waiting for the budget approvals, tender bids, cranes and concrete trucks required for some of the other proposals – Taylor Square is a dormant gem, ready to go. Regulations for its use would just need updating.
With Sydney now doused in winter and endless rain, many have escaped to Europe for some of their summer lifestyle and culture. One drawcard that we all love are the European public piazzas.
Be it sipping on wine after dinner, breathing in the night or just watching life float by – these spaces are enjoyed by millions of locals in countless cities across Europe.
Yet, as Sydneysiders, we find ourselves needing to fly to the other side of the world to experience such a cosmopolitan lifestyle, especially at night. This is incredibly sad.
On a positive note though, change is brewing. There has been a growing conversation about how Sydney might become a global city once again. This is exciting.
However, trepidation still lingers. Cloaked behind this new positive tone, lives an old belief in some policy circles that perhaps Sydneysiders are still not ready to enjoy these sorts of spaces, responsibly.
This circumspect tentativeness is a fallout from the lockout law years. A sort of residual anxiety or trauma which frets that if too much access to public spaces is permitted at night – before too long, this privilege will be neglected with raucousness.
These sorts of unhelpful, parochial idiosyncrasies are now holding us back. Until we let them go, we can't move past them.
For policy makers still tending towards diffidence, if there is one word that requires adoption – that word is "trust". Our city will never rebuild its confidence, take the necessary risks and make its way back to the global city status without it.
Ironically, study after study (like this recent one from University of Wollongong) find that healthy use of public piazzas – and their outputs of sound, din and atmosphere – actually create a deeper sense of safety, especially at night.
This drives increased local participation, which deepens a sense of community. Invaluable assets in a city looking to rediscover its soul.
Think tanks investigating ways to recharge Sydney’s night time economy, pepper their whitepapers with the concept of “activation of public space”.
Again, this is a welcome concept pushing the conversation in the right direction.
However, I prefer the term “piazza-fication of public space”. Softer in tone and implied usage, it insinuates: conversation, sipping, food, din – and could be a little more sensitive to where Sydney’s head is at.
Whatever the language or nuance required – if we can enable Taylor Square to become the charming meeting place it was designed to be – a day in the life of the surrounding village locals will certainly become more delightful.
And this delight will build a new affinity with the precinct and incentivise it as a place to be. The ambience generated will spill out into Oxford Street, stimulate momentum and increase foot traffic.
This is a formula tried and tested in so many other cities around the world. We just need some bravery to embrace it here ourselves.
