Occupying the site of an old brewery, this major residential and shopping development is a striking sight. Most impressive is Jean Nouvel's award-winning, vertical-garden-covered tower, One Central Park. The cantilevered platform high above has been designed to reflect sunlight onto the greenery below. Its lower floors have plenty of food options, cinemas, shops, a supermarket and gallery spaces, while adjacent Kensington St and Spice Alley offer further gastronomic pleasure. Two new Norman Foster–designed apartment towers, Duo, complete the picture.

Opposite, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has competed against this architectural overload. Seeking to offset its brutalist main tower, it's built striking Building 10 right opposite Central Park, and added a Frank Gehry business school a couple of streets away.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Newtown & the Inner West attractions

1. White Rabbit

0.12 MILES

In many ways Sydney's best contemporary-art gallery, White Rabbit is tucked away behind the Central Park development in Chippendale. It's the project of…

2. Mortuary Station

0.17 MILES

This ornate disused Victorian sandstone station used to be the departure point for funeral trains out to the Rookwood cemetery in Sydney's west. It's a…

3. Dr Chau Chak Wing Building

0.27 MILES

Opened in 2015, this university business school was donated by the father of an alumnus and designed by Frank Gehry. It's a striking sight, all windows…

4. Christ Church St Laurence

0.29 MILES

Step off Sydney’s main drag into this calming 1845 sandstone church. The rather charming neo-Gothic interior is atmospheric, with dark wooden fittings and…

5. Central Station

0.37 MILES

Sydney’s main railway station was built in 1906 on top of an old convent and cemetery (watch out for ghosts). The 75m Gothic clock tower was added 15…

6. Golden Water Mouth

0.44 MILES

On Chinatown's Hay St, the surreal Golden Water Mouth sculpture drips with gilt and water. Formed from a eucalyptus trunk from Condobolin, the destination…

7. Powerhouse Museum

0.44 MILES

A short walk from Darling Harbour, this cavernous science and design museum whirs away inside the former power station for Sydney’s defunct, original tram…

8. Chinatown

0.48 MILES

Dixon St is the heart of Chinatown: a narrow, shady pedestrian mall with a string of restaurants and insistent spruikers. The ornate dragon gates (paifang…