William St revived with talent

A local council has announced plans to establish further creative hubs in the inner city area.

The City of Sydney recently stated its intention to establish mixed-use properties at 101-111 and 113-115 William St. These buildings will include affordable spaces for artists to provide living and working spaces as well as galleries. Commercial properties, notably showrooms and office space, will also be on offer.

A report presented to Council on February 13 was passed unanimously. The Council will call for expressions of interest in late April or May.

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said monetary factors are a barrier to creative areas.

“Sydney’s creative culture attracts people to live, visit, work and invest here – but there’s no creative culture if artists can’t afford to live and work,” Ms Moore said.

“As a Council, we’re looking at underused properties that we can use to encourage artists and creative start-ups.”

Chairman of the Potts Point Partnership, Adrian Bartels, said they welcomed the announcement, while Andrew Duckmanton, vice-president of the Darlinghurst Business Partnership, said such efforts in the inner east area were positive. He said they would help improve the area’s daytime economy, but was critical of what he perceived as a piecemeal approach.

“I would rather see a collective vision for the area which is around what it’s going to stand for. Are we going to be a Greenwich? Are we going to be a Soho?” he said.

“Let’s have a good discussion about the long-term, but for now the activation is both welcomed and needed.”

Amir Halpert, the owner of The Owl House, a restaurant just off William St, said such development would be a positive addition by bringing increased foot traffic. He said he expects people to patronise the restaurant before or after seeing an artistic exhibition.

Dr Nicole Gurran, an urban planner and policy analyst at the University of Sydney, said creative hubs have an economic flow-on effect, with both local businesses having increased patronage as well as creating an influx of wealthier professionals who enjoy creative atmospheres.

“You’ve got people coming in to see exhibitions. You’ve got people coming in to work. You’ve got people coming in at different times of the day for events that tend to start to happen around creative spaces,” she said. She said this can gentrify the area with the artists then moving to new places.

Dr Gurran said the establishment of creative centres in the Inner East is a case of “back to the future”. She said the Woolloomooloo area was an artistic hub in the 1970s but that artists left for Newtown and St Peters in the 1990s; they are now moving to Sydenham and Marrickville due to economic factors.