The Spot is a locality in south-eastern

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The Spot is located in the south-eastern part of the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

of Randwick, around the intersection of Perouse Road and St Pauls Street. It is a vibrant part of Randwick and consists of a collection of shops, restaurants, cafes and a cinema. The Spot is a heritage conservation area and has many heritage listed buildings, such as the Ritz Cinema and Pan Arcadian House, a 1930s Masonic Temple and most notably the facade of shops on the corner of Perouse Road and St Pauls Street which follows a curved pattern, necessary for the tram route which used to extend to Coogee Beach.Schedule 5, . The Royal Hotel and Randwick shopping centre are a short distance away. The area is well served by public transport with regular buses from the

Sydney CBD The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or city centre is often refer ...

and Bondi Junction.

Name

The Spot lies at the geographic centre of a residential suburb that some maps identify as “St Pauls”. The post office located at The Spot is also officially "St Pauls

2031 The 2030s (pronounced "twenty-thirties"; shortened to the '30s) is the next decade in the Gregorian calendar that will begin on 1 January 2030, and will end on 31 December 2039. Plans and goals * NASA plans to execute a crewed mission to Mars be ...

." However, the

Geographical Names Board of New South Wales The Geographical Names Board of New South Wales, a statutory authority of the Department of Customer Service in the Government of New South Wales, is the official body for naming and recording details of places and geographical names in the s ...

does not list “St Pauls” as an officially registered place name within the Randwick Local Government Area.NSW Geographical Names Board Localities in Randwick
accessed 9 May 2009. The locality name of "The Spot", too, is not officially registered with the

and, despite wide use, would appear to remain unofficial.

History

Early days of the colony

Research by a local historical society has revealed that The Spot probably lies on trails that were made through the bushland by members of earliest European settlements in

Sydney Cove Sydney Cove (Eora: ) is a bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, one of several harbours in Port Jackson, on the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Sydney Cove is a focal point for community celebrations, due to its central Sydney locatio ...

. Centrally placed at The Spot is a plinth on which is mounted a plaque that notes:

Between January and March, 1788, members of the Lapérouse expedition at
Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal: ''Kamay''), an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cook ...
and the
First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command ...
at
Sydney Cove Sydney Cove (Eora: ) is a bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, one of several harbours in Port Jackson, on the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Sydney Cove is a focal point for community celebrations, due to its central Sydney locatio ...
passed this place on goodwill visits. Their route is followed closely by parts of Avoca St., Frenchmans Rd. and Perouse Rd. Randwick.

'Struggletown'

During the early years of the Randwick municipality, the area to the west of The Spot (Barker and Botany Streets) was home to labourers and workmen who built some of the finer homes in the Randwick area. The area was often referred to as 'Struggletown' or, less commonly, 'Irish Town'. The Struggletown name lives on near The Spot, in the form of the business name of the local veterinary clinic in Barker Street.

Cultural activities

The Ritz Cinema

The Ritz Cinema, built in 1937, is an example of the art deco cinema architecture that found a home in Australia during the 1920s and 1930s. The architect, Aaron Bolt, is known for his classic art deco buildings throughout Sydney, such as his commissions for grand apartment buildings in

Potts Point Potts Point is a small and densely populated suburb in inner-city Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Potts Point is located east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Potts ...

.Alex Tibbitts, 'Ushering in the golden age of cinema', ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 22 November 2008: p. 13. Since its construction, the cinema has been owned by, among others, the

Hoyts The Hoyts Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes Hoyts Cinemas and Val Morgan. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia's second largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospita ...

cinema group and the Brigidine Sisters (an order of nuns running the adjacent Brigidine College). In the late 1980s, the current owners planned to demolish the existing cinema and to redevelop the site. However, Randwick City Council and the then Minister for Planning intervened and a Permanent Conservation Order was imposed on The Ritz building in March, 1993. The current owners refurbished the building in the late 1990s, adding additional cinemas to the original single principal cinema theatre in order to allow The Ritz to survive in the era of competition with larger multiplex cinema chains. In 1997, The Ritz Cinema was placed on the

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Heritag ...

by the

Australian Heritage Council The Australian Heritage Council is the principal adviser to the Australian Government on heritage matters. It was established on 19 February 2004 by the ''Australian Heritage Council Act 2003''. The Council replaced the Australian Heritage Commis ...

. This record notes that:

The Ritz Cinema is the only one of three remaining theatres of this style in an unaltered state still used as a cinema in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
and is one of the few surviving examples of the hundreds of cinemas which were built during the 1930s, one of the most creative periods of cinematic design in Australia... The Ritz, which has operated almost continuously as a movie theatre since 1937, has social values as a community cultural entertainment centre in the Randwick area. The place is also highly valued by the Art Deco Society... The Ritz is significant for its intact and well detailed
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
design and is a prominent element in the St Paul's Road urban precinct ...

The Spot Food and Film Festival

Since 2008 Randwick City Council has held an annual food and film festival at The Spot featuring special screenings of films at The Ritz, live performances and food stalls. The Spot Food and Film Festival is run as a part of the Coogee Arts Festival.

Australian Film Walk of Fame The Australian Film Walk of Fame is a collection of plaques on the footpath outside the Ritz Cinema in the suburb of Randwick, Sydney, Australia. Formed in 2008 at the Ritz Cinema, the initiative was established to honour Australian actors and ...

In 2008, The Australian Film Festival, The Spot Chamber of Commerce and Randwick City Council established the ''Australian Film Walk of Fame'', which is a "recognition of successful Australian artists in the film industry" and consists of a series of brass plaques set in the pavement on the northern side of St Pauls Street outside the Ritz Cinema.Randwick Council Business Papers 16 December 2008
accessed 24 May 2009. The Council has noted that The Spot Food and Film Festival will provide an ongoing opportunity for additional notable persons to be inducted into the Walk of Fame in the future. The first person recognised in the Walk of Fame was Australian actor Charles "Bud" Tingwell, whose plaque stands outside the Ritz Cinema. Other Australian cinema identities commemorated in the Walk of Fame include:

Michael Caton Michael Caton (born 21 July 1943) is an Australian television, film and stage actor, comedian and television host, best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series '' The Sullivans'', Darryl Kerrigan in 1997's low-budget h ...

;

Roy Billing Roy Harwood Billing (born 1947) is a New Zealand television actor, now based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. He was brought up in Ruawai, Northland, New Zealand. Billing spent almost three decades living and working in Australia. He became wid ...

;

Steve Bisley Steve Bisley (born 26 December 1951) is an Australian writer, film and television actor. He is best known for his roles in the films '' Mad Max'' and ''The Great Gatsby''. On TV, some of his better-known roles include Detective Sergeant Jack C ...

; and

Claudia Karvan Claudia Karvan (born 19 May 1972) is an Australian actress, producer and scriptwriter. As a child actor, she first appeared in the film, '' Molly'' (1983) and followed with an adolescent role in ''High Tide'' (1987). She portrayed a teacher in ...

.Australian Film Festival Walk of Fame - Steve Bisley & Claudia Karvan
/ref>

Architectural heritage in the area

Under the ''Randwick Local Environment Plan'' 2012 a number of buildings in the vicinity of The Spot are listed as ''heritage items'' and the immediate locale a designated ''Heritage Conservation Area''. Buildings within the Heritage Conservation Area around The Spot include: * 13 Lee Street - an

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

residence built c 1910 (item I402 ) * 84 Perouse Road - a two-storey

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

house (item I424 ) * 85 Perouse Road - a

Federation Bungalow Federation architecture is the architectural style in Australia that was prevalent from around 1890 to 1915. The name refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the Australian colonies collectively became the Commonwealth of ...

built c. 1915 (item I425 ) * 106 Perouse Road - a Federation Period Queen Anne cottage (item I427 ) * 108 and 110 Perouse Road - two Federation Period Queen Anne cottages (item I428 ) * 15 St Pauls Street - a Victorian terrace house (item I443 ) * 17 St Pauls Street - a Federation Period cottage (item I444 ) * 19 St Pauls Street - a Victorian

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

terrace house (item I445 ) * 25-27 St Pauls Street - two Victorian Italianate terrace houses (item I446 ) * Ritz Cinema is designated a heritage item of 'State significance' (item I447 ) * 42 St Pauls Street - Pan Arcadian House, formerly the Masonic Temple (item I448 )

Gallery

Image: The Ritz Cinema Randwick - day.jpg, The Ritz Cinema by day. Image: Spot Pan Arcadian House night.jpg, Pan Arcadian House by night. Image: The Spot day pan A.jpg, A row of businesses along St Pauls Street. Image:(1)house_St_Pauls_Street_Randwick-3.jpg, Italianate terrace houses, 25-27 St Pauls Street Image:1_Randwick_Federation_Bungalow(1).jpg,

, 85 Perouse Road Image:(1)Federation_house_Perouse_Road_Randwick-2.jpg, Federation house, 84 Perouse Road

References

{{commons category, Australian Film Walk of Fame

External links

Website for the Spot Randwick

Randwick Ritz

The Spot Food and Film Festival
Spot, The