500px, Taylor Square, Darlinghurst Taylor Square is a public square in

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 ...

. Taylor Square is located beside a major road junction, where

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

meets Flinders Street. Taylor Square is also on the border 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 ...

s of

Darlinghurst Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district (CBD) and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney. I ...

and

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surroun ...

Description

Taylor Square sits above the

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

section of the

Eastern Distributor The Eastern Distributor is a motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Part of the M1, the motorway links the Sydney central business district with Sydney Airport. The centre-piece is a tunnel running from Woolloomooloo to Surry Hills. ...

, part of M1. The square is named after Sir Allen Taylor (1864-1940), a timber merchant, ship builder and

Lord Mayor of Sydney The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Sydney is the head of the Council of the City of Sydney, which is the local government area covering the central business district of Sydney in the State of New South Wales, Australia. The Lord Mayor has be ...

who was responsible for the widening of Oxford Street during his tenure. The area formerly bound by the traffic of the three streets is popularly known as "Gilligan's Island" because of three large palm trees that once occupied the strip, but have since been subsequently removed. Construction of the

also entailed the realignment of traffic flow in the area. Direct vehicle access across Oxford Street via Bourke Street is no longer possible. The locality is a centre of the city's nightlife, especially for its

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...

. Two permanent tributes are the large rainbow flag and

rainbow crossing A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

, built in 2014 and 2019 respectively. Rainbow Crossing

Darlinghurst Courthouse The Darlinghurst Courthouse is a heritage-listed courthouse building located adjacent to Taylor Square on Oxford Street in the inner city Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Co ...

is an imposing sandstone building on Taylor Square. It was designed by architect

Mortimer Lewis Mortimer William Lewis (1796 – 9 March 1879) was an English-born architect, surveyor and public servant who migrated to Australia and became New South Wales Government Architect, Colonial Architect in the colony of New South Wales (now a state ...

(1796 - 1879) in 1844, and has a Greek Revival style facade. The central block is adapted from an 1823 design in Peter Nicholson's The New Practical Builder. The square also features a large water fountain built into the pavement. This was part of a $5.25 million upgrade, in 2003, including lighting and grass terrace. The fountain is currently being reviewed for upgrade and repair by

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

Council.

References

Sydney localities Streets in Sydney Gay villages in Australia LGBT culture in Sydney Darlinghurst, New South Wales Squares in Sydney {{Sydney-geo-stub

Description

See also

References