Norton Street is in the suburb of

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

in Sydney, Australia. It is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the main commercial street in the suburb. Norton Street contains a mix of residential buildings, restaurants (Italian and others), cafés, eateries and individual retail outlets, including several bookstores and grocery shops. There are also hotels, a Palace Cinema, Norton Street Grocer and two of the suburb's three shopping centres: Norton Plaza and the Italian Forum. At the southern end of the street is the Italian Forum, notable for its design which seeks to emulate the feel of a Mediterranean town

piazza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

featuring a fountain, ringed by cafés and upmarket fashion shops.

History

The street was named in honour of James Norton (1795–1862), a colonial Sydney attorney and solicitor who purchased the grand estate of ''Elswick'' in 1834. The 30-hectare ''Elswick'' estate was bounded by Parramatta Road, Norton Street, Marion Street, and Elswick Street, Leichhardt; in 1882, it was sub-divided and offered as 600 lots. Norton Street was once a working-class area populated primarily by first- and second-generation Italian migrants. These days, many of the original inhabitants have moved to outlying suburbs, and the area has gentrified but the Italian flavour remains with Norton Street as its centrepiece. Throughout Sydney, Norton Street is known as "

Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...

" with many Italian eateries.

Events and celebrations

During important events such as the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, the street is closed and thousands of football fans gather to part

It is also the centre of an annual festival called the Italian Festa, held in October.

Transport

Norton Street is serviced by Transit Systems Sydney, Transit Systems routes 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 445 and 447404 Redirect Page, Visit NSW
/ref> and the light rail to

Lilyfield Lilyfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilyfield is located 6 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Lilyfie ...

, and walking about 10 minutes.

Gallery

Image:Leichhardt Norton Hotel.JPG, Norton Hotel Image:Palace_Cinema.jpg, Palace Cinema Image:Leichhardt All Souls Anglican Church.JPG, All Souls Anglican Church Image:Leichhardt Pioneers Memorial Park 1.JPG, Pioneers Memorial Park Image:Leichhardt Italian Forum 1.JPG, Italian Forum entrance Image:Leichhardt Italian Forum 2.JPG, Piazza at the Italian Forum Image:Leichhardt Public School.JPG, Leichhardt Public School Image:Norton_Plaza.jpg, Norton Plaza

References

External links