Norton Street is in the suburb of Leichhardt in Sydney, Australia. It is located 5 kilometres west of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, 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 ...

and is the main commercial street in the suburb. Norton Street contains a mix of residential buildings, restaurants (Italian and others), cafés,

eateries A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appe ...

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 Forum or The Forum may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example * Internet forum, discussion board ...

. 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 public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...

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 The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

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 the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

" with many Italian eateries.

Events and celebrations

During important events such as the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

, the street is closed and thousands of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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

Transport

Norton Street is serviced by

Transit Systems Transit Systems Group is an Australian-based public transport company, which also operates overseas through its subsidiary Tower Transit Group. Transit Systems Group is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group, formerly SeaLink Travel Group. History ...

routes 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 445 and 447404 Redirect Page, Visit NSW
/ref> and the

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

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. Lilyfield is ...

, 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