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Oxford Street, 2003

View up the wood-paved Oxford Street from Hyde Park in c.1910 just before the widening of the street. You can see all the way up to Taylor Square. The foreground of the photograph is dominated by a striking art nouveau light standard. A traffic policeman stands on duty in the centre of the street to regulate the flow of carts, hansom cabs and trams. To the left is Andy Flanagan’s Burdekin Hotel and on the right is Reuben Brasch’s large clothing store.

The Burdekin Hotel still exists in 2003 as a landmark building on the corner of Liverpool Street, having been rebuilt by the City Council following the widening of Oxford Street. The streetscape remains remarkably similar to its early twentieth century self, despite a few high rise incursions near Whitlam Square.

(“Then” image: City of Sydney Archives, CRS 51/2942; “Now” image: City of Sydney)