Macquarie Street, Sydney

Macquarie Street stands out as Sydney’s go-to boulevard for big moments, bold history, and even bolder architecture. Running from Hyde Park up to the doorstep of the Opera House, this grand avenue was laid out in the early 1800s under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who clearly decided the young colony needed a street that looked the part. His plan was to build a civic showpiece lined with institutions that would make the place feel less like a distant outpost and more like a capital in the making.

As you move along its eastern edge, the city’s heritage unfolds in sequence. The State Library of New South Wales, Sydney Hospital, and The Mint all stand on what was once the colony’s famous “Rum Hospital,” a building project Governor Macquarie approved when rum, not cash, was the preferred currency. A few steps away are the Hyde Park Barracks, Francis Greenway’s Georgian sandstone masterpiece, and the Parliament of New South Wales, which still uses the surviving wings of that original hospital. Their clean lines and local stone give the street its unmistakable early-colonial look—formal, balanced, and sturdily confident.

Keep drifting north, and the scene widens toward the Domain, the Supreme Court, and the gentle slope leading to the Opera House. Here, old sandstone meets modern glass and steel, creating a visual timeline of more than two centuries in a single stroll.

Macquarie Street doesn’t just link buildings—it links eras, ideas, and the ambitions of a city that grew from a penal colony into a global landmark...