A Street Art Tour of Newtown With Its Local Artists

Have you ever been fond of Graffitis? Graffiti is the modern form of artwork came into existence in the late 1960s. Newtown is located in Sydney’s inner-west suburb. It is well-known for many things like eclectic boutiques, cool bars, delicious food and free-spirited residents. It is also world known for its street art. you can find a graffiti art on every corner of the street. Most of the walls are wrapped with scenes taken from books and some of them are taken real-life events.

According to the locals, A wall without a painting is a sign of dullness. People around the world consider this place as the largest open-air-gallery in Sydney. if you are a lover of flawless artwork, then this will surely be your best bet. Without any further due, let’s take a look at the different streets that taps tourists to this place.

How Did This Place Become The Hub Of Artists?

This place started off a poor students resident area, because of the low priced residents. It is located quite close to Sydney University. This place due to the open culture and a very vibrant nightlife attracted artists around the world. Thus came into this place was the UK-born, graffiti artist Steven Nuttall. No one cared much about their walls and let the artist show their magic on the walls instead of keeping them clean and neat.

Few Marque Streets Of Newtown

Pretty much every single street in this place has the graffiti’s in them. So we obviously can’t list all of them but this list will have the marque ones, being the sole reason for travellers to come to Newtown.

• 2 Lennox Street
• 8 Lennox Street
• Camperdown Memorial Park, Church Street
• King Street
• 43 Bedford Street
• 52-60 Enmore Road
• 407-409 King Street

2 Lennox Street

This place has a big history behind this to join the club of streets influenced by this art. people considered being a Graffiti artist like every other Job, Artists were respected for what they were doing. In fact, in 2016 the local council members came up with a program called ‘Perfect Match’ which created a bond between the building owners and the artists keen to paint them.

This is the sole reason for the massive artwork to come to life. The famous graffiti covers the whole car park wall on Lennox street. It is considered as the perfect example of this form of art. I’m sure you won’t see this kind of artwork anywhere else in the world. It is a must-visit when you are in Sydney.

8 Lennox Street

This is a striking mural on the other side of the car park of Lennox street. This is an image of a woman with two cats. Steven Nutall wanted to create something that cements its place for the rest of the days to come. And this was painted at the time of the marriage of the couple who owned the house.

Camperdown Memorial Park, Church Street

This place is located pretty much to the centre of Newtown. It one of a relaxed public park with green open spaces. The cemetery walls and the fence made of stone were the easiest outdoor gallery for the artists. This cemetery is 200 years old. The characters on the walls are taken from a book Terry Pratchett’s book. The name of the characters is ‘Wyrd mural’. Apart from this, the place is well known for the laid-back pubs and has famous breweries as well.

King Street

The street gets its name after the famous freedom fighter Martin Luthur King Jr. This King street has the most photographed piece of Art in the whole of Australia. A nice casual stroll along this street will lead you to the mural – ‘I have a dream’. The Mural is not only considered a brilliant piece of art but also the ferocious history of this street.

These days it remembers people about the protests that took place to make this art form a legal one. This was painted in 1991 against the law. This is a piece of art that one shouldn’t miss when they are in Sydney.

43 Bedford Street

Walk little further down the road from King street to reach Bedford street. This was painted on an Asylum located on the corner of Bedford Street and Chelmsford Street. The Asylum seeking centre’s walls were completely covered with colourful birds. The Chief executive of the Asylum seekers centre, Officer Frances Rush wanted to send out a strong message to the people seeking asylum that this place is welcoming and is vibrant.

52-60 Enmore Road

This should be the most creative piece of art in the whole list and has a very unique and realistic touch. At the end of 2017, the inner-west parts of the place were turning out to be very expensive to buy and rent. Since this place was largely occupied by poor students. The locals were agitated and they were insecure about being pushed out from their residents and high rents mean the life becomes tougher.

The art has the whole story in it. It is an image of a woman letting her bubble house floating away from her on a set of balloons. This became a huge inspiration for the crowd to act against the increase in the cost of living and this had a very huge impact on this issue.

407-409 King Street

This street is one of the newest addition to the club of streets with this form of art. This mural was mastered by Steven Nuttall and another famous artist called Phibs. The mural is named as A rising tide. This again has some bit of relation to the price increase of the land and the houses. But the major theme was about the problem of climate change.

As mentioned before these are not the only places in Newtown which hold the famous graffiti arts, there are other places as well. Want to know more about the destination? Check out our guides page. Can’t wait to plan your next Sydney vacation? We at pickyourtrail help travellers with customizable itineraries to all their dream destinations. Head straight to pickyourtrail and start customizing your Australia tour package.