Australia · State of New South Wales · Sydney
Paddington, Sydney — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Paddington is an inner-eastern suburb of Sydney, on the ridge about three kilometres east of the city centre. Its streets are lined with Victorian terrace houses, and Oxford Street forms the spine of its shopping and gallery strip. The suburb draws visitors for boutiques, weekend markets and Saturday crowds along that main road. Art galleries dot its side streets.
About Paddington
Where to stay in Paddington
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Staying in Paddington puts you among terraces and boutiques rather than harbour towers, a quieter base than the city centre a short bus ride to the west. Beds run to small boutique hotels, guesthouses and terrace rooms, so supply is thinner here than in the CBD or nearby Darlinghurst. The suburb suits gallery-goers, weekend shoppers and long lunches over big-ticket sightseeing.
Oxford Street keeps restaurants and pubs close. For a wider choice of rooms, the city centre and Darling Harbour sit a few kilometres west.
About Paddington
What are the main landmarks in Paddington?
Paddington's headline sight is its own streetscape. Unbroken rows of Victorian terraces line the ridge, their cast-iron lace balconies stepping downhill toward Five Ways and the Royal Hotel. Victoria Barracks, a sandstone army complex begun in the 1840s, runs behind a long perimeter wall on Oxford Street.
Paddington Markets fill a church ground on the same street each Saturday. Nearby, the Paddington Reservoir Gardens turn a former underground water tank into a sunken public garden of brick arches and hanging plants.
What is the history of Paddington?
Paddington took its name from the London district and grew up around Victoria Barracks, whose sandstone ranges went up in the 1840s. Speculative builders then subdivided the ridge through the Victorian land booms, packing it with terraces for tradespeople and clerks. Decline followed.
By the early twentieth century the housing had aged into a run-down working-class quarter, and demolition loomed. A preservation campaign from the 1960s reversed that fate, saving the terraces and pulling artists and shopkeepers onto Oxford Street.
Where is Paddington?
Paddington sits between Darlinghurst to the west and Woollahra to the east, with Centennial Park closing off its southern edge. Oxford Street runs the length of the ridge, while narrower lanes such as Glenmore Road drop away toward Five Ways. The suburb straddles two councils, the City of Sydney and Woollahra.
Moore Park lies just to the south-west.
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Updated July 2026