New Sydney Laneway Bars
Cafes, carparks, alleys and lanes. From big cities, small bars grow...
By Angus Fontaine
It's always darkest before the dawn, and Sydney's laneways, alleys and thoroughfares are very dark indeed - dirty, derelict, undeveloped... but ripe with potential for small bars.
Now that Sydney's bar scene has been revolutionised by the Liquor Amendment Bill driven through parliament by Lord Mayor Clover Moore on July 1, light is penetrating those dark corners of Sydney's CBD.
The City of Sydney has already identified 20 city laneways they believe can be reinvented as bar sites and hole-in-the-wall saloons hosting temporary artworks, music, comedy and what Moore calls "a diverse and vibrant night economy".
The CBD is teeming and choked with cars on weekdays, yet empty at night and on weekends due to a lack of intimate venues and a lack of connection between the city's urban institutions and the natural wonder of her harbour and parks.
Moore's vision is for a small retail renaissance sparked by more active street frontages and reanimation of forgotten spaces such as Angel Place, Albion Place, Bulletin Place, Central Street, York Lane, Sussex Lane, Wilmont Street and Hosking Place.
As reported in Time Out's Bar Revolution issue of July 2, a prominent laneway near Wynyard will soon host the prototype for this ‘speakeasy-breath easy' renaissance when the appropriately titled Small Bar opens in August.
That's just the beginning. In October, for Art & About, the laneways will be reborn by four specially selected artists who will set up radical installations to enliven and entice human traffic. Sydney's lost laneway treasures will be lost no longer.