William Street has been the primary link for Sydney's eastern suburbs to the CBD and the west for decades. This will change soon due to the opening of the Cross City Tunnel next month and the street works that are currently underway.

While the new tunnel will devert traffic under the city. The street works will reduce the number of lanes down to three (a traffic, a bus and a T3?) while extending the widths of the footpaths. So I thought I'd try and grab some photos before William Street's shabbiness and it's status as a key arterial link road is gone.

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The Horizon

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The twin KX towers

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The southern side still retains alot of original buildings

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Kings Cross Tunnel, west entrance

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William Street is known for its err transexual prostitutes, least it used to be

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A long traffic light, at the M1 exit

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The M1 exit, with its smoke stack in the background

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Footpath and street works outside the Westfield Tower

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Corner of Crown/William

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The College, William and Park intersection. Effectively the end of William.

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The Australian Museum

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The College, William and Park intersection. Effectively the end of William.

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Urban water reflection

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Cook Phillip Park

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The full length of William

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The north side of William contains newer buildings, as the original ones were knocked down to extend the road.

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Cook Phillip Park

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The Paramount, changing face of East Sydney

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W'loo

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At one time the whole of William Street was filled with car dealerships. Common as well as exotic cars as you can see here.

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Cross City Tunnel construction site

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The boring architecture of northside William

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Stairs to Liverpool Street

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The referb is underway

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Not the best photo, but this is a very unique building for Sydney at least.

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Just above the Kings Cross Tunnel

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Just before the eastern entrance to The KCT and the CCT.

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The lower entrance is to the Cross City, the upper is to the Kings Cross tunnels.

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It will be interesting to see what this scene will look like in 15-25 years. When the trees along the railing have grown and the copper has aged.

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The end.

ach it's depressing how auto-centric & barrier-ridden the area is - City road will turn out like this if something's not done soon.

3rd pic, if that's not a classic Sydney streetscape then I don't know what is.

if anything, very much a thought-provoking tour.

Love the variety there Ippgi!! :okay:

The portals to the XCity look great.

Traffic sewer, sort of like Hoddle Street in Melbourne. I remember the last time I drove through that area vowing never to drive anywhere in Sydney ever again (public transport or taxi next time :-).

The new tunnel portals look great, hopefully they will be able to fit in some rows of trees along William Street when the cross city tunnels are finished, that would improve the street 100%.

The tunnel portals do look fantastic, but William Street is otherwise quite ugly and full of traffic. I know there are proposed beautification works, but I still think that the buildings lining the street are very very poor qaulity. Never realy liked the street.

William street will eventually be a tree lined boulevarde with little traffic. Ive donemodels of new plan. should look good.
great pix ipiggi

I enjoyed these pics, it should be good to see William Street beautified and spread some Melbourne class up north. Hoddle St/Punt road is still my favourite traffic sewer street.

Nice pictures!! Very good perspective shots you go there. I can't wait to see the final beautification works done, especially the new trees and footpath widening that will go on!

William street will eventually be a tree lined boulevarde with little traffic. Ive donemodels of new plan. should look good.


I agree, i think the street has ALOT of potential to become a really attractive and entertaining area. Let time take its course and renewable spread its wings into this stretch.

Thanks for the photos!!

I think it might take a while before the area changes though. There are still a large number of automobile based shops, especially car rentals and the like. Not the mention the high ground store vacancy rates from all the old dealers who have moved out recently. Plus the new empty shops created the new Formula1 hotel and some apartment refurbs. But there are a number restaurants & cafes around the area in East Sydney already. So who knows..

Very good!
Citigroup looks huge :)

Citigroup looks huge :)

Does anyone know what's going down with the signage on this building? You can see in the last photo that the 'oup' part is missing on the eastern side. When I saw it on the weekend I think it might only have said 'citi', but the northern sign still read 'citigroup'.

yo.

They actually took the whole thing down, and now have been putting it back on

Does anyone know what's going down with the signage on this building? You can see in the last photo that the 'oup' part is missing on the eastern side. When I saw it on the weekend I think it might only have said 'citi', but the northern sign still read 'citigroup'.I spoke with the women who is the current building manager of the Citigroup building and she informed me that is is currently undergoing rewiring for its illuminations in the evenings. She said at the time it will begin with the eastern side.

Eventually this rewiring will be on all 4 sides of the building.

BTW The pic posted below by Ippgi with the caption "Stairs to Liverpool Street" are actually stairs to Forbes Street.

http://defacto2.zftp.com/williamstreet/28.jpg

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just a bit of history.
the site of Elan is highest part of Kcross (46m,150ft above sealev) and once had Australia.s largest windmill-The Craigend . It was 2nd tallest structure in Australia at the time! It stood over 90ft/27m high with 160ft/48m sails-built 1830.In 1873 it was pulled down and stone was used in nearby Caldwell Street terraces.

http://img131.echo.cx/img131/9277/craigendwindmill8ib.jpg

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Gret photos Ippgi! :)

I'm not familiar with this building .... where is it to be exact?

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Its on Craigend Street, which is basically like the western on ramp from Darlinghurst Rd to William Street above the tunnel.

Ie the building is just to the right of this photo.

http://defacto2.zftp.com/williamstreet/30.jpg

William street will eventually be a tree lined boulevarde with little traffic. I've done models of new plan. Should look good.Here is a sketch I scanned for the upgrade of William St. LOL @ the overgrown foliage on the trees.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/509/379williamstrupgrade1.JPG


A pic of William Street that I took on a rainy eve. Note The Millennium Hotel had already closed, hence it being in darkness:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3036/379tootbeep5-med.jpg

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I wonder what the maturity of the trees that they are planting are going to be. I hope they are not simular size to what they are at the Cross City Tunnel east entrance.

http://defacto2.zftp.com/williamstreet/33.jpg


This is one top pic!!! Its the best i've seen of 126 fo sure!! Top pix all round anyway and its great to see this street getting a nice makeover. There are some really great little streets off it already with plenty of good cafes, so the potential is definately there.

What is the height limit along William st. and the surrounding area? I think it would be a great direction for the CBD to expand in terms of Harbour views, but don't know how practical. Looks alright in terms of high rise as it is anyway.

I think the height limit is on a case by case status. But basically you cant be taller then the tallest building next you(?) so you keep in that stepping effect that runs on William Street..

William Street is a ghastly wind tunnel already, and now they are trying to turn it into a pedestrian friendly strip. More CBD towers wouldn't really suit that goal. I am sure if developers had their way they would build massive towers. City, habour, Bridge, Opera House, and park views ...

http://defacto2.zftp.com/williamstreet/21.jpg

i went for a walk up this street yesterday while in sydney on holidays, nothing exciting but i liked one of the strips in darlinghurst that led from william street

As mentioned by Zulu69 on the previous page, that pic is tops and 126 Phillip looks fantastic!! Love it!

William St would be perfect as a pedestrian thoroughfare and I'm certain great for a cafe and restaurant or two.

At the moment, I fell personally that William Street looks great at night, in that rainy night pic by Cul- the neons, and car lights. With more interesting lighting on top of the buildings along the street will provide more entertainment. Just needs to be fixed up for the daytime...

Great pics all round too, cheers!

Here's another from that cold wet night ParraMan...brrrr geeee

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3036/379tootbeep2-med.jpg

I was looking at the pano from Randwicked in this thread
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=120008
I think this should be a corridor of skyscrapers. There are planty of other places to host restaurants and trees. It has great views and would be a nice extension of the CBD. Actually, a big cluster at Kings Cross would be better. I was there last night and it's easy to forget your a few k's from the city

I'll be in Sydney in a few weeks time so I will make a judgement then as to the sutability of more highrise along William St, even though I think its a great idea already!

Here's another from that cold wet night ParraMan...brrrr geeee

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/3036/379tootbeep2-med.jpg

Thanks, again, I like the pic!! Looks fantastic, although I can hardly imagine a cold night at the moment with our nice warm summer-ish weather here right now!!!

As fro making William Street more highrise, although I think it *could* look good, I feel it more practical to extend the cbd more in a general westerly and southerly direction to be closer to the people...

Cheers, and very joyful that we are back online again!!

^ WOW
Lookds very dark and cold! Very city like.

I believe williams street should be an extension of sky scrpares too, but keep the streetlife as much as possible.

Yeah. William st is built up enough already, though I'd still like more at Kings Cross. I sorta thought it would be impossible to make a nice street out of William, but on closer inspection it isn't that bad at all

Once the SCC finish the street works and the CCT opens it will 'feel' alot nicer .. as there will be only three lanes of traffic on each side instead of the current 4/5. And once the traffic has been reduced hopefully new shops will start opening up on the ground level especially on the souther side. It might take a few years for it all to come in to fruition but hopefully it will work out.

i went for a walk up this street yesterday while in sydney on holidays, nothing exciting but i liked one of the strips in darlinghurst that led from william street

Hmmm if it was at the end of William Street above the Kings Cross tunnel then it was probably Victoria Street, Darlinghurst. Otherwise if it was further down it was Crown Street? Or maybe you were towards the city end you might have been exploring the dining strip of Stanley Street, East Sydney?