Martin Place

Studded with imposing edifices, long, lean Martin Pl was closed to traffic in 1971 but has only ever been partially successful as a pedestrian mall. Once the corporate crowds go home, the ramps, stairs and fountains are converged upon by skateboarders and film crews. As iconic as the Opera House in its time (1874), 1 Martin Pl is a beautifully colonnaded Victorian palazzo that houses Sydney’s General Post Office. Beyond the stamps and envelopes, it’s been gutted, stabbed with office towers and transformed into the Westin Sydney hotel, swanky shops, restaurants and bars, including Crystal Bar and Senate Bar. Inspired by Italian Renaissance palaces, architect James Barnet caused a minor fracas by basing the faces carved on the sandstone facade on local identities. Under a staircase in the basement there is a small historical display and a pipe housing the dribbling remnants of the Tank Stream. Built in 1916, the 12-storey Commonwealth Bank building was Australia’s first steel-framed ‘skyscraper’. Its interiors are largely intact and clock-watching tellers still muse over the inscription on the wall: ‘The Noiseless Foot Of Time Steals Swiftly By’. Another branch has taken over the old State Savings Bank building: it’s a beaut example of interwar beaux-arts architecture, featuring green-marble Doric columns and an enclosed brass-and-marble teller area. Abutting Martin Pl on George St, the former Commercial Banking Corporation of Sydney is now a Virgin Megastore – an impressive marbled edifice worth a detour if you’re passing by.