Macleay Street: Why The Potts Point Locals Love It

Stretching from the iconic modernist El Alamein fountain on the corner of Darlinghurst Road, north to Wylde Street, Macleay Street is the main artery of Potts Point.

Unlike many main streets though, people live, work, and go out on Macleay Street and never want to leave it – I’m one of them. Without Macleay Street, Potts Point just wouldn’t be the same.

A short history

Macleay Street is named after Alexander Macleay, who was the colonial secretary of NSW from 1826-1837. He received a land grant that took up most of what is now Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay and lived in Elizabeth Bay House.

As Sydney grew his original estate was subdivided, and by the mid 1870s there were two and three story mansions and villas along Macleay Street. In the 1930s a wave of art deco development.... Keep Reading >