Historic Oxford Street Site Faces $84m Eight-Storey Plan

“Perhaps the most wild looking place around Sydney.” Early accounts from the 1840s used those words to describe land opposite Victoria Barracks along South Head Road—today’s Oxford Street—before Paddington evolved into one of Sydney’s best-known Victorian terrace suburbs. Nearly two centuries later, the same stretch of Oxford Street—now a heritage retail strip lined with terraces and fashion boutiques—may be entering a new phase of density. Sydney developer Toohey Miller, led by property developer Nicholas Couloumbis, has detailed an $84-million redevelopment across a rare seven-title Paddington amalgamation ( pictured at top ). The irregular site spans 142-148 and 160 Oxford Street, 6 Shadforth Street and 13 Gipps Street opposite Victoria Barracks. Designs prepared by Smart Design Studio and now on exhibition until March 16 outline an eight-storey mixed-use building delivering 40 apartments—including 10 affordable homes—above two ground-floor retail tenancies. At eight storeys, the project would rise above the two-to-four storey terraces and walk-ups lining this stretch of Oxford Street. ▲ The seven-title Paddington amalgamation spans 142-148 and 160 Oxford Street along with 6 Shadforth Street and 13 Gipps Street opposite Victoria Barracks. Residential levels would sit above four basement levels excavated beneath the 2172sq m site. Basement parking would accommodate 83 cars, eight motorcycles and 51 bicycles, freeing the ground plane for retail frontage and communal areas including about 737sq m of shared open space. Seven-title amalgamations remain uncommon in Paddington, where 19th-century terrace subdivision produced narrow lots and tightly held properties across the suburb. Planned demolition covers the three-storey walk-up at 160 Oxford Street containing 27 studio apartments, terrace-style homes at 142-148 Oxford Street and the cottage at 6 Shadforth Street. The two-storey detached house at 13 Gipps Street would remain intact on a separate title, while its rear garage would be demolished as part of the redevelopment. ▲ A Smart Design Studio rendering showing the proposed Oxford Street redevelopment replacing a cluster of post-war building. Thirty apartments would enter the market as build-to-sell housing. Ten affordable homes—representing 15 per cent of gross floor area—would be retained and managed by a registered community housing provider for at least 15 years. EchoRealty, part of the Evolve Housing Group, endorsed the proposal and the mix of two and three-bedroom affordable apartments across the lower levels. A project cost of $84 million places assessment with the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure under the State Significant Development pathway rather than the Woollahra Municipal Council. ▲ Terrace-style homes at 142-148 Oxford Street, top, and three-storey walk-up at 160 containing 27 studio apartments would be demolished. Height remains a central planning question. Proposed building height ranges between 30.6m and 32.6m—above the 28.6m envelope available under Low and Mid-Rise and infill affordable housing bonus settings applying to the R3-zoned land. A clause 4.6 variation argued the extra height reflected the site’s 3m to 5m fall from east to west, with most additional bulk contained within rooftop screening and plant areas. Beyond planning mechanics, deeper intrigue sits in the land itself. Origins trace to an 1840 grant to the Australian Subscription Library, founded in 1826 by Sydney residents seeking to establish the colony’s first public library. Governor George Gipps granted more than 3ha at Paddington to the organisation. ▲ The proposed eight-storey building would rise above the two-to-four storey terraces lining this stretch of Paddington. According to GBA Heritage, subdivision soon followed, carving the holding into 29 lots and raising £3384 at auction during Sydney’s land boom. Construction of nearby Victoria Barracks from 1841 transformed the district. Soldiers, families, stonemasons, quarrymen, carpenters, blacksmiths and merchants settled nearby, forming what historians later described as the Village of Paddington. By 1863 the newly incorporated municipality counted 535 homes clustered around the barracks. A historical account cited in the project’s heritage report described the district before development as “a rugged country, perhaps the most wild looking place around Sydney; barren sandhills with patches of scrub, hills and hollows galore with much low lying flat and swamp”. ▲ The subject site outlined on an 1840 map of the Australian Subscription Library land grant, later subdivided as Paddington developed around Victoria Barracks. Paddington later matured into one of Sydney’s most intact Victorian terrace suburbs while Oxford Street evolved into the commercial spine linking the city with the eastern suburbs. Buildings occupying this site, however, date largely from the mid-1950s through the 1980s rather than the nineteenth-century terrace era underpinning the conservation area. GBA Heritage described the structures as intrusive elements within the Paddington Heritage Conservation Area.

Historic Oxford Street Site Faces $84m Eight-Storey Plan

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