The City of Sydney has announced their proposal to list three places of LGBTIQA+ significance on the local heritage register. The proposal is part of the council’s strategy to maintain the unique built fabric of Oxford Street and its surrounds in Paddington, with the council having already heritage-listed several sites within the inner-city precinct.
In early 2025, the City of Sydney put forward a proposal to heritage-list the Oxford Hotel at 134 Oxford Street, the Palms at 124 Oxford Street and the Universal nightclub at 85–91 Oxford Street, with the proposal ultimately successful. The places were identified in a study conducted by local practice Tanner Kibble Denton (TKD) Architects.
The same study recommended heritage-listing three more sites: the former Ruby Reds building at 273 Crown Street, Surry Hills; the Former Taxi Club at 40-42 Flinders Street, Darlinghurst; and 207 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, the previous site of The Bookshop.
According to the City of Sydney, the former Ruby Reds building was significant as Sydney’s first recreational venue dedicated to the lesbian community, and was owned by prominent entrepreneur Dawn O’Donnell. Architect Percy Gordon, who later directed Morrow, De Putron and Gordon, and Morrow and Gordon, designed the building’s alterations in the 1920s interwar period.
Across Flinders Street in Darlinghurst, the former Taxi Club was established in 1956 as a recreational facility named the Grosvenor Club, and was initially popular with taxi drivers and later with performers from Les Girls at Kings Cross.
At 207 Oxford Street, around the corner, a long-running store known as The Bookshop was devoted to the sale of queer books, journals and publications, as well as community events, and occupied part of a group of four Federation-era buildings supposedly designed by architect John Burcham Clamp.
If the proposal is successful, the Sydney Local Environment Plan 2012 will be amended with the three local heritage items.
The community are invited to have their say on the proposal on the City of Sydney’s website by 5 May.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
