As former favourites close, and McDonald’s moves in, has Newtown lost its way?

Newtown’s Pride Square contains a hidden message which speaks volumes about the Newtown we used to know.

The message is placed on a small tile on an artwork plinth. It reads:

“Are you a yuppie? If your answer is yes, please go away immediately and never come back.”

This is the irreverent, rebellious weird Newtown of yesteryear. 

The Newtown which celebrated diversity and uniqueness, and tried to fight gentrification.

That Newtown took another blow in July, when it was revealed that McDonald’s was more than likely seeking to set up a 24 hour restaurant on King St (McDonald’s is not named in the application, but the restaurant colour scheme seems a giveaway).

And it comes after KFC opened a King St restaurant, also in July.

Newtown is famous for being the suburb which turned its back on a McDonalds in the 1990s, forcing the restaurant to close. (The company at the time said the closure was due to the “changing demographics of the Newtown area, particularly in King Street”.)

Same for a KFC which existed in the suburb in the 1960s to 1980s.

The Newtown of old used to snub its nose at generic multinational businesses such as McDonald’s and KFC, and instead celebrate unique home-grown local businesses.

But the Newtown of old is changing.

In the past few months, long-time Newtown favourites seem to be shutting down at an alarming rate, including:

• The Kuleto’s cocktail bar, an institution which served beautiful but naughty cocktails (the Toblerone was my favourite) 
• The Tre Viet restaurant, which has a sign on the window stating that it is relocating to Chatswood.
• Local hamburger joint Dean’s Diner, which will reportedly be closing in September.
• Linda’s Back Stage restaurant, which for years was a gay institution at the Newtown Hotel and then more recently its newer Kings St shopfront location.
• The Photo Garden shop (reportedly based in Newtown for more than 30 years).

Add to this some local favourites which have been closed for a longer time, including:

• Gould’s book store, formerly known for its chaotic piles of musty but interesting books, and;
• Former music venue the Sandringham Hotel (although there is a current application to re-open the premises as a darts venue called “Flight Club”).

In the ultimate irony, even the old W N Bull funeral parlour seems likely to be killed off, with its premises now on the market. For years, this parlour’s deadly serious frontage has been hilariously misplaced among King St’s liveliness.

Today’s Newtown seems increasingly dominated by the generic, not the special.

Tobacco shops. Kebab shops. Or just empty shops. Along with a smattering of fancy new expensive places.

The new breed of Newtown shops….or not

Now McDonald’s and KFC are coming to try to knock off local favourite Clem’s chicken shop.

At least the Eastern Fair homewares shop, Hikaru Japanese restaurant and the Modern Times and Better Read than Dead book stores, are holding in there.

So what’s gone wrong?

Some blame Newtown’s increasing role as a night-time entertainment venue, which accelerated after the introduction of lockout laws at Kings Cross. 

Many of the new premises, which are replacing the old, do seem to be catering for the suburb’s 24 hour booze trade.

It’s probably also worth looking at the suburb’s changing demographics.

In the City of Sydney LGA, the percentage of Newtown’s residents aged between 18 and 24 has dropped from 18% in 2011 to 12.8% in 2021. Over the same time, the percentage of households who live in groups – such as students – has fallen from 15% to 12.6%.

That’s a lot of free-thinking and free-wheeling young students – who may have been more likely to support independent businesses – who no longer live in the suburb.

Whatever it is, Newtown is at the crossroads.

Its days as an anti-establishment enclave seem over, replaced by a new breed of residents and visitors who seem to be increasingly favouring worldly convenience over local culture.

And that’s a sad outcome, given the suburb’s fantastic pedigree as a vibrant and interesting urban place with its own prized identity.

About the author

Mark Skelsey is a communications consultant and author who has recently published a book Views To Die For, which has been timed with the 50th anniversary of the murder of Kings Cross publisher Juanita Nielsen and looks at the legacy of the Victoria St, Kings Cross, development wars of the 1970s. 

The book is available here or in Better Read Than Dead at 265 King St, Newtown.

Mark lived at Newtown from 2000 to 2008.