Rowe Street

For independent retailers in search of small shops at cheap rents in handy positions, city laneways bustling with pedestrians offered prime opportunities. The best known of Sydney’s retail laneways was Rowe Street.

Sloping downhill from Castlereagh Street to Pitt Street, between King Street and Martin Place, the busy thoroughfare housed a row of little shops that developed into a sophisticated retail precinct. In the 1950s society milliner Henriette Lamotte opened her exclusive Rowe Street salon, where shoppers had to make an appointment just to try on a hat.

With its bohemian mix of galleries, cafes and boutiques, and its distinctly cosmopolitan air, Rowe Street became popular meeting place and Sydney’s style hub until its demolition in 1973.

Read more in Discover Collections: French in Australia: Business & Pleasure: Henriette Lamotte Pty Ltd