This was published 5 years ago
Stairways to heaven
Before lifts and moving footways - and long before people thought of counting steps on a device - traversing Sydney was a workout.
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Hickson Steps, Barangaroo.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Butler Stairs, Potts Point.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Architect Jennifer Preston is an expert on stairs and their weird and wonderful histories at the Agar Stairs in Millers Point. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
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Chard Stairs, Darlinghurst. Quite short stairs but Sydney's "most beautiful", says Dr Preston. They were initiated by William Chard, a local who was concerned that the widening of William Street had caused a huge drop at its intersection with Forbes street. Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Argyle stairs in 1997.Credit:Jonathon Marsden
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A detective at the bottom of the Argyle Stairs in the Rocks c.1930. They feature in the Justice and Police Museum's forensic archive (1910 to 1964). Curator Nerida Campbell says stairs are often the scene of accidents that "don't turn out to be accidents".Credit:NSW Police Forensic Photography Archive
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Chard Stairs, Darlinghurst.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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McElhone stairs, Potts Point. Connecting Woolloomooloo with Potts Point, the "heart thumping stairs" were also the location of a real life spy drama that saw secret documents – with instructions written in invisible ink by Russian spy Ivan Skripov. Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Chard Stairs, Darlinghurst.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Chard Stairs, Darlinghurst.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Hickson Steps, Barangaroo.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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A set of stairs that leads to nowhere on Hickson Road at Millers Point.Credit:STEVEN SAPHORE
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A set of stairs that leads to nowhere on Hickson Road at Millers Point.Credit:STEVEN SAPHORE
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Butler Stairs, Potts Point.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Often wrongly thought to relate to the arrival of the First Fleet, these steep and long stairs at Mrs Macquarie's Chair were built to celebrate the arrival of the "Great White Fleet" in 1908. Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Moore Steps, Circular Quay.Credit:Wolter Peeters
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Hickson Steps, Barangaroo.Credit:Wolter Peeters