Newmarket

**Newmarket
** by Celia Walker

Newmarket has long been all about shopping, and major rejuvenation efforts since the millennium have added several niche precincts to the main strip of Broadway, offering more than just same-same chain stores to the retail mix.

Hefty investments in big-name street art, and the restoration and repurposing of retro small industrial buildings in the back streets makes a stroll around worthwhile even if shopping is not really your thing. The clever positioning of some of the public artworks really extends the streetscape – the bright egg forms of Seung Yul Oh’s GlobGlob sculptures rolling around the corner of Teed and Osborne streets, Virginia King’s giant Sliver disk of silvery aluminium on the corner of Khyber Pass and Broadway taking on the flow of traffic and distilling it into an endless circle. The New Marks of Nuffield Lane, street art by various artists, invigorate this service alley into a much richer space.

The precinct behind the western side of Broadway, encompassing Teed Street, Osborne Street and Kent Street has managed to bring out the charm of the collection of utilitarian buildings found there, such as the former Hayes Metalworks and foundry buildings, now housing small boutiques, and the low brick edifice on the corner of Osborne and Kent Streets that was once a cattle market now home to the upmarket Aesop store.

Newmarket Train Station, designed by Opus Architecture and Herriot+Melhuish:Architecture, and Reuben Paterson’s shimmering Ándale Ándale artwork encapsulating the urban bustle of the area, brought a much-needed transport hub to this part of town when it opened in 2010 - though there is still car crazed chaos from those who haven’t quite twigged that the there are better options out there. Although the train services, widening of footpaths and reduction of on-street car parking spaces hasn’t quite managed to get everyone out of their cars, on-going activations such as temporary installations in parking spaces, new transport modes such as e-bikes and scooters, and increasing efficiencies in public transport hopefully mean this car dominance will be on its way out.

Oh, and there is the mall…

Image Credits: Celia Walker