Once upon a crime in Paddington

Revealing the secrets and stories of Paddington's sensational past.

• 2.5 hour small-group tour

• Finishing at The Royal Hotel, Five Ways

• Local Crime Historian Guide

The Paddington we know today is a chic and sophisticated inner-city suburb with elegant rows of terrace houses, charming cafes, lively pubs and boutique shopping. 

But rewind just half a century and you’ll find yourself in a very different world. A world of crime, murder, slums, sly-grog, burglary, gambling, rats, snakes, sewers, mysteries, misfits, hold-ups, drugs, raids, riots and revenge.

While the old-fashioned streets of Paddington remain much as they once were many generations ago, this tour revisits the rags that came before the recent riches. Delving into the forgotten lives of its former residents, we’ll dig up tales of vice and villainy that played out between the 1890s and the 1960s. 

These were times when struggling tenants squished into decaying Victorian villas. Strange and sinister stories brewed behind closed doors and inside corner pubs. And newspaper articles summed up Paddington’s place in Sydney with shocking titles such as:

• “The House of Death”

• “Chased with an Axe” 

• “I stabbed her — I love her”

• “Double killing at drink party”

• “Men drugged and robbed in Kate Leigh’s house”

• “Squealing rats and rolling tins”

• “Two-up school in disused bakery”

• “A mystery of spontaneous combustion”

• “The pangs of poverty”

• “The plague in Paddington”

• “Bitten by monkey”

• “A clever confidence trick”

• “Thieves’ amazing climb” 

• “The Kid Bandit robs again”

• …and many, many more.