Work to restore the emblematic ornamental archways in the heart of Chinatown will soon get under way, as part of the City of Sydney’s multimillion dollar revitalisation of the area.

The Chinatown Ceremonial Gates on Dixon Street in Haymarket incorporate traditional Chinese design and feature pagoda-style tiled roofs and decorative inscribed panels that are guarded by lion sculptures. The gates were listed as a local heritage item earlier this year.

Originally completed in 1980, the gates were an initiative of the Dixon Street Chinese Committee. They were intended to mark the Chinese community’s roots in Sydney and were part of a broader improvement project carried out with Council, which also led to the pedestrianisation of Dixon Street.
New lights will be installed on the gates to illuminate them at night as part of the restoration works.

“The red, green and gold tiled archways on Dixon Street in Haymarket bookend one of Sydney’s best-known destinations for Asian food, culture and communities,” Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore says.

“They were designed using traditional Chinese materials and ornamentation and these gates hold real historical significance given Haymarket’s long-standing position as a social, cultural and economic centre for Chinese people in Sydney.

“We’re investing in the gates so they serve to invite visitors to this important precinct for another generation.”

The extensive restoration work is expected to be completed in early 2025 and will see existing concrete lion sculptures replaced with granite figures, roof tiles and decorative timber panels replaced, marble panels restored and replaced, the concrete and timber structure repainted as well as new lighting installed to illuminate the gates at night.

Henry Tsang was the architect who worked with the community to design the gates in the 1970s.

“We imagined Dixon Street as a piazza. Somewhere nice and quiet where people can shop, making Chinatown not just for market gardeners but for everyone to experience genuine Chinese culture,” Tsang says.

“Dixon Street has always been the centre for the Chinese community, where the soul and the spirit is, and the archways anchor the location.

“It’s not a structure, it’s about people and their history.”

The City of Sydney is breathing new life into the broader Haymarket area with a long-term revitalisation program focusing on the area’s cultural heritage, with Chinatown the priority.

The program will activate and improve streets, public spaces, buildings and shopfronts with new paving, furniture and creative lighting installed on Dixon Street.

In the southern part of Dixon Street where the gates are located, businesses and landowners can now apply for grants to renew shop and building façades and bring the theatre of food preparation to the strip, coupled with capital works to the public domain that contribute to the distinct character of the area.

“One of the inscriptions on the ceremonial gates translates to ‘continue the past into the future’ and that happens to be exactly what we’re doing as we revitalise Dixon Street, the heart of historic Chinatown, for both everyday life and cultural celebrations,” Moore says.

“Haymarket has preserved its special character and remains a treasured and delightfully unique pocket of Sydney that people love to visit as an epicentre for Asian food, cultures and communities.”

Image: Supplied

Clémence Carayol

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