Alexandria

Alexandria is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Alexandria is an inner-city

suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Alexandria is located 4 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. The postcode is 2015.The rough boundaries of Alexandria are Botany Road to the east, Gardeners Road to the south, Mitchell Road and Sydney Park to the west, and Boundary Road to the north. It is approximately 2 km south of Central station.

The Parish of Alexandria was established in 1835. The naming of Alexandria and neighbouring Waterloo commemorates the famous British Empire military and naval victories over Napoleon – the Battles of Alexandria and Waterloo.The Iron Duke Hotel in Alexandria is itself named after the Duke of Wellington, as is Wellington Street in Waterloo. It was thought Alexandria may have been named after Princess Alexandra, Queen consort of King Edward VII, however, Alexandra was born on 1 December 1844 and the parish's naming predates the birth of Alexandra by six years.

In 1868, the Municipality of Alexandria was formed, after separating from Waterloo. The former Alexandria Town Hall is in Garden Street. Land for the building was acquired in 1879; the building was designed by Ferdinand Reuss Snr and completed in 1881. Major alterations took place over the years, right up to 1928. The building is listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.By 1943, Alexandria was the largest industrial district in Australia, and known as the "Birmingham of Australia", with everything from bricks to aeroplanes manufactured in 550 factories in just 1,000 acres (4.0 km2). The municipality was abolished upon merger into the City of Sydney in 1949, along with Darlington, Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern, Waterloo, Paddington and The Glebe.

In 1968 the boundaries were changed again and Alexandria was part of a new municipality, South Sydney Council. South Sydney was brought back into the City of Sydney in 1982 and then became separate again under the City of Sydney Act of 1988. In 2004, Alexandria moved back into the City of Sydney, when the City of Sydney was merged with the City of South Sydney.

The former Alexandria tram line opened in 1902 as a single-track electric line that was duplicated in 1910. The line branched off from the Botany line at the junction of Henderson and Botany Roads in Alexandria. The line proceeded down Henderson Road then swung left into Mitchell Road. A turn-back was provided at Ashmore Road (near Erskineville Oval) for short working. The line turned right into the present day Sydney Park Road (then known as an extension of Mitchell Road) before terminating at the junction with the Cook's River line at the Princes Highway near St Peters railway station. Services operated from Circular Quay in a route similar to the Botany line as far as the Henderson Road junction.The line was closed in 1959. State Transit route 308 generally follows the route as far as St Peters station.