The street follows the spine of a long ridge that rises up near the University of Sydney and extends to the south, becoming the Princes Highway at its southern end.

The cemetery also contains a sandstone obelisk erected in 1944 by the Rangers League of NSW, in memory of Tommy and three other indigenous Australians buried there: Mogo, William Perry and Wandelina Cabrorigirel, although their graves are no longer identifiable.

[8] Nicholas Devine, the first principal superintendent of convicts called his property Burren Farm, after a region of County Clare in his native Ireland.

[12] The part of Newtown lying south of King Street was a portion of the two estates granted by Governor Arthur Phillip to the Superintendent of Convicts, Nicholas Devine, in 1794 and 1799.

In 1827, when Devine was aged about 90, this land was acquired from him by a convict, Bernard Rochford, who sold it to many of Sydney's wealthiest and most influential inhabitants, including the mayor.

Among the notable persons buried in the cemetery are explorer-surveyor Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Major Edmund Lockyer and Mary, Lady Jamison (widow of the colonial pioneer landowner, physician, constitutional reformer and "knight of the realm", Sir John Jamison), and Eliza Emily Donnithorne, recluse and rumoured inspiration for Miss Havisham.

The present St Stephen's Anglican church, a fine example of Victorian Gothic architecture, was designed, like its predecessor, by Blacket, and built in the grounds of the cemetery between 1871 and 1880.

With their predominance of Victorian-era houses with stuccoed facades, balconies of iron lace and moulded architectural ornaments, many Newtown streets are similar to those of other well-known inner-city suburbs like Glebe, Paddington and Balmain.

This preponderance of small houses is indicative of the working-class employment of most Newtown residents, many of whom worked in the city or at local shops, factories, warehouses, brickyards and at the nearby Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Several major industries were established in the greater Newtown area from the late 19th century, including the Eveleigh Railway Workshops, the IXL jam and preserves factory in North Newtown/Darlington, the St Peters brickworks and the Fowler Potteries in Camperdown.

[24] The large housing estates gradually shrunk as many of the homes were demolished and or reverted to private ownership as the surrounding area slowly went through gentrification.

Most complexes were built with Radburn principles, with prefabricated walk-up flats and apartment blocks accessed by communal pathways and courtyards separated from roads, creating densely populated concentrations of disadvantage.

The Radburn design has been widely criticised in outer-suburbs estates,[25] allegedly contributing to some fire hazards[26] and social problems[27][28][29][30] with isolated areas giving local criminals a place to commit crime and evade motorised patrols.

This extensive renovation, completed in 2012, greatly improved commuter access to the station platforms (which lie in a deep cutting under King Street) including additional stairways and a disabled-accessible elevator, although the renovation works and the layout of the new station entrance blocked the old tram-line entry way into the tram sheds, effectively cutting off direct vehicular access from King St into the tram sheds (which still lie vacant and derelict as of mid-2017).

The primary public school was segregated with the boys part facing Newman St opposite the tannery works that often omitted obnoxious odours.'

In July 2000, one of these, "The Marlborough", called by historian Chrys Meader "the Gateway to Newtown" because of its visually commanding appearance at a wide intersection of King Street and Missenden Road, was stripped of all its original Art Deco tiles and had its upper floor substantially damaged before protests to the council prevented this being taken further.

Over the years it functioned variously as a dance hall, a skating rink, a cinema, a boxing and vaudeville venue, a bicycle factory and a motor body works.

From the early 1970s, with the relaxation of Australia's censorship laws, it was used to screen pornographic films and stage live "adult" sex shows, including the long running "Little French Maid".

However, in July 2017 the Newtown Social Club closed and the venue reopened as Holey Moley, a licensed 18-hole mini-golf course designed to give punters "good content for Instagram", according to its developers.

[51] The purpose of the festival was to raise funds for the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, an association that provides services to non-English speakers, the aged, disabled or poor.

It now takes place in the grounds of Newtown School of Performing Arts, has more than 40 stalls and features all-day entertainment from musicians and artists, as well as kids' activities.

In the late 1960s, the Australian TV drama series You Can't See Round Corners starred Rowena Wallace and Ken Shorter as a draft dodger hiding out in Newtown.

[56] In the mid-1980s, the Spanish Mission-style service station on King Street was used as a location for scenes in the Ray Lawrence film Bliss, which was based on the novel by Peter Carey.

The ABC television drama Love Is a Four Letter Word, starring musician-actor Peter Fenton and featuring live bands each episode, included extensive location shooting at the Courthouse Hotel in Australia Street.

St Stephen's Church and Camperdown Cemetery have regularly been used as sites for filming movies, TV and videos, notably in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Significant writers who live or lived in Newtown include Rolfe Boldrewood, Henry Lawson, Henry Kendall, Ethel Turner, Ruby Langford Ginib, Nadia Wheatley, Bertram Stevens, Martin Johnston, John Forbes, Fiona Place, Laurie Duggan, Steven Herrick, Minne Agnes Filson (aka Rickety Kate), David Malouf, Gig Ryan,[58] David Marr,[59] Jean Bedford and Peter Corris.

The Newtown Review of Books, a literary journal established in 2012 by Jean Bedford and Linda Funnell, has published essays about the suburb by the crime writer Peter Corris.

[67] The famous Newtown recluse and eccentric Eliza Emily Donnithorne (1826–1886) is said by some sources to have inspired the character of Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations.

[89] After renovations in 2010, it has reopened and reclaimed its original name, The Newtown Hotel, and currently offers a general, non-specific clientele, in common with most bars in the area.

Smaller but significant groups from diverse ethnic backgrounds further contribute to the multicultural character of Newtown, marking the suburb as a microcosm of global cultures within Sydney's vibrant urban landscape.