[4] Paddington lies in a valley in the foothills of Mount Coot-tha The area is extremely hilly with many peaks and gullies.

The Latrobe Terrace is colloquially known as "upper Paddington" with the road sticking to the ridgetop with gentle slopes on either side until moving uphill towards the suburb of Bardon.

[citation needed] The suburb is predominantly residential, on small blocks of land by Queensland standards, with many workers cottages and Queenslander-style homes with corrugated iron roofs.

[citation needed] The wooded slopes and ridges were home to the Turrbal, known by British settlers as the Duke of York's clan.

[12] The Morris family owned and operated the boot and footwear factory on the corner of Hale and Caxton Streets from the 1880s until it was sold in the 1960s.

The company was sold in the 1960s to Dixon & Sons and while the business continued to make a profit for a while bit eventually could not compete with cheaper imports and nylon and canvas mass-produced shoes.

The second factory building in Caxton Street was reopened in 1976 as the "Spaghetti Emporium" restaurant, complete with a giant boot on the roof.

It closed on 12 November 1995 due to the changing demographics of the area reducing the number of children wanting Catholic education.

[citation needed] Because of the hilly terrain, many of the new streets were divided, leaving embankments which the Ithaca Town Council considered were cheaper to plant and beautify than to cut down.

On 29 July 1928, the foundation stone was laid by B. Catteneo at a site opposite the church on Fernberg Road (27°27′50″S 152°59′57″E / 27.4638°S 152.9992°E / -27.4638; 152.9992 (Marist Brothers College Rosalie)).

Building work was completed in time for Marist Brothers College Rosalie to open on 28 January 1929 with an initial enrolment of 135 boys.

[7][15] On Sunday 6 June 1948 the foundation stone for the new Brothers school building was laid by Duhg accompanied by Éamon de Valera, who was travelling around Australia to speak and associate with the many Irish immigrants who had made Australia their home, at the end of his term of office of Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland.

De Valera's visit was controversial given his role in the Irish War of Independence against the British Government and there was reluctance to hold civic receptions in his honour.

[19][20] Nonetheless, a crowd of nearly 2.000 people attended the laying of the foundation stone including the Labor Premier of Queensland (and staunch Catholic and local resident) Ned Hanlon and the Works Minister, Bill Power.

At the ceremony at Rosalie, de Valera said "...the new school was part of the evidence of the magnificent works of charity and community effort that he had seen in every capital of the Commonwealth.

73.6% of people living in Paddington were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were England 4.5%, New Zealand 3.5%, Ireland 1.1%, United States of America 1%, South Africa 0.9%.

86% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were 1.3% Italian, 0.8% German, 0.8% French, 0.8% Spanish, 0.5% Mandarin.

In January 1977, the Saints celebrated the release of the album and the cover picture (and subsequent video clip) was taken down the road from Club '76 in an abandoned terrace house.

[27] The Caxton Street Hall (which since has been the Velvet Cigar strip club and is now Lefty's Old Time Music Hall) was also a notorious live venue which hosted gigs by "The Saints", "The Go-Betweens", "The X-Men", "Died Pretty", "Xero", The Black Assassins, les Bon Bons, Razar and others as did the Lang Park Leagues Club.

And in conditions free of traffic congestion, a bus trip from the Brisbane CBD takes around ten minutes to upper Paddington.

Largely due to Paddington's proximity to the Brisbane CBD, tertiary institutions as the University of Queensland (in St Lucia), Kelvin Grove campus of the Queensland University of Technology (in Kelvin Grove), the Queensland University of Technology itself (in the Brisbane CBD), the Red Hill TAFE (in Red Hill), as well as housing suitable for "share-housing" (older wooden houses with multiple small rooms) and the general culture of the area (former working class and multicultural) many young people, especially students, live in the area.

[citation needed] Paddington was one of the first, if not the first, suburbs to be gentrified, and developed a coffee culture in the 1980s which is still significant and vibrant today.

[31] The smaller localities of Rosalie and Torwood also has a thriving restaurant, café, and gourmet culture along Baroona Road which also hosts an annual Cheese Festival and where art house cinema can be viewed at the Blue Room Cinebar.

[citation needed] The playground comprises three buildings along the northern boundary, adjacent to the kindergarten; a tennis court in the north eastern along Caroline Street; a skate bowl, known as Father Perry Place on the eastern side of the swimming pool; a large oval on the western side of the swimming pool and terraced playground space in the central area.

The three buildings at the Neal Macrossan Playground are a large public hall facing Moreton Street, a small former free library to the east of this, and abutting this on the eastern side is a covered play area.

[39][40] It is nestled below St Brigid's Church, Red Hill and behind the fig trees near the Ithaca Swimming Pool.

There is a Lady Gowrie day care centre and kindergarten on Enoggera Terrace, Red Hill, Kindy Patch Paddington, also on Enoggera Terrace behind a church, Chatterbox Long Day Care, which offers a Qld Govt approved Kindergarten program and is located on Guthrie Street and another in Elizabeth St, Rosalie.

Avenues Child Care and Kindergarten and others are cropping up in the local area as well as a result of a focus by the federal government on early years education.