[2] Stepney contains a mix of retail, manufacturing, professional services and distribution outlets within a cosmopolitan population strongly influenced by post World War II immigration.

During 2008, the last three cottages in Nelson Street, described as "built by Haken Linde, a successful member of the German community", were marked for demolition by the Norwood Payneham & St Peters council.

Returning miners from the gold rushes of Ballarat and Bendigo were instrumental in building many of Adelaide's fine homes and businesses.

Stepney shared in this phenomenon with some substantial residences amid the poorer houses, though bankruptcy was never far from those who acquired wealth quickly.

Stepney's highwayman, it later transpired, was armed with nothing more lethal than a camouflaged pipe-case and, after incarceration, became a respected member of society.

[11] These houses, however, gave Stepney much of its racy nature with its inhabitants developing strength in their inevitable struggles with life.

In 1888 the Phoenix Distillery at 42 Nelson Street was bought by Douglas Tolley and his brother Ernest, together with a London distiller Thomas Scott.

A search of the National Archives of Australia reveals that 38 soldiers enlisted showing their place of birth as Stepney, an extraordinary number given the small size of the suburb.

Shops began selling previously unheard of foods such as salami or artichokes and the flowers in often tiny front gardens were replaced by vegetables.

Houses changed colour, copying those found Greece and Italy and the streets resounded with voluble Italian, Greek and ironically – German.

This influx of residents was to be a brief hiatus amid the loss of movement toward industrialisation as future generations, now more affluent, moved away from often painful memories and their houses were taken over by industries eager to locate near to the city or removed to provide wider roads.

Nelson Street also provides part of a near-city link between the eastern and northern suburbs via the Stephen Terrace bridge between St Peters and Gilberton.

Only the Agnes Goode Kindergarten[29] remains, acting as a memorial to past schools and a justice of the peace and former political and social activist.