Sydney Road (in its northernmost part also known as the Hume Highway) is a major urban arterial in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The section passing through Brunswick and Coburg, between Park Street at its southern end and Bell Street near the site of the former Pentridge prison, at its northern end, is Melbourne's longest continuous shopping strip, with an abundance of small businesses and a variety of restaurants and coffee shops, clothing stores, places of worship, and community services.

The State Government, concerned about the public sympathy being generated, eventually changed the law in regard to obstruction, with no requirement of permits to speak.

The construction of the Barkly Square shopping complex immediately to the east of Sydney Road in the 1980s coincided with a decline in the success of the strip.

The Sydney Road Brunswick Association was formed in the early 1990s to provide a focus for action to revive the strip, utilising a range of community development and marketing techniques.

Italian, Greek and Balkan cuisines were once the dominant non-Anglo fare, but since the 1980s Sydney Road's eateries have diversified and increased in number, so that the food available now includes Lebanese, Afghan, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, North and East African, Balinese, Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Nepali cuisines.

It was saved from planned destruction by the municipal council in 1973-1974 when Vic and Vida Little, along with the Brunswick Progress Association, led a successful campaign to preserve it.

The history of many of the single and double story shop fronts can be seen in the names and years moulded into the upper portions of the building facades.

The Mediterranean supermarket, between Victoria and Blyth Streets is a long-established, large and well-known source of Italian and other European foodstuffs.

Well known for its bridal shops, a recent arrival in Sydney Road is Mariana Hardwick's emporium in the eponymously (re)named building between Sparta Place and Ballarat Street.

The Upfield railway line from the city loop runs parallel to Sydney Road about 200m to the west, with stations at Jewell, Brunswick, Anstey, Moreland and Coburg.