The Strip That Runs On Caffeine

A once-seedy precinct has become an eclectic mix of cafes and hip retailing, its history celebrated in a new book.

Cuba St is the soulful, grimy heart of the capital’s bohemia. Running 1km from the old shoreline to the Brooklyn foothills, it’s a vivid promenade, scented with curries and noisy with buskers and the hiss of espresso machines.

Home to tattooed baristas and laptop-lugging architecture students, this was once a precinct of seedy pubs, soldiers' cottages, rickety boarding houses, brothels (some operating as cigar stores), billiard halls, shooting galleries and music halls. Then, as now, there were all-night coffee shops.

Read more in The Cuba Street Project, an atmospheric, beautifully crafted book, soon to be published by Random House. It’s a celebration of the numberless cafes; stellar restaurants like Loretta, Rasa and my daughter’s favourite,Ombra; the off-beat record shops; book and fashion outlets and vegan “unbakeries”.