Today, The Rocks is a well-known tourist destination but once it was a thriving working class suburb. Smack bang in the centre of the city, self-employed tradesmen, grocers, compositors, bakers, policemen and a huge number of waterside workers, found their place.

During the latter half of the 19th century, the population of the area doubled and the working class became the subject of middle class observers. Cramp 'miserable' 'slum like' conditions wrote one social commentator looking in. 'Worse than London' wrote another. However, to the insiders of The Rocks ­– its actual residents – it was home with a very different picture.