Today, The Rocks is a well known tourist destination but once it was a thriving and close knit working class suburb. The wharves provided the bulk of the employment in the area for men, though for the majority it only offered intermittent hard physical work with long hours and low pay. The numerous public houses offered respite to the workers and in the 19th century catered to the thousands of sailors, whalers and ships’ crew who frequented the area.

During the latter half of the 19th century, the population of The Rocks doubled and overcrowding increased pressure on already strained sewerage, drainage and water services. The working class and their living conditions became the subject of middle class observers and the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900 led to the resumption of the area and the demolition of ‘slum’ housing. 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.