Why one shopkeeper bet on the second coming of Sydney's Oxford Street

Mr Clerc, however, refused to be put off. “I began my business at Paddington markets many years ago and we used to spend all our Saturdays on Oxford Street,” he said. “While we could see the street was having a tough time, we just sensed it was going to turn around.

“And now it has. It’s becoming vibrant all over again, people are coming back to the markets and Oxford Street is buzzing. It’s now going through an amazing repositioning.”

When Robert Clerc and his business partner established their jewellery shop in Oxford Street, friends thought they were mad. Photo: Supplied

With a slew of big names either setting up for the first time in the street, or returning, both prices and rents are recovering well. Justin Hemmes’ pub The Paddington and his restaurant Fred’s are both bringing in a well-heeled clientele, as is seafood restaurant Saint Peter, while fashion retail pioneer Robby Ingham is now back doing a high-end renovation of part of the block. Bespoke Melbourne furniture company Jardan is taking over bookstore Ariel’s spot, and Totem Road furniture is settling in Bang & Olufsen’s old showroom.

“It’s now going through a great rejuvenation,” said commercial real estate agent Ben Vaughan, partner at Ray White Woollahra. “There aren’t many vacancies now, and we’re getting a high level of inquiry for those that come up.

“It’s lending itself now more to lifestyle, homewares and food as opposite to its traditional staple, fashion, and it’s coming back to what a village high street should be. Everything is looking very positive.”

Robert Clerc’s shop and apartment above was renovated by architect Ian Moore. Photo: Supplied

Depending on the exact location around the Paddington end of Oxford Street, prices for commercial properties have risen back to about $2000 a square metre, Mr Vaughan said.

With the Clercs now planning to cut back on their business activities and downsize, they’ve just put their jewellery and sculpture store Robert Clerc, at 418-420 Oxford Street, up for sale, with a price guide of a healthy $4.3 million.

In keeping with the rising fortunes of the neighbourhood, their premises have been transformed from the rundown two terraces, with a “rabbit warren of rooms above that looked like a brothel”, into a single smart showroom with a two-bedroom apartment upstairs. They said the renovation cost them close to $2 million, of which parts were designed by architect Ian Moore.

“Whether it’s an investor who buys, or someone who wants to use it themselves, it has the advantage of a high-end, prestigious fit-out, and there’s nothing to be done,” said Gary Sands of Di Jones Real Estate, who is selling the property.

“Usually people have to buy places around there in terrible condition and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on fitting them out. But this is beautiful.”

The double-width shop and apartment upstairs – which could be changed into two one-bedroom apartments – looks out to a park across the road.

”And that part of Oxford Street is now coming back, and in a different way which is nice,” Mr Sands said. ”It’s now much more of a real mix of restaurants and bars and retail, and people are enjoying the experience of strolling down the street, rather than being in an homogenous shopping mall.”

The double-width building is on the market for $4.3 million. Photo: Supplied

When Westfield opened in Bondi Junction in 2004, retail trade plummeted by an estimated 30 per cent in Paddington with many stores closing and shifting to the centre.

While times have been tough, president of the Paddington Business Partnership Chris Tourgelis, who’s been operating the store Opus Design since 1968, the oldest shop on the strip, said in the long run that could have been a positive development.

“It’s now rejuvenating in a very organic way,” he said. “We have some very good operators coming in – people who are aware of our great history, and who care – and its development has been absolutely amazing.

“It’s now looking and feeling very vibrant and there’s some magnificent renovations going on. We’re all now feeling very optimistic about the future, and we hope that will spread all the way down the street to Darlinghurst.”

At that end, traditionally the home of the LGBTI rights movement and, earlier on, the Prohibition era razor gangs, things look gloomier with more shuttered shop frontages, a plethora of pop-up stores taking over vacant spaces temporarily and the street’s bars, restaurants and cafes hard hit by the NSW Government’s lockout laws.

But Foley Lane, just parallel to Oxford Street, is about to open its creative spaces, said Darlinghurst Business Partnership president Stephan Gyory, who runs The Record Store nearby.

“That will bring in more foot traffic and with most of the empty shops belonging to the City of Sydney, they’ll be re-letting soon,” he says. “I’m glad it’s recovering in Paddington, and we hope that will happen here too. We’ve now hooked together with the Potts Point Partnership and the Surry Hills Creative Precinct to promote this area as Eastside Sydney, to focus attention on the creative, independent and artistic side of Sydney, away from the harbour.”

Mr Clerc certainly hopes the goodwill will seep down the street. “The two parts of the street are very different areas and the people who shop and live in each are different,” he said.

“But I certainly do hope it does spread down to the Darlinghurst end of Oxford Street.”