Where do you live? I’m often asked. “Paddington. Actually, south Paddington,” I say, and faces freeze, eyes go everywhere else but to yours. If the questioner lives in just Paddington, they’re thinking “Oh dear”. If elsewhere, they’re undoubtedly thinking “la-di-dah”. And so on.Well, yes, but also – no. We’re not all hedge fund managers and real estate agents. We don’t wear really tight suits, or drive huge SUVs, we’re pretty ordinary, and we love our neighbourhood, despite the really tight suits and huge SUVs.Paddo is in the eastern suburbs, architecturally one of the city’s oldest suburbs, and protected by generations of locals against demolition and high-rise. These days it’s newly aspirational, definitely not grand, and about halfway between the city to the west and Bondi to the east. I live in the less fashionable but way cuter southern part.An elevated view of Oxford Street and the Chauvel Cinema, from the roof of the Imperial Hotel.Max Mason-HubersOxford St from above, looking east toward Bondi. Max Mason-HubersA shoe shop on Oxford Street.Janie BarrettWe can stroll to the Sydney Cricket Ground or the Allianz Stadium (formerly Sydney Football Stadium). It’s a half-hour walk to the CBD, Kings Cross, Belvoir St Theatre or The Old Fitz Theatre, and a bus to Sydney Opera House and St Vincent’s Hospital is mercifully handy. Centennial Park is our 189 hectares of park, and never mind the “leafy North Shore”, Paddington is biliously green while our Paddington Reservoir Gardens are a hidden treasure, wedding and Instagram favourite. Also, an award-winning way to repurpose a collapsed water tank and petrol station that was destined for carparking (thanks, Clover).The Paddington Reservoir Gardens are a hidden treasure. Max Mason-HubersPaddington Reservoir Gardens.Max Mason-HubersOur Insta-favourite Paddington Reservoir Gardens.Janie BarrettIn 1839, Paddington was named after the west London suburb by Mr James Underwood. He owned 39 hectares of scrub on either side of the Gadigal track along a ridge, now Oxford Street. He subdivided and the north side, with glimpses of the harbour, became posh, while in 1841, the building of Victoria Barracks on the south side brought workers, soldiers and their families to a higgledy-piggledy of small terraces.Many were Irish immigrants and their presence used to be seen in the pubs Durty Nelly’s (now the Village Inn) and Kitty O’Shea’s, although one has been gentrified and the other Hemmesed and renamed The Paddington. It was a class divide that still persists, never mind that Paddington’s most historic houses are in the southern triangle. Like the Barracks, one cottage has a backyard well which goes down into Busby’s Bore; across the street is the oldest house outside The Rocks. Victoria Barracks in Paddington.Wolter PeetersThe Officers’ Mess was built as the Garrison Hospital about 1845, and converted into a social hub in the 1930s.Wolter PeetersThe barracks were built to replace Sydney’s original military facilities on George Street.Wolter PeetersA typical street scene in Paddington.Max Mason-HubersA sadder sight, on Oxford Street, is Juniper Hall, the Georgian mansion built by gin distiller Robert Cooper. It’s heritage-listed but sold this year by the National Trust to Sydney’s Moran family. They now want to “develop” it. A fresh community fight is brewing. Meanwhile, although we’ve lost our cinemas, the Chauvel and the Verona, it’s a walk to the arthouse Palace Moore Park and 17-screen Hoyts in the Entertainment Quarter.Meanwhile, our main street – Oxford – suffered horribly after the Westfield shopping centre came to Bondi Junction. Then COVID gave traders another gut punch. However, the upside of the isolationist pandemic is finally becoming apparent: people are shopping and living local once more, while the poodle and ’oodle population makes instant new friends an inevitability.Paddington Markets barely survived the doldrums but is now flourishing again with fresh produce stalls, wonderful flowers, and multicultural lunch options adding to the traditional mix of traders. It’s humming every Saturday in the grounds of Paddington Public School, which dates from 1856. It has shepherded generations of happy, screeching littlies into the wider world in company with St Francis of Assisi (1883) – along the street, and Glenmore Road Public School (1883) – down the hill.Paddington Markets, a Saturday tradition. Janie BarrettPaddington Markets has been the launch pad for many stylish Australian brands. Janie BarrettThe mix of old and new is part of Paddo’s charm. It’s probably fair to say the arrival of Justin Hemmes – four venues and counting – kickstarted the regeneration of our part of Oxford Street. There’s the Artisan Cheese Room (don’t dribble while you figure out which wedge to choose) and the gorgeous new Ariel Books complements old Berkelouw’s. Coffee and eats range from tiny local hubs such as Wolf Cafe (pull up a milk crate), Perry Lane and Paddington Grind, to the Hemmes’ Fred’s and two weirdly named but sumptuous eateries: the Euroluxe Porcine (piggy or mushroom?) and Chubby Cheeks, whose mod-Thai doesn’t immediately suggest badonkadonks.Of the local pubs – there’s the Paddo Inn (home to Il Baretto) and The Paddington (Hemmes, of course), The Light Brigade (breezy roof garden), and the Imperial which, amazingly, is a Reschs pub and still owned by Alice (Resch) and family, whose great-grandpop started brewing in Wilcannia. They now brew in-house. North is the ’burb’s oldest pub (1875), The London. Not far away is The Grand National by Saint Peter, now owned by the seafood Nilands, and nearby is the dear old Lord Dudley Hotel where you can still order liver and bacon. And at least half a dozen gyms to counter the guzzling.Paddo Inn in Paddington. Janie BarrettPaddington’s reputation has recovered since the old days of brawls and bar fights. Even during Sydney’s gang wars of the 1970s only one murder was recorded: brothel owner Barry Flock, shot dead in the gardens of The Scottish Hospital (now a luxe retirement complex). Even on footy nights it’s crowded, happy and tame. And we on the south side can hear the footy stadium gigs without buying tickets. Who remembers listening to Barbra Streisand while sitting on the doorstep with neighbours and a glass of wine, for a saving of $1500?Paddington. Where else?Janie BarrettThat’s not to say facadism isn’t rife, and every other terrace is being transformed. And most newcomers seem to have the imagination of an old potato in decorating their multi-million dollar renovations white, grey and black. Even so, Paddo survives and those of us who call it home rise above the slings and arrows of outraged fortune hunters and smile. In a funny way, it hasn’t changed a bit: still a village, still small streets where most people know one another and know we’re fortunate. How good is that?Diana Simmonds is a Sydney writer.