As a child growing up in Sydney’s Maroubra in the late 1940s, I remember “going into town” with my mother. When we went shopping, walking past Hyde Park to David Jones, Farmers or Beard Watson, my mother always wore a hat and gloves. One needed the right attire for the high street. But it was the Darlinghurst department stores I anticipated the most. Buckingham’s, Edward Arnold’s and Winns’ – so different from my quiet suburban life and brimming with haberdashery, appliances and fine foods. These early visits began my love affair with Darlinghurst. ‘So different from my quiet suburban life...