How walkable is The Rocks?
By Oscar Higson-SpenceUpdated
The Rocks has a walkability score of 96 out of 100 across the 400 m around its centre, which makes it a Walker's Paradise, where daily errands do not require a car. It is the 4th most walkable of 5 neighbourhoods ranked in Sydney, which scores 81 as a whole.
What's within walking distance
4,042 shops, restaurants, parks and other everyday places are mapped within a 30 minute walk of the centre of The Rocks. The nearest grocery is Woolworths, about 5 minutes away on foot. Every category earns full or nearly full points.
- Walsh Bay Local Grocery and Fine Food7 min
- Australian Cane Farms Ltd8 min
- The British Lolly Shop1 min
- Sergeant Lok1 min
- Stanton Hats1 min
- Done Art and Design1 min
- Starbucks1 min
- Black and White Espresso Bar1 min
- Commonwealth Bank Bridge St. Sydney Branch5 min
- Westpac7 min
- Barney & Bligh Reserve2 min
- Observatory Hill Park4 min
- vCare Project Management10 min
- Barangaroo Montessori Academy Childcare Centre15 min
- The Lek Partnership1 min
- Credit Suisse First Boston4 min
- Museum of Contemporary Art Australia1 min
- Susannah Place2 min
Measured from the mapped centre of The Rocks at -33.8600, 151.2083. Walking times assume 80 m per minute along an estimated street route.
Street layout
Within 800 m of the centre there are about 66 street intersections per km², and blocks average 94 m long. Sparser streets or longer blocks reduce the score by 1%, since they make walks longer than the straight-line distance suggests.
Walkability across The Rocks
- 90+
- 70–89
- 50–69
- 25–49
- 0–24
Each hexagon is the score at a point across the 400 m around the centre of The Rocks. Rings mark 200 m and 400 m from the centre. Gaps are water or land without streets.
Nearby neighbourhoods in Sydney
| Neighbourhood | Distance | Score |
|---|---|---|
| North Sydney | 2.7 km | 96 |
| Bondi Junction | 5.3 km | 97 |
| Bondi Beach | 6.8 km | 97 |
| Coogee | 8.2 km | 84 |
See every neighbourhood ranked on the Sydney page.
Questions about walking in The Rocks
Is The Rocks walkable?
Yes. The Rocks in Sydney has a walkability score of 96 out of 100 across the 400 m around its centre, which makes it a Walker's Paradise, where daily errands do not require a car.
Is The Rocks more walkable than the rest of Sydney?
The Rocks is more walkable than Sydney as a whole: it scores 96, against 81 for the 5 km around Sydney's centre. It ranks 4th of the 5 Sydney neighbourhoods on How Walkable.
What are the most walkable neighbourhoods in Sydney?
Of the 5 Sydney neighbourhoods on How Walkable, the most walkable are Bondi Junction (97), Bondi Beach (97) and North Sydney (96).
How is the walkability score of The Rocks calculated?
The score counts groceries, restaurants, shops, cafés, banks, parks, schools, libraries and cultural venues within a 30 minute walk, gives nearer places more weight, and deducts up to 20% where streets are sparse or blocks are long. For The Rocks it is the average of 61 points spread evenly across the 400 m around its mapped centre, leaving out water and land without streets, using open map data from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap.
Scores follow a published walkability method, explained in the methodology. Neighbourhood position from Overture Maps, name from Wikidata.