This Sydney suburb has ranked 7th coolest neighbourhood in the world

Inner Sydney neighbourhood Chippendale has ranked in the top 10 of Time Out’s Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World list for 2024. It’s been named 7th coolest neighbourhood in the world, due to its huge diversity of offerings, including a free concert space, an Asian food alley, a gamers’ paradise and all-night pubs.

This news is even cooler when you consider that “Chippo” beat out neighbourhoods in big, banging cities such as New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and Montreal. (Plus Melbourne, whose cool ’hood Windsor made it to spot #10.)

Chippendale – sandwiched between two of Sydney’s biggest unis (Sydney Uni and UTS) – is so cool because it's evolved into a buzzing, community-rich neighbourhood where people love to live and play. It not only serves up great restaurants like Ester and Longshore, but a huge diversity of offerings, such as:  

• Phoenix, a space that holds concerts that are accessible to the public via a free ballot; 
• Cool and quirky gallery White Rabbit Gallery, a four-floor temple of 21st century Chinese art;
• Spice Alley, a lantern-lit Asian food market hidden away behind a strip of old terrace houses;  
• A gamers’ paradise called Fortress; 
• Kyiv Social, a social enterprise Ukrainian restaurant by the Plate It Forward team (it employs people displaced by the Ukraine war, and for every meal ordered, two meals are donated to those in need – one in Sydney and one in Ukraine);
• The Old Clare, a classic old pub with the city’s hippest hotel rooms upstairs;
• The Chippo Hotel, which not only champions live music and comedy, but is also Australia’s first all-vegan pub (including all the drinks); 
• Multi-level party palace The Abercrombie, where you can party until 5am on Friday and Saturday nights, and 2am every other night of the week;
• And a weekly farmers’ market in the grounds of the leaf-covered Central Park Mall, which helps foster village vibes for the neighbourhood’s residents.
   

Last year, Sydney suburb Enmore, in the Inner West, came in at a cool #17 in the annual rankings, but Chippendale is a whole ten spots up from there.

There were a total of four Aussie cities on Time Out's list of 38 coolest neighbourhoods – as well as Chippendale and Melbourne's Windsor, Perth's vibrant cultural and nightlife hub of Northbridge ranked 21st, while Adelaide's hip-meets-heritage suburb Norwood came in at number 35.

To create the annual rankings, Time Out surveyed its our global team of on-the-ground writers and editors to determine the coolest neighbourhood in their city is right now, and why. Time Out’s global editors then narrowed down the selection and ranked the list, vetting each neighbourhood against criteria including food, drink, arts, culture, street life, community and one-of-a-kind local flavour. The result is a list that celebrates the most unique and exciting pockets cities around the world – especially their quirks.

Here’s the full list of 38 Time Out Coolest Neighbourhoods from around the globe:

1. Notre-Dame-du-Mont, Marseille
2. Mers Sultan, Casablanca
3. Pererenan, Bali
4. Seongsu-dong, Seoul
5. Kerns, Portland
6. Stokes Croft and St Pauls, Bristol
7. Chippendale, Sydney
8. Príncipe Real, Lisbon
9. Glória, Rio de Janeiro
10. Windsor, Melbourne
11. Zablocie, Krakow
12. Little River, Miami
13. Saint-Henri, Montreal
14. Punavuori, Helsinki
15. Gakugeidaigaku, Tokyo
16. Thao Dien, Ho Chi Minh
17. Flatbush, New York
18. Friedrichshain, Berlin
19. East City, Cape Town
20. Belleville, Paris
21. Northbridge, Perth
22. Strathbungo, Glasgow
23. Chacarita, Buenos Aires
24. Leyton, London
25. Inchicore, Dublin
26. East Hollywood, Los Angeles
27. Ekkamai, Bangkok
28. San Rafael, Mexico City
29. Mount Pleasant, Washington DC
30. Bonfim, Porto
31. Palace District, Budapest
32. Brewerytown, Philadelphia
33. Kowloon City, Hong Kong
34. Logan Square, Chicago
35. Norwood, Adelaide
36. Osu, Accra
37. Orchard, Singapore
38. Union Square, Boston

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, straight to your inbox.

Want to explore Chippendale? Here's our guide to the area.

The Chippo Hotel is Australia's first fully vegan pub (including all the drinks).

Chippendale's Abercrombie Hotel stays open till 5am on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can dance the night away.