This is not a comprehensive history of all businesses and industrial activity ever conducted in Annandale. Indeed it probably omits much as traces of many early factories and other commercial enterprises have been eradicated by development. Instead it seeks to trace the non-residential uses of existing buildings which are now seen along the streets and lanes of the suburb and to answer the question you might ask as you do an evening stroll: “I wonder what that old building used to be?”.

 

Accordingly, its reach is for the most part confined to sites where there is a building which bears at least a trace of a former industrial or other commercial use, of which there are many in Annandale. While its early developer laid out a street plan for a “gentleman’s suburb”, these traces of industrial activity give Annandale a unique character: on the one hand wide, long, straight streets and a sprinkling of grand houses and, on the other hand, signs of industry on almost every block.