Battery Point and Salamanca Place

Salamanca Place is a single long row of sandstone warehouses built in the 1830s and 1840s to handle whale oil, wool and grain, standing directly behind the docks they served. Behind and above it, Battery Point climbs the hill: narrow streets of colonial cottages, corner shops, a few grand houses built on shipping money, and Arthur Circus, a ring of small 1840s cottages around a green. Kelly's Steps cut straight up between the two levels. The whole area survived because Hobart grew slowly, and it is still lived in rather than preserved, which shows in the fences and the parked cars. An hour or two covers it, with the harbour always at the end of the street.

What you actually see

• The Salamanca warehouses - a continuous sandstone row from the whaling and shipping era.
• Kelly's Steps - the narrow cut stair linking the waterfront to Battery Point above.
• Arthur Circus - a small circle of 1840s cottages around a central green.
• The Battery Point streets - lanes of cottages, corner shops and early churches above the docks.

When to go

Saturday mornings bring a large market along Salamanca Place, worth seeing but hopeless for looking at the buildings; any other day is better for the architecture. November to April gives the warmest weather, though Hobart is changeable year round. Evening light on the sandstone is good, and the waterfront stays busy after dark.

Honest expectations

The warehouse row is now restaurants, galleries and tourist shops, and the ground floors have been reworked to suit. Battery Point is residential, so there is little to go inside and you are essentially looking at other people's houses. Parking is difficult. Salamanca prices are the highest in Hobart, and on market Saturdays the crowd is shoulder to shoulder.

Nearby

Constitution Dock, the Hobart waterfront and the walk up to the Cascades are close.