Martin Place is the closest thing Sydney has to a civic square: a broad pedestrian plaza running for five blocks through the heart of the CBD, lined with the grand banking halls and the colonnaded sandstone General Post Office that marked the city's commercial confidence around 1900. It is where Sydney holds its Anzac Day dawn service at the Cenotaph, sets up its giant Christmas tree, and where office workers spill out at lunchtime onto the steps and fountains.
The eastern end is anchored by the GPO clock tower; the western end runs down toward Wynyard. The plaza is purely a place to walk through and people-watch rather than a sight in its own right, but it gives a quick sense of monumental, money-minded Sydney between the harbour and the shops.