Artist Sydney Long was born near Goulburn in 1871. He studied in Sydney under Alfred Daplyn and Julian Ashton and was influenced by naturalism and plein air (outdoor) painting. He won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting twice, in 1938 and 1940.

Long was one of 37 artists who painted the buildings and streetscapes of the Rocks and Millers Point area to record them before they were demolished. The 1902 Old Sydney exhibition displayed 145 artworks of the area.

Clyde Street was part of a densely populated neighbourhood and was selected for cleansing operations after the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900. The street no longer exists, having been demolished by the Sydney Harbour Trust in 1901 — it ran south-west from near the current intersection of Argyle Place and Kent Street, Millers Point, to Darling Harbour.