The Sussex and the Vicar of Wakefield were hotels in the Haymarket area of Sydney. The Sussex was on the corner of Liverpool and Sussex streets and the Vicar was on the corner of Dixon and Harbour streets.

This painting provides a snapshot of the skyline and urban topography of the area in the 1960s, although many of the buildings are from an earlier era. The colour palette used by Colin Sykes, with its distinct hues of grey, brown and sandstone, shows a quintessential Sydney backstreet cityscape.