Stairways to heaven: The amazing history of Sydney's most impressive steps Save Normal text size Advertisement Away from the cameras surveilling Sydney, public stairs remain among the few places where people "can still be private in public", says architect Jennifer Preston. As poet A. A. Milne wrote: "Halfway up the stairs isn't up, it isn't down ... It isn't really anywhere, it's somewhere else instead." And in the case of the Steps to Nowhere on Hickson Road, Barangaroo, they lead up and down, but will take you absolutely nowhere. A detective at the bottom of the Argyle Stairs in the Rocks c.1930