There are still some streets with the historic red lettering in the Strathfield area.  Strathfield Council started installing metal plate street signs in the early 1920s along with numbering of streets.  There was an old metal street sign on a pole on Albert Road, near Homebush Road.

The majority of early footpaths appear to have been asphalted, while concrete was used on footpaths near shops with heavy foot traffic.  Council required that the owner contribute 50% of costs.

There is reference to the installation of the red lettered street names on footpaths in Strathfield Council minutes in 1926.  It is likely that as footpaths were increasingly concreted that lettering was added. The lettering was embedded into the concrete and was red coloured in contrast to the surrounding concrete. The red letters were made by a contractor and was held together by a wire formwork when the letters were set into the concrete. The footpath names are not stencilled.

It is unsure when Council stopped installing street name lettering on footpaths, however the practice of installing lettering on pavements was not unique to Strathfield Council. In Woollahra Council and parts of the former Municipality of Petersham (Petersham, Lewisham and Stanmore) which is now part of Inner West Council, street names were frequently embedded into footpaths.