Kingsford Smith Mural

The artwork in this pedestrian area has been created in several stages since 1990. Originally, Kingsford was known as South Kensington. Yet in 1935, the search for a new name began, partly due to postal confusion between the two suburbs. They ran a competition and the name 'Kingsford' was the winner, in celebration of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, an early Australian aviator. Sir Charles, often called "Smithy", was the first pilot to make the trans-Pacific flight to Australia from the mainland United States, a distance of about 11,670 kilometres (7,250 miles), in 1928. Southern Cross Close, located adjacent to Anzac Parade at the end of Gardners Lane, was named in honour of the plane Kingsford Smith flew, which was called Southern Cross.

In 1990 Randwick City Council commissioned artist Lloyd Kellerman to create a mosaic depicting the "Southern Cross" and the route of its flight from San Francisco to Sydney. It can be seen on the Northern side of the close. In 2010 a mosaic of Charles Kingsford Smith was commissioned by the Kingsford Chamber of Commerce for the opposite wall. The mosaic was produced with support from Randwick City Council, Public Art Squad and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It was directed by David Humphries and designed by Masoud Nodous and artist Tim Cole. It was unveiled by Councillor John Procopiadis, Mayor of Randwick on 11 August 2010.

On 21 June 2014, Councillor Scott Nash, Mayor of Randwick officially unveiled an updated and extended mural (surrounding the portrait mosaic) by artist Annette Barlow complementing both the the 2010 and 1990 artworks The mural was commissioned by the Kingsford Chamber of Commerce with support from Council and Randwick Rotary. In 2018 the Kingsford Chamber of Commerce arranged the installation of three historical images of the Kingsford town centre in Southern Cross Close. These images were provided with the support of Transport for NSW. In 2020, after the trenching was done for the NBN and the light rail construction work, The Kingsford Chamber of Commerce requested the area receive a much-needed rejuvenation. An aeronautical theme was chosen and artwork was created to commemorate Kingsford-Smith's first trans-pacific flight from the USA to Australia, which was painted on the ground.