Love it or hate it, the verdict from certain quarters is in: Kings Cross is dead.

Gone are the bohemians, gone are the Yellow House artists, gone is the fringe, underground culture that, to some, gave the area its soul.

Gone are those who saw opportunity after the 1920s speculative boom and those who profited from the ABC's creatives on William Street. It is hard to imagine the demand that saw Billy Thorpe catapult Surf City to fame in the early 1960s, or the Baron's gays, the Pink Pussy's playthings and the ability to have a drink without surrendering ID and glassware.

Even upmarket pizza place-cum-nightclub Hugo's has been given its marching orders.

"They've destroyed its soul. It's too late," said one former nightclub owner, referring to the state government and the underground music industry that grew from the Cross' lively mix.

One dance music fan remembers the underground Spice Club, which drew mature crowds to listen to "minimal House and European disco that nobody knew". He no longer visits the area, which he says does not attract quality DJs or creativity.

"When Baron's was torn down, that was the first glimpse of the death of the Cross," he added.

The legendary bar on Roslyn Street shut its doors in June 2007, a casualty of property redevelopment that changed the heart of the Cross forever.

In its place are apartments symptomatic of gentrification the world over. The difference in, say, east Berlin where the famous Bar 25 once sat, is that development plans for the site include space for a new Bar 25 venue, such is its value to the fabric of the neighbourhood.

Steffan Ippolito of Oxford Real Estate said the only choices his remaining nightclub tenants have is to adapt or pull up stumps.

"Beach Haus was down 60 per cent so they've changed it to a bar/restaurant with sushi. They're trying to train people to get there earlier to have a feed and a drink." This was the glamorous club where Leonardo DiCaprio threw a 37th birthday party just three years ago.

Fishbowl nightclub has just closed, its premises on the corner of Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road set to become luxury apartments. Bourbon – the slick but ultimately doomed grandchild of the one-time 24-hour bawdy sailors' hangout, the Bourbon and Beefsteak – has been sold by restaurateur Chris Cheung and is earmarked for residential redevelopment.

"Big [redeveloper] players are trying to get places in the Cross, their view is that it's a good time to be buying. They have good leverage with council if they say they're going to remove another strip club," said Mr Ippolito.

Hugo's might transform into yet more apartments. And with the wealthy new residents will come cafes, restaurants and tame evening pleasure. Potts Point is creeping south.

The Cross' post-mortem isn't pretty: Since February 2014's lockout laws, drawn up to curb the scourge of alcohol-related violence in the wake of 18-year-old Thomas Kelly's single-punch death, footfall has dropped by 84 per cent.

Over 30 shops in the 300-metre strip of the golden mile lie vacant. As many as 10 well-known late night venues within the lockout zone have closed in the past three months.

Crime, too, has dropped in the area – a 32 per cent reduction in alcohol-related violence in Kings Cross since lockout, according to Deputy Premier Troy Grant – but has doubled in Pyrmont and climbed by 60 per cent in Newtown in the 12 months to March.

Surgeons, hospital staff, sex assault victims and the police will attest that something had to be done because nobody wants to live in a violent society.

But international DJ Bjoern Wilke says he struggles to recognise today's cauterised version of nightclub culture which was born, many decades ago, in the bohemian heart of inner Sydney's seediest suburb.

"My first DJ tour in Sydney was 2006 and I was so amazed by the lifestyle and club culture that I stayed a whole year," he said from his home in Germany, where drinking and nightclubbing coexist peacefully. "I closely followed the changes in Sydney's nightlife over the last years and it breaks my heart."