Pitt Street 1871 Haymarket

These huge gas holders were opposite Belmore Park, across the road from the later Capitol Theatre, until 1922. They supplied the southern part of the city with gas piped in from the AGL refinery at Darling Harbour, which was near today's Barangaroo. 

The sandstone building in the Google Street View below is a remnant of the Australian Gas Light offices built later in the Victorian period. When it was restored a few decades ago, the original signage was removed, but you can still make out some of the ghost lettering on the parapet.

Original

Today (Google)

Hyde Park 1932 and 1945

Original

Restored

This was the new Federation-style bandstand built in 1912 to replace an earlier Victorian one. It was in the centre of what is today's Sandringham Gardens. Having survived the massive excavations of the park when the subway was put through in the 1920s, it didn't survive WW2 because...

Original

Restored

... in 1945, the south-east corner of Hyde Park North, at the corner of College Street, was resumed to build a large repatriation hostel for British soldiers returning from the Pacific War. It was demolished in 1947 and replaced with new gardens, dedicated to our late Queen Elizabeth, that are still there today.

(For newer generations who may not have heard of it: The British Tucker Box was under a donation scheme of food parcels from the people of Commonwealth countries back to Britain, which was suffering shortages after the war.)

Phillip Street 1880s from Bent Street

Original

Today (Google)

A wonderful picture showing humble old Sydney with remnant original Georgian slab huts. The street was realigned in the 1960s to make Chifley Square. The church spire at the end on the left is St Stephen's which was demolished in the 1930s to make Martin Place. The spire on the right is St James.

George Street 1884 at Hunter Street

Original

Today (Google)

In the 1880s, Sydney noticeably started changing from colonial backwater to established city. Wealth from agriculture, gold, and immigration had reached levels where now significant Victorian architecture was commonly replacing the rudimentary buildings that lined most of the thoroughfares. Here, the sign on the corner announces the new bank premises coming, seen below in 1961.

 

This new building lasted 80 years until it was replaced by a modernist insurance office block in 1963. And that one lasted less than 60 years until it too was replaced in 2020 by a post-modern block.

Circular Quay 1876 Unloading Locomotives

Original

Today (Google)

The west side of the Quay, in Pitt Street looking south past the Commissariat at right, and east in the pic below. Two small pictures I think are very illustrative of how hand-made and hand-done life was before mass production. I have no more information about the photos beyond the title.

Restored

Original

Bondi Junction 1915 Bronte Road

Original

Today (Google)

This was a mystery photo with no location info attached, only that it was in a photo album of Ichiro Kagiyama who lived in Sydney in the 1910s, held by the State Library of NSW. And yet, the scene was familiar. I had to get to the bottom of it. 

In the original photo above, at the opposite corner of that intersection, I knew that building but couldn't place it. It was a common Sydney corner Victorian 'shop + flat above', with a step-down addition at the rear. Also, to the left behind the theatre's cupola, was a large Victorian parapet, which meant it was on a significant building.

The First TAFE 1885 Kent Street

Original Archival

Today (Google)

The first Technical College in Sydney. The enlargement is clear enough to read the sign boards outside that display the subjects. 

Tivoli Theatre 1907 Castlereagh Street

Original

Today (Google)

This photo has an incredible lot of detail if you enlarge it. I spent ages getting it as an authentic slice of 1907. This is the first Tivoli Theatre that ran from the 1870s to about 1930. It was turned into the Mayfair cinema which was demolished in the 1980s. The second Tivoli Theatre was down at Haymarket, opposite Belmore Gardens.

York Street 1867 Queen Victoria Markets

Original Archival

Today (Google)

Before the QVB went up in the 1890s, the site was occupied by the Queen Victoria Markets on the north (left) side, and the Central Court on the south.

Bondi Junction 1931 Bondi Road

Original Archival

Today (Google)

Bondi Road, where it meets Old South Head Road and Oxford Street. Looking west. All of it was bulldozed when the bypass was built in the 1970s.

Pyrmont 1876 Spread Eagle Hotel

Original Archival

Modern Street View

35 Bowman Street. Per Sands Directory, Reeve was licensee of the Spread Eagle Hotel in 1876.

White City 1915 Paddington

Original

Today (Google)

An amusement park that only lasted a few years, from 1913 until it was wrecked in a storm in 1917. The owner didn't recover financially, so it was demolished.

The Japanese tea-house, with Japanese servers in a part of the park called the Japanese village. There was a small Japanese population in Sydney at this time, some of whom were married to Aussies. I think this picture looks great enlarged.

 

I've added some more pictures of the park after the jump...

Central 1893 Hancock's Tower

Original Archival

Today (Google)

Hancock's Tower was a well-known landmark with a fable attached. Built in the 1840s, it came down in 1893. The reference above to Redfern Station is for the old Sydney terminus, before the current Central Station was built in 1905.

There is some more info after the jump.... 

Wynyard 1905 George Street

Original Archival

Today (Google)

George Street looking south to Martin Place. (Google had no more current view than that.)

Darlinghurst Road 1870 Hynde's windmill

Original Archival

Today (Google)

St John's church school, which was later demolished to make way for a service station. Hynde's windmill at rear, before Nimrod Street was put through, the mill demolished and its stone blocks reused to build Beare's Stairs in Caldwell Street behind it. And at the back of the mill is Craigend, the villa and huge garden of Thomas Mitchell, which are now blocks of flats from the 1920s.