The Sydney Cyclorama. 1898 Railway Square

 

Opened in 1889, it was the 19th-century equivalent of an IMAX theatre - a massive, purpose-built immersive environment. It dominated the Railway Square area.

The Cyclorama as it appears in the background of an Ultimo photo.

Original 1898

In the original image, it's way up the back on the right. There aren’t any photos where the actual building is the subject, I think because it had no street aspect. Located on a battle-axe block surrounded by other properties, it only presented a doorway entrance squeezed between other buildings on George Street.

For its entire 18-year run, it showed just one exhibit: The Battle of Gettysburg. This was a massive 360-degree painted canvas, a copy of another famous US cyclorama. To heighten the "being there" effect, the visual spectacle was accompanied by active light and sound, - explosions, bugle calls, and the flashes of cannons. They even employed a war veteran to pace the platform and give first-hand reminiscences of battlefields to the crowds. To bridge the gap between the audience and the 2D painting, a 3D diorama filled the foreground. Real dirt, stonework, timber fences, shattered wagon wheels, and mannequins were arranged to blend into the painted horizon. 

From an unrelated artist's impression of Railway Square in the 1890s, we can see the Cyclorama's actual arrangement.

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If you’re interested in how it worked, I’ve collated some detailed info which explains the structure.

Circular Quay East 1900, 1870, 1884

Original

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The Quay, looking north from Phillip Street in 1900. The problem with poor quality original images, which is my favourite source - the poorer they are, the more satisfying the restoration - is the lack of fine detail. So while I was able to cross-reference the signs on the buildings from other contemporaneous photos, I was unable to put a name to the ship moored at the Eastern Australian Royal Mail Line wharf. Perhaps someone can assist?

Original 1870

Restored

Here is a wonderful 1870 view, looking back to Phillip Street at the direction of the 1900 image above. It shows how simple was the Quay in earlier Victorian times. Beginning in the 1840's, it was being developed from an ordinary V-shaped bay with mud flats into the circular walled wharf we have today, using literally decades of infill.

(As an aside, in quite a few photos taken in the early 1870s, there's a singular young chap stationed like a prop, similar to the one in the foreground above. It's such a regular feature that I wonder if it's the photographer's son. There were few people taking photos at that time, so it might be a sort of signature.)

Original 1884

Restored

Here is much the same aspect just fourteen years later. More buildings, more activity, but also there are grand buildings beginning to appear on the skyline. At top left is the Colonial Secretary's building, and top right is the Lands Department. We have transitioned from quiet outpost to wealthy colony.

As another aside, you may notice the very tall lightposts in the 1884 image (and 1900)? They were the brand-new technology arc-lamps; electric flood-lighting for night cargo handling. The port was so busy that night illumination was brought in to cope. Arc-lamps were primitive by our standards, as they spat loudly, gave off noxious fumes, and needed replacing every 75 hours. But they were incredibly bright, and also were a popular novelty for the locals. They lasted until WW1 when they were replaced with more cost-efficient electricity.

The Wentworth Hotel 1920 Lang Street

The Wentworth was one of the better hotels at the time, in the same league as The Australia, Metropole, Grosvenor, Petty's, and The Sydney.

"Will James' Band, Wentworth Hotel, Sydney, 1920. L to R: - violin (unnamed) ; Frank Bull - Piano ; Will James - banjo, leader ; Sid Simpson - saxophone ; Sammy Cope - drums"

I had a great time getting this photo of the band orchestra just right. In 1920, jazz was evolving from rag, and judging by the instrument line-up here the repertoire would have been very Dixieland. Unfortunately, recording studios didn't reach Australia until five years after this, so we'll never get to hear them. Although, you can get a good approximation from US recordings around 1919-1920 available on SoundCloud and Bandcamp.

Also, the female singers' outfits show the incredible change that occurred between pre and post WW1 society. That's skimpy compared to the long skirts that women had always worn. 

The Wentworth moved to Chifley Square in 1966, and the old site was cleared to make way for the new QANTAS building (currently IBM).

1938

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The Rocks 1901 Gloucester Street

Original Archival

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North from Essex Street. This is one of a comprehensive government survey series of photos of The Rocks taken in 1901, just before the mass slum clearance and rebuilding. I cropped this photo into the one at top as I thought the little chap with his baby sibling in its pram is really adorable, but also it's a familial insight into daily life at the time. He's looking up the street toward two women, perhaps one is their mum, standing near the Black Dog Hotel. The buildings beyond there on the right still exist, but much of everything forward has since been demolished, with the Cahill Expressway cutting through the middle.

Pitt Street 1871 Haymarket

These huge gas holders were in the middle of the city, between Central Station and the shopping area uptown, until 1922. They were opposite Belmore Park, across the road from the later Capitol Theatre, and 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.