macquarie street

From a Max Dupain photo taken around 1946 on the steps of the NSW Treasury Building in Macquarie St, opposite the Botanical Gardens.

Sixty years later from the steps of what's now the Intercontinental Hotel. That lamp's got its glass cover back, like most downtown streets now the parking spaces have been removed and the pavement widened - the original kerb's visible -, those date palms are still there just taller, and colour has been invented. Though without that foreground shadow and silhouette the composition's not so picturesque.

GHOSTS 1

Every city has its dwindling shreds of the past, largely unnoticed, ghosts of what was. These scenes stuck out against a uniform backdrop of contemporary steel, concrete and glass. They reminded me of the old Sydney that was still common in my childhood; where everything had been either put down or up by hand, pre prefab, rudimentary mechanisation had meant time had to be taken; and before gentrification had renovated it beyond resemblance.

Above, at Camperdown the silhouette of what looks like a typical sandstone terrace. Below, all that's left of an art deco building is its steps.

These cobblestones, herringbone bricks, and sandstone kerbing in Alexandria will soon be cemented over, as the factory they used to front is now apartments under construction.

academy twin

We know it as the Academy Twin in Oxford St, one of the first art-house cinemas in Sydney. Gutted in 1970 to make two smaller theatrettes and a Greek community hall,

it used to look like this when it was West's

zinks

Zink's tailors in Oxford St is a generations-old institution.

The building is Federation-Art Nouveau, but they must have done a renovation at some point as the street-level facade is classic art deco. Beautifully classic.

The facade panels are a type of black gloss acrylic, though not bakelite, with chrome detailing and signage. It's a magic bit of style to visit.

ST STEPHENS, NEWTOWN

St Stephens Church, Newtown, built in 1845.

This photo must have been taken after 1870, as that's the first date on the grave at right, below. The one at left is 1850.


and spooky today.