margaret street

Anyway that kind of stuff in the post above just gets you exasperated, because there's nothing to be done but watch incompetents badly manage everything once beautiful down the proverbial gurgler. So here's some of that once beautiful history.

Sydney's Margaret Street at Wynyard, taken in 1870 something. It enlarges almost full screen.

It would have been one dark town here after sunset. No power, no lamps. In fact life would have had to have been pretty hard all round then, like dirt streets, no sewering, or refrigeration, and everything shut on Sundays. Though I expect it was a step up from what many had left behind.

In even earlier days than this, the park on the right was the parade ground of the original army barracks, when Sydney was a penal colony and the military guarded the convicts.

Same spot, just a few feet to the right and a century or so later. 1961 and an FJ taxi sweeps up the hill. That old Victorian building on the left is the same hotel with the same name as in the previous pic.

And the same scene today, literally. A perfect match with the first pic, even down to someone standing in the middle of the road. Though the only original thing left is the sandstone pediment of the park fencing.

Maybe in another century this will seem to have 'character' too.