Pitt St Mall 1871

I love this picture. Click on it for the original hi-res and you'll see get some mid-1800s Sydney veritas.

It's the office of a newspaper publisher. Not sure who the fellow in the top hat would be, but behind him are some lounging paperboys and piles of papers. The cafe next door offers a table d'hote (set menu) at 1pm of what appears to be a mixed grill including chops and tripe.

Pitt Street was renumbered when it was reconfigured at the Quay around 1900, so 190 above is actually 158 today. And with a bit of late-Victorian re-modelling, the upper facade, at least, remains today.

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Welcome, this site is all about Sydney 'then and now'..

The pics: Do click to enlarge the old photos as I've restored most of them from their faded small originals, and the details you'll often see in them can give an awesome insight into how ordinary people, your and my ancestors, actually lived.

Then: Where nothing today remains of a 'Then' scene, the Google Street Views of the 'Now' location have been verified through old maps and the NSW government's SIXMaps.

Sources: Most of the old photos have been collected over many years through the now-defunct Picture Australia and the original sources lost, but almost all are now found through Trove; variously from the National Library, the State Libraries of NSW and Vic, and the National Archives. Some are also via Flickr, so if you know the source of any, do let me know and I will add the credit.

Me: I'm Ross, a major oldsydneyphile (that's a word, really - well, now it is anyway). I grew up here from the 60s. Originally, I made the site in 2006-2008, and restarted it in 2018 using the 'now' scenes supplied by Google Street View.

Pitt St Mall 1871

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