Sydneytecture

When Sydney was still pretty much a quiet outpost, its later Victorian expansion and wealth soon to develop.

What strikes me most here is the engineering - all cut, dug and built by hand, with just rudimentary tools, no machines. And for a remote, small population, where these works are repeated throughout the land, it's an amazing feat. We really don't appreciate our pioneers.  Today, the same spot, just higher up, as a light-rail line runs beneath, and under that again the creek is now a concreted canal.   As an addendum, next to the modern viaduct is a remnant of the original. You have to look for it to know it was there. 

At the far back is George St; in front, the fire station with the steeple was demolished for the overpass in the 1950s; the little bank on the right was rebuilt in the 30s and then demolished in the 50s.  Standing and looking in exactly the same spot today (verified on SIX Maps) -

   

From the earliest days of the colony, Moore Park was officially set aside for public use. The same place today -

A police photograph from a crime scene, detectives investigating. All very noir. But today, not so much - Yes, though unbelievable, we are looking from the exact same spot as the photo at top. I verified it on SIXMaps.

This is an awesome pic of a ship-builder because it's so early in Sydney's photographed history, and look behind. I've spliced two old stereographs together and enhanced the details. Top left on the hill is Sydney Observatory, and top right is the church tower of St Philip's, both still intact today. The steep cliffs and shoreline have been redeveloped many times over many decades so that today they're unrecognisable from the original. And how do we know we're in the same spot as the photo above? Triangulate the Observatory tower and its west dome, and they match. Google Street View (clickable).

This is how Sydney generally used to look in the C19th. So much of it was swept away in the 60s and 70s for mass modernism, before it was collectively realised how much history, beauty and heritage had been lost. It's still going on, just to a lesser extent. I enhanced the photo from a very dark original which is why it looks a little patchy. Some of the detail had been lost in the under-exposure. Anyway, from the same corner as above. Google Street View (clickable).

The same spot on King Street across 150 years. In 1865, a quiet colonial outpost, just like a big country town. But prosperity and commerce are growing, real estate increasingly in demand. 1885. Post gold-rush, and mass immigration from the poorer parts of the UK has jumped over the preceding decades. The wealthy of the colony keep consolidating, and the main streets are full of substantial sandstone buildings. This is when Sydney starts to get its large Victorian edifices that we know today. 1959. The city has had a 10-storey height limit imposed since 1910. This restriction has just been lifted, and the charming-scale streets will soon be largely decimated and replaced by modernist and post-modernist goliaths. Google Street View (clickable)

I'm putting up this photo mainly because it's so beautiful (it enlarges magnificently). It's an evocative Hyde Park around 1928, possibly by Cazneaux by the look of it, with the silhouette of the David Jones department store behind, and the cupolas of the Trust Building on King Street beyond. The Archibald Fountain won't be constructed in front for a few more years. You know, I remember when it was still common to see old men with nothing more to do than sit on park benches. A different world. The same spot on Google (clickable), with probably the same Moreton Bay fig behind those people sitting in the middle.

A beautiful artistic shot. At right - Commonwealth Bank 1928; centre - MLC Building 1938; left - Prudential Building 1939 (it only lasted twenty years before a brutalist monstrosity replaced it, itself now happily demolished for the new metro station.) Google Street View (clickable)

Looking west from Market Street. It gives an indication to modern eyes that Sydney then was still an industrial city with a working harbour. I remember a lot of grit and grime around the harboursides and inner city, old buildings blackened from decades of smoke and smog. Now everything is spruced and restored, so you'd never know. In a previous post, I mentioned that Pyrmont Bridge was the main western entry to the city, and crossing point to the Eastern Suburbs, now replaced by tunnels and overpasses. This picture looks like morning peak, there are rows of double-decker buses on the bridge heading in. And of course today (clickable). While the bridge is still there, it's been pedestrianised, and its off-ramp made way for the Western Distributor which cuts through.

War-time Sydney. This air-raid shelter was on the park's south side near Park St, beside the avenue of figs. You can make out the bulk of the, I think, YWCA on Liverpool St behind the sign on the right. And same spot today, over there by the trees behind the lamp post. This 1943 aerial shows it, those diggings in the centre beside the avenue of trees.

That's the old Pyrmont Bridge crossing the bay, built around 1850s and demolished in 1900 when the new one was built right along its north side. There's the 'new' Pyrmont Bridge straight ahead, which was decommissioned and pedestrianised as part of the Darling Harbour redevelopment in the 1980s. Before then it was fully functioning, and I remember it as the main western crossing point of the city until the Western Distributor took its place.

By triangulation of the steeple of St James with Sydney Grammar in this pic below, and allowing for the fact that Oxford Street was widened on its north side in 1916... ... we arrive here today. 🙂

The very same corner, across two centuries. 1856. The top of William Street, where the famous Coke sign is today, was just a rock shelf before it was built on. 1896. The tram lines have been put through, which congest the narrow main road. Later, after WW1, the entire south side of William Street will be demolished to widen it. 1946. The widened street works well, for the while. 1965. The trams have been removed from Sydney in place of buses, but the growing population still causes increasing congestion. By 1970, the west and south sides of this intersection will disappear for the new Kings Cross tunnel which will go underneath. Today. For the record, this was taken in the exact spot as the other photos above. It's just the reorientation and redevelopment of the roads have shifted due to the tunnel below.

In 1900, below, the large building in the background is the Australia Hotel, which made way for Seidler's MLC Centre in 1972. Here, Martin Place hasn't yet been put through (it was finally finished in the 1930s.) In 1922, density was increasing. Below, the fellow in the white helmet is a policeman, probably directing traffic as Castlereagh Street was then one-way northbound (until the Eastern Distributor was put through in the 1990s, when its direction was reversed as part of the wider new traffic system.) You have just got to click on that pic for the original, the detail is incredible.  By 1928, the city's urban density had consolidated. The little building on the right is still there for the moment, yet the building to its right has had more storeys added.

This pic has always made me curious because of those two amazing oasts, and I wanted to find out exactly where it was. It's titled 'Rear of Harper's stables' which I knew was near Darling Harbour somewhere. Harper & Co had many interests, and this was its spice factory. After scouring different decades of maps from 1870 on, I've pinpointed the exact location from where the photo was taken. It was at the corner of Duncan and James, neither of which still exist, but were right here. (To clarify, not over there or anything - the photo above was taken in exactly the same spot as this Google pic.) This is another view of the oasts, taken from a house on Sussex Street looking west.  The yards in front and the building with the zigzag roof was Vicar's Tweed Factory, and the larger building on the right at back is one of Harper's warehouses.

This is the Victoria Club in the early 1860s, well-known in its day. Around 1871 it was converted to government offices, the fig tree cut down, and the front fence moved back to realign with the rest of the street. This took me quite a bit of locating to place, as it's listed as being at 136 Castlereagh Street. However, in those days Castlereagh ran all the way to the Quay, with a break between Bligh St. At some point it was renumbered starting at Hunter Street, so today's 136 is past Market Street. However, using old maps and newspapers I concluded it was actually located opposite Hoskins Place. Today- ( A clearer photo of it around 1870.)