Sydneytecture

Serendipitously, I came across this picture by chance during an archive search on another topic. It reached out from its now completely alien era, with that glass plate clarity of an anonymous bustling street, and candid faces caught in a stylised moment. It was too evocative to resist. The National Archives original of this picture (which is linked to the big one above if you'd like glorious diorama full-size) was simply titled 'Bride of Frankenstein, 12/7/35' . Fortunately, I recognised that ancient, now very extinct, streetscape in the background. So naturally, I delved.. I think I was most moved by the kindness and innocence on these peoples' faces. It's pre-war and a time that's still pretty much pre-mass production, so really not that much removed from the Victorians' civility and propriety. The reduction of human dignity and march to barbarism is decades away. Here, society is still bonded by trust, dignity, and respect. This was my grandparent...

Pitt St, Sydney, December 1935. Townsfolk watch a fallen tram line being repaired in Sydney's main shopping street. Same place, Jan 2007. Marketing opportunities respond to corporate strategies. (pics enlarge beautifully)

I bet no Sydney readers would have guessed this is how William St looked before the tunnel was put through. This is circa 1966. And this is a perfect match, taken in exactly the same spot today. To get the match right, I found the position of the original median strip from where to take the photo, and aligned the view with the only buildings that remain; there's only three of them which I've blocked in white on the left in the image below. I reduced the old pic to half transparency and laid it over the modern one, then scaled and cropped it until they were perfect twins, only forty years apart. [By the way, most pictures on Sydneytecture enlarge.]

This striking piece of high Art Deco / Bauhaus was a complete mystery when I came across it by chance in the National Archives. For such a knockout it didn't even register a bell among decades of my familiar background buildingscapes, but some googling later showed it to be the Mayfair Hotel in Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, right next door to the old Hampton Court. These pics were taken when it opened in 1937, which probably accounts for the photo-friendly uniformity of the window dressing in this shot, and as far as I can tell these are the full range of images that remain of it. The size of its elaborate brick crest is unique to Sydney buildings of this style. Especially given there's three stories of it on top of a building with only seven floors. In a city where street awnings were usually practical affairs that deserved no more budget than the purpose they served, here it was detailed as decoration to the sleek simplicity above. Shiny chrome, stepping up, down, an...

The Trocadero in Newtown was the first electrified public building in Oz. An abandoned Victorian ice rink, left derelict for decades by its owners the Anglican Church. The church must have finally seen its commercial value, as it opened last summer. Also last year, I posted that one of the 1920s lamps at the Anzac Memorial's Pool of Remembrance in Hyde Park had been attacked by vandals. Eventually the city council did a risk assessment and some impact reports before taking it away, and even more eventually it was redeemed. Aged patina intact and all. And the neighbour's lovely old terrace that burnt down rather tragically. was given a bit of lick and spittle and scrubbed up all right. All ends well.

From previous post On an opposite corner stood the grand Union Club, with a lush, railed garden Fortunately, red bricks were invented in the fifties, so down it came so the Wentworth Hotel could go up in its place Yes, that's exactly the same scene. But all was not lost. The new Union Club was built just behind. Here it is..

From previous post. Down the incline of Bent St, on the next corner stood the Metropole Hotel, the grandest in its day. It too was pulled down in the 'sixties so the CAGA skyscraper could go up, which in turn came down for the Governer Macquarie tower. Today, it houses the NSW state government offices, after they were dislodged from the demolished State Office Block in the previous post.