| Hyde Park Cafe is the rear of the Museum Station entrance, on the corner of Liverpool Street and Elizabeth Street. The orange hightlight building in the background is the old Mark Foys department store where my great-aunt Olive worked in the haberdashery department during the construction of the underground. This building is now a court of justice complex called The Downing Centre. |
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Scattered throughout the station, along passageways, and lining staircases, there are large B&W framed photographs embedded in the wall tiling, showing the station at varying stages during the building process. For a history tragic like yours truly this is a magnet ... kerchung!! However, they were a smidge dark and same-ish so I interleaved people-doing-things shots.
Top left: 1924 The shape of the station is becoming clearer. The main entrance will be to the left of the tramway signal box in the foreground. Once the concrete cover of the complex is complete, the work will commence to return Hyde Park to its former beauty.
Top right: March 1925 The new station is ready for inspection.NSW Railway and government officials are shown inspecting the work prior to track-laying and the installation of overhead power lines.
Middle left: Nowadays I guess turnstiles are similar the world over.
Middle right; Nowadays Our stations have fairly non-descript entrances. Not like some of the grand ones in Paris like Hector Guimard's Abbesses.
Bottom left: December 1925 The test train at Museum Station two weeks before the official opening scheduled for 20 December when the first electric trains will run on the underground system from Central to St James. Dr Bradfield can be seen in the centre of the group (the short, cocky fella).
Bottom right: 1954 Peak hour at Museum 28 years after its opening. Nowadays the station is more crowded and the people more casual.
The mid-month Subway theme has contributions from the following cities:
Budapest - London - Paris - Stockholm - Sydney
and you can still catch Ming's earlier posts at New York
Next month's Subway post on Sydney Eye: St James Station
13 comments:
Oh my God Julie, you really worked a LOT for the Subway Day!!!
Great pics and so much information - the Sydney traffic authorities should pay you some great commission :-)
I have just discovered Sydney Eye and I love your glimpses into Sydney life.
My grandmother worked in the haberdashery department of Mark Foys, it was her first job.
Haberdashery ... I love those old words, just like the style of clothing in the old photographs.
I love these old photos. So when is wearing of hats going to come back into fashion? It looks like a man from Sydney would not be photographed without one.
If that's Hyde Park Cafe, what's the one opposite DJ's?
A small point, but isn't The Downing Centre highlighted with gold rather than orange. At least I suspect that's what the original designers were attempting to fake!
Joan & Eamon: I will check out the colouring and take photos of all the words around the old Mark Foys. They are quite delightfu.
AB: My original wording for that photo mentioned the hats but I altered it because there is nowadays a resurgence of hat-wearing in the city.
Ann: Not sure of the name of the DJs restaurant: I know the one you mean though, near the chess board.
Maggie: thanks for the visit. I will repay in kind. I am a gardener but not organic ...
The collage of old and new photos is wonderful! I also really like that building in the top picture with the orange trim. The color makes it stand out.
More great shots.
Sydney - City and Suburbs
Very well put together post. I said it before but I really do enjoy subways, museums and history.
My dear old ma worked at Mark Foys too! I adore St James and Museum stations, nothing more I can say really...great shots as always.
I love the detail of the turret? and pointy golden bits at the top of the Hyde Park Cafe. We had a Foys in Melbourne too - once.
I love it when they put up photos or paintings showing past times, like here at the Museum Station. I could miss a train or two here I'm sure.
Happy subway day!
Stockholm by pixels
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