Saturday 4 December 2010

Corner store

Corner of Roslyn Street & Ward Avenue, Kings Cross.
Following a comment from Andrew, I thought I would revisit this image and walk it through with you.

Kings Cross is a very mixed area. This is one street back from the 'nightclub' sleaze of Macleay StreetDarlinghurst Road. It is charming rather than lovely. But look closely at this corner store. It is branded in that creeping americana of 'convenience store' rather than the old corner shoppe, which it essentially is. On the right, is a camera to record street 'violence'. Then we have an old fashioned bubble-gum machine, and on the wall a telephone. This is not to contact a taxi, as Andrew surmised, but to contact a locksmith. The area is replete with backpackers and other 'tourists' who don't always have their wits about them. It is a Western Union outlet and an airport bus pickup. It has internet cubicles, and a 'money-tree' (ATM). Everything a traveller could need. Next door you can sit out and have coffee to recover from the previous night, and next to that is a used-clothing shop, should you, in your ardour, forget where you left your clothes the previous evening.

Go ahead and click on the image to enlarge. Then click again. The perfect neighbourhood ... a microcosm of urbanity.

10 comments:

tinyskillet said...

I love this picture!

Anonymous said...

How did you get a shot without a car in it? I wonder what the telephone connects to? A taxi company?

T.A.M. said...

Love this picture. Your pictures really make me miss living in Australia.

Julie said...

Andrew, there are a number of fascinating things when looking at this photo closeup. I will adjust the text to point them out. Taa ...

Joan Elizabeth said...

Julie, as always finely observed. It's fascinating when pondering on the details.

wanderer said...

Hoping not to sound too picky, but the sleaze is Darlinghurst Road, whereas Macleay Street (Fitzroy Gardens down to the Navy) is the highly desirable residential strip with some of Sydney's best art deco buildings, a good photographer's dream ~ coming soon?

Julie said...

You are right, of ocurse. I have such knowledgeable readers. Thank you for pointing this out. I shall correct.

In my own defence, I am just a block away from being correct. This not being the point, of course. There is a world of difference in that short section of Darlinghurst Road from the intersection with Bayswater Road, until it turns and morphs into Macleay at the El Alamein there.

Should I meander down those byways as Kx morphs into PP. Shall think how to approach it after I have taken you all through the wilds Trumper Park next week.

diane b said...

A modern day corner shop. Very handy for anyone, I reckon.

Peter said...

love the corner store - need more of them

Unknown said...

Your remark about someone loosing their clothing reminds me of a story. My wife Susan is a medical social worker and worked for a time at a large hospital. She came home one day telling me about a lady who was brought in for detox looking quite disheveled and confused. She said she woke up under a hedge wearing someone else's clothes and was rather distressed about it.