Wednesday 15 June 2011

Forget 'latte lanes' and worship dingy alleys instead


Here in Australia, once of the deadliest epithets one can zing around is to brand someone a 'latte-sipping-inner-city-leftist'. If there is such a creature, the LSicL would reside in a lane replete with coffee shops with seats made of milk crates or timber fruit crates. So, I won't go there, except to include this quote from yesterday's SMH
'What a surprise to find that the author is an academic. More inner city luvvie left nonsense - way out of touch with most folks in Australia.'
Oh dear must press on regardless.

Here are three lanes. Dingy. Dirty. Squalid.


The middle image is a lane in Fitzroy in Melbourne taken last November. The outside two images are of lanes off Burton St in East Sydney, taken maybe a fortnight ago. Melbourne is reknown for its lane-way culture, much to Sydney's chagrin. Sydney is caught in a bit of a 'try hard' mindset over this issue, and should just get over it.

19 comments:

Margaret said...

I suppose it is just a matter of perspective. In some cities, these alleys would be considered quite nice.
(Looking forward to my Sydney visit next year.)

Luis Gomez said...

Great images Julie.

Kay L. Davies said...

Wow, Julie, if that second photo is considered dingy, dirty and squalid, I'm going to move to Sydney. You folks obviously don't know about dirt and squalidity.
I'll see if I can photograph some Vancouver, BC, back alleys for you.
Of course, if I moved to Sydney I'd probably be one of those latte-sipping luvvie lefties. Would I be booed and hissed at?
Luv — K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

brattcat said...

we vermonters are accused of being 'crunchy-granola' types which might be even more unflattering than being called an LSicL. i love your alleys, btw. not too many alleys here in brattleboro.

Ann said...

Is an LSL the new chardonnay sipping socialist? Sandal wearing too, of course. Haven't seen a bright blue bin before.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

The problem here is Julie, you just can't take a bad picture! You've somehow made these lane ways look very appealing in a back lane way kind of way. that's a whole lot of 'way-ing' going on there!!

Alan said...

GREAT post, Julie. I agree w-h-o-l-e-h-e-a-r-t-e-d-l-y... the whole hipster "LSicL" debate n Melbourne gets a bit tedious after a while. Live and let live.

Who was the author referred to in the Sydney Morning Herald?

Julie said...

Alan - not an author but a commenter. The thing that really is starting to irritate, is that not all articles are opened up for comments. Just the articles that are contentious and don't present new information that has to be thought about. So IMHO, any article that is open for comments is not worth reading!

Peter said...

The last one looks a bit like an alley? Must check the new standard for naming.

Vicki said...

With you behind the lens, these alleys look anything but dingy. Look at all those wonderful lines.

Julie said...

Peter - I have gone into Google maps and the first 'alley' is labelled Langely Street. The bottom 'lane' is labelled Sherbrooke Street. Go figure. Whilst I am at it, I will go find out the Melbourne 'lane'. Can't find it exactly, but it is somewhere near the intersection of Kerr St & Brunswick St.

Joan Elizabeth said...

You are right Melbourne does lanes Sydney doesn't .

Mark said...

Great shots. I love lanes, lets not forget their principle reason for existence in Sydney, access for the night soil man!!!

Thérèse said...

Someone should start a theme on "alleys" you would be surprised... yours are look pretty healthy!

freefalling said...

I LOVE laneways - they're secret.
I especially love our country laneways. I remember when we were buying our house in Ararat - the real-estate man had to explain to me that the laneways were there for the dunny man!
oh. that's what they're for.

Alan said...

That does seem oddly counter-productive...

Dianne said...

Julie I love these photos of alley-ways - they tell a story and are an integral part of any city. You have inspired me to take more photos of alley-ways - the neat and tidy and the ugly!

Julie said...

Dianne - I think a blogger only really comes of age when they can show the more harrowing parts of their city, but in an affectionate manner.

IWASNTBLOGGEDYESTERDAY said...

looks pretty tidy to me lolthey are dark, but not sqalid or dirlty lol
I live in the country, we have a back lane, the dunnys inside these days though LOL