Saturday 28 March 2015

Royal North Shore Hospital - shades of the times


Royal North Shore Hospiatal (see how British we still are!) is the closest public (government) hospital to where I live. I was there yesterday, but arrived by foot rather than ambulance.

I was struck by the contrast of the "new" hospital when compared with the main building of the original 1909 hospital. Both my children were born in this hospital. Indeed, I spent the last month of my second pregnancy in here twiddling my thumbs, because I was losing weight.


North Shore means north of the harbour. Sydney is thought of in terms of north, south, east, and west, each area having its own stigma. This is not definitive, just my take: North is for the well-off middle classes, the professional elites; south is for the would-bees, the cashed up middle classes; east is for the monied-class, who primarily inherited it all from dadda; and, west is the hoi-polloi, the great-unwashed, the aspirational working class.

Hah! Oh boy, is THAT gunna get me into strife ...


4 comments:

Cloudia said...

Interesting photos and info




ALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=

Joan Elizabeth said...

Your summing up of the compass is certainly the way the stereotype runs. I remember once talking to a lady at the next lunch table in Leura. She was a local and I said I was not too keen on Leura because it was too North Shore for my taste ... she was affronted surely it was Eastern suburbs!

Julie said...

I have only been to Leura once - that time with you. I would not have called it "east" at all. East is brash, and in your face. IMO, Leura is definitely north.

William Kendall said...

The splashes of yellow work nicely on the walls.