Theme Day - Bicycles

Well, fancy that! A classy European cyclery in downtown Sydney. Atelier de Velo is at 156 Clarence Street in the city, and when I made these photos the Tour de France was in full swing. It is one of four cycle shops within two blocks; a peloton of shops, perhaps. Clarence Street runs north-south, from the Town Hall until it disappears in the mess of on-ramps to the harbour bridge, commonly known as the Western Distributor. It is wedged between York Street and Sussex Street. Atelier de Velo specialises in three brands of bicycle: Cervélo Cycles, which are manufactured in Canada; Focus Cycles, which are engineered in Germany; and, Bianchi Cycles, which are designed in Italy, even though the parent company is now Swedish.

This is my contribution to the City Daily Photo Monthly Theme Day. To see further contributions to the August Theme of "Bicycles" please visit the CDP Gallery. This theme was chosen by Giacomo and his wife Gianna, who live in the Italian port city of Livorno , the Mediterranean gateway to Florence and Tuscany. They started Livorno Daily Photo on Christmas week of 2008 and have posted continuously ever since. Please pay them a courtesy visit. The cartoon on the right is by Cathy Wilcox, and first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in 2008.

Bicycles - 3 sleeps to go ...

In Clarence Street in Sydney, there are at least three cycleries. This was glimpsed through the doorway of one of them. My father's first job, at the end of second year high-school - aged 14 - was to work in a haberdashery warehouse. He was one of those back-room johnnies, who cut lengths from bolts of cloth for salesmen who travelled around our state, trying to flog longer lengths to small stores. He vowed never again; never again would he take a job where the superior checked the cleanliness of his finger-nails each morning. So, upon his demob from the army at the end of 1945 - with a wife and son to support - he set himself up as a fruit & veg man travelling in his converted tabletop Bedford from street to street in suburbs close to where he lived, selling produce to "the missus". He was bemoaning to me, late in his life, that when he came back from the army, he should have opened a bicycle shop. As you can see from my photo yesterday, he was a cyclist from way-back. He had the build for it. He had the sales-savvy for it. He could strip and reassemble nearly anything, no matter how many wheels. He had a truck licence, a car licence, and a motor-bike licence. We all have our shouldas ...

Bicycles - 6 sleeps to go ...

Facades of Clarence Street

In the Central Business District (CBD) of my city, there are two ridges whch run north-south, from about the Town Hall all the way down to Circular Quay. One ridge runs along Macquarie Street. Another ridge runs along York Street. But I have the chicken before the egg, because, of course, the street was laid out to traverse the ridge. You with me?

Macquare Street, on the eastern ridge, is the home of government, medical specialists, the landed-gentry and mercantilists. York Street, on the western edge is replete with 19th century warehouses. In between these two is the retail quarter, closer to the Town Hall, and the business quarter, closer to Circular Quay.

The ridge along York drops north toward the Quay, and also drops west toward Darling Harbour. The streets of any length to the west of York Street are: Clarence, Kent, and Sussex.

Each of these three streets has a hard-yakka provenance, wedged as they are between warehouses, engineering concerns, and the dockyards and piers of the eastern side of Darling Harbour. One of the good things about these streets, is that many of the buildings from the second half of the 19th century are still standing. Handsome on the outside, but modernised on the inside. I can live with that.

Then & Now - Cnr Clarence and Margaret Streets

Background Back in 2009, scrummaging through the trove on the top floor of Berkelouw's in Paddington, I unearthed "Cazneaux's Sydney 1904-1934", being a collaboration between Philip Geeves and Gael Newton, both admirers of the photography of Harold Cazneaux (1878-1953). There are 62 B&W plates in the book, with a facing page from Geeves telling the history of the scene. I will share with you the images which resonate with me.

Plate 13. St Philip's from Margaret Street It would seem that the only constants are the church, and the gradient of the corner. This is the intersection of Margaret Street, and Clarence Street, facing north. The period is between 1908 and 1910. The laneway on the left was Clarence Lane, which, created in 1888, disappeared in the 1982 redevelopment of this city block. The only building which seems to have survived is St Philip's, which is barely visible between the trees. A good thing, I grant you. The trees, not necessarily the being hidden. Note the gradient in both images. To the left, Margaret Street drops away considerably toward Darling Harbour (previously Cockle Bay). Show you this in the next post in this series. Prior to 1887, Margaret Street was called Wynyard Square North.