Pyrmont Bridge - Then & Now - 2

Same bridge as yesterday, different angle. You will note, of course, that Pyrmont Bridge is now motorised-vehicle-free. Even the exceedingly ugly Monorail has been removed. With both my shots, I am facing east. Instead of being predominantly a working harbour, Darling Harbour - which the Pyrmont Bridge spans - is now predominantly a leisure and tourism harbour. The restored pub, the Dundee Arms, is tucked in on the other side of that massive white rectangular building on the further shore.

This 1907 image shows the working habour past, of both Darling Harbour and the Pyrmont Bridge. Pyrmont is immediately to the west of the bridge, ie at my back. It provided much of the sandstone for work in the immediate vicinity, and for the CBD, from quarries with the romantic names Paradise, Purgatory. and Hellhole. In the B&W image, clearly visible on the horizon are (from L to R): the dome of the Queen Victoria Building, the clock tower of the Sydney Town Hall, and the double western buttresses of the Anglican Cathedral, St Andrews. The view ach and every one of these landmarks from the Pyrmont Bridge today, is obliterated by developments since 1907, as one might reasonably expect.

Sydney from on high (3)

Looking down upon the 1898 Queen Victoria Building (QVB), which many would assert is the centre of this city. It is bounded by George Street (where the big, red bus is), York Street (on the other side), and has Market Street running east-west along the RHS. Market St is eponymous with the QVB which is the site of the original municipoal markets, the site having been reserved for such a purpose in 1810 by Governor Macquarie.

Self-confessed 'luddite'

"Paspaley Pearls' on the corner of Martin Place and George Street

It is not that I am against progress, I just prefer to live in the past. Brushed aluminium, Scandinavian ashe, and etched glass are all well and good, but give me granite and sandstone any old day.

According to Wiki, the Luddites were a social movement of 19th-century English textile artisans who protested against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, that replaced them with less skilled, low wage labour, and which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their way of life.

Frequently, mechanised looms were destroyed in a quaint process referred to as "collective bargaining by riot".

In modern usage, a 'Luddite' is one overwhelmed by the new, by the modern, by the ever-changing, who seeks refuge in the tried and true, who reveres the test of time, who dwells in that fascinating land known as the past, or even, the 'passed'.

The short facade of the QVB facing Market Street