Did you know that the suburb of Bondi used to be called Tea Gardens, after a pub of the same name which was erected in 1854 close to the intersection of Cowper Street (later renamed Bronte Road) and Oxford Street? This remained the case until the early 1880s when so many tram lines intersected the area that it was called 'the junction' and Bondi was tagged on because it meant water breaking on rocks and had been used to name the area immediately in front of the nearby beach.
Here are two views of that intersection: Bronte Road and Oxford Street. The top one taken in about 1902 when the tram line was electrified. The next one taken yesterday. What a difference 110 years makes! Duh!!
In the 1902 image The Tea Gardens Hotel is on the right in the background, the tall corner building. Two coupled E class tram cars have just turned from Oxford Street into Bronte Street. They will go past the Tea Gardens Hotel and continue on to Waverley. Coming through that same intersection, but remaining on Oxford Street is a dairy cart. Keep this dairy cart in mind for tomorrow.
So what has changed - other than everything! For starters, Oxford Street is a mall (in which I stood in the sleet to take the photograph). Down the centre of the mall are fake tram tracks. It is hard to recognise the old pub although the shape bears a resemblance being on the corner like that. The awning that trumpets 'Soul Pattison & Co' and 'Hardie & Gorman' is all gone gone gone. Soul Pattison is a pharmacy which is still in operation but not just there. Hardie & Gorman were auctioneers who no longer trade. However, they were instrumental in the sale of estates which converted Bondi into a residential suburb.
Once again, some of the iconic pub images from the '30s adorn the walls of the Tea Gardens Hotel, indicating that Bondi was a working man's suburb. Note the rugby league game is between the Eastern Suburbs Tricolours and the Newtown Blue-bags. Nowadays, the pub is the haunt of a myriad of backpackers from NZ, the UK and Ireland.
