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.

Greening of William Street

Looking east up William St from Hyde Park, 1890

The replications here are not spot on: mainly because I did not know I was going to treat them as a 'Then & Now'.

Firstly, with the shots I took yesterday, it is obvious that the Lord Mayor's plan to soften William Street is working a treat. There is a way to go before it is a 'boulevard', but I am liking what I see thus far.

As for the 1890 shot, it is from the National Library (oops), so I gather it to be accurate. Hard to believe it is the same street, do you agree? I might wander the street and do a feature on it. Both William and Oxford Streets are in the financial doldrums.

Looking west down William St from the top of the Cross, 2012

Looking east up William Street from Forbes St, 2012

For those who know Sydney, I think the photographer was standing close to the intersection of Park and College Streets, meaning that the forecourt of St Marys has that imposing house, and the tree-lined fence is around the Museum. I am researching for a series. Hang in there.

Then & Now - Bondi Junction

My grandmother, devastated by the death of her youngest son in a traffic accident in London, moved from her corner shop in suburban Hornsby to a semi-detached terrace in North Bondi in August 1956. Between then and her death, aged 88+, in April 1984, I spent many a summer holiday in and around the Bondi area. The changes, as you would expect over those ensueing 55 years, were massive.

Compare the first two photographs. On the right-hand-side in each photograph, one can just discern a trio of two storey terraces. Many of the shops retain the shame shell on the RHS but the LHS has been totally rebuilt. In my opinion, the entire mall is sad and faded, and just sooo full of ... of ... stuff!


In the good old days ... Hah!

Electric trams trundled through the main shopping strip of Bondi Junction from 1884, ceasing in 1960. Bondi Junction is up the hill from Bondi Beach. After the wilful destruction of the tramways system by a government lacking vision and unable to stand up to vested interests, a section of Oxford Street was converted into a mall and through traffic diverted to 'Sid Einfeld Drive' which is an elevated roadway a couple of blocks to the right (north) of the top photograph.

The two modern photographs were taken only a few metres apart the first looking west and the one with the buses, looking east . Rising in front of me to the east, was the massive bulk of the new Bondi Junction which is dominated by a Westfield shopping mall streteching out of photo to both the left and the right - into which I hesitate to venture because I so easily get lost and then I panic.

A golden oldie

Thursday evening at the very beginning of the homeward 'rush', commuters stride up the rise to Paddington Town Hall, built in the 1880s, the foundation stone bearing the proud name, Sir Henry Parkes. The clock tower was added in 1905. Within this building is my local library, and a cinema, Chauvel, which screens independent and foreign language films. The last film I saw there was 'Me and Orson Welles. We are looking east.


Looking west in 1960, back the way we just came,we see trams coming and going. Our current Paddington Reservoir Gardens was a delapidated service station. The creamy yellow is a much better shade for the Town Hall, don't you think?


A member of the Mellow Yellow Monday community.

Then & Now - Martin Place, the solemn end

Located, as it is, on a glistening harbour and founded, as it was, by convicts, Sydney is a fairly hedonistic place with a populace so laid back as to be nearly comatose. However, there is one section of this city that is solemn and takes my breath with every step.


Martin Place acquired its status in the 1880s when our civic fathers built the third version of the colony's General Post Office (GPO). Sir James Martin had been the State Premier three times and then became the Chief Justice. At that point Martin Place only had the 'solemn' end, the section from Pitt to Castlereagh being called Moore St (named after Sir Charles Moore, the Lord Mayor) and the section from Castlereagh to Macquarie still occupied by offices and tenements.

The solemn bit came with the installation of the Cenotaph on Anzac Day 1927. The road became a pedestrian plaza in 1971.

Darlinghurst - A wrinkle in the fabric of a city

Sydney is a city riddled with wrinkles. It is the ‘Benjamin Button’ of cities. Founded on the edge of a steep drowned valley, the topography is ‘wrinkle’ personified: ‘a small furrow, ridge or crease caused by crumpling, folding or shrinking.’ Sydney was born wrinkled and its inhabitants are doing their best to iron these out, to flatten them.


As you travel east from the city centre, it is all up hill and down dale, and onto these furrows and ridges and creases cling small, dishevelled suburbs that are a testament to man’s vision and perseverance. One such suburb is Darlinghurst, which sits atop the second ridge east of the town, wedged in by old cart tracks which are now eight lane highways.


Darlinghurst is a balagan, similar to Kings Cross but minus the sleaze and the criminal element. It is chaotic and messy, but with a warm welcoming embrace. The people hail from the furthest crevaces of the planet, encompassing all ages, all religions and all colours. Darlinghurst is a joy.



A member of the Theme Thursday community.

Then & Now - York Street

Last Friday afternoon, about 3 o'clock, I walked up Observatory Hill from The Writers' Festival down at Walsh Bay, on my way to a 4 o'clock session with Keating & Wessel at the City Recital Centre in Angel Place. Negotiating the pedestrian underpass at Kent Street, I sidled along the 1856 rebuild of Saint Phillips' and nipped across York Street to Church Hill.

I knew the view I wanted to replicate, and clung to a marooned traffic light as vehicles of all shapes and sizes whizzed off the bridge around my very ears! We are looking due south down the gunnels of the city to the Town Hall. The top photograph was taken in 1967. The TH is a spot in the distance, midway on the right is the AWA Tower, nowadays dwarfed. On the left is the Presbyterian Church of St Stephens, now mostly converted into very swish apartments.


Follow the yellow Hillsbus, as it wends its way down York Street.

The biggest difference, other than the sheer busyness of the modern scene? Yep, the greening of the city.

Pretty cool, huh?

Swinging along the running-board ...

This is a brilliant Australian picture book. I acknowledge Hathorn & Vivas as the owners of this creative work.


When I was eight years old, my grandmother - Sylvia - moved to Bondi. The memory of our holidays at her place ('up near the stink pipe in Blair Street') created within me an enduring passion for Sydney trams and for the trams of both the 380 and the 389 line, both of which terminated at North Bondi. Perfect!

As I write these lines, I can see and hear the conductor call for fares, snap open his ticket book, tear out the required stub and punch it with his doohickey in the corner of his 'book'.


When trams to Bondi ceased during 1960, the terminus remained as a bus turn-a-round and the salt spray and neglect took its toll. It is only in the last 5 years that this little pocket of Bondi is receiving the focus that it deserves. The latte set is moving on in.


This is a delightful book which I am hunting for to add to 'Ma's Chest' for my soon-to-be grand-daughter. I like the idea of connecting her to my past. The story reeks of the working-class during the depression, of uncomplicated people trying to get ahead. The illustrations are a delight and so perfectly complement the text.

So, does Kieran get to work alongside little-mister-tough Saxon? Can he cut it in the big time of swinging along the running-board selling newspapers to the commuters? I am on the look out for my own copy of this masterpiece.


And, yes, the Bondi trams did 'shoot through'. It was a busy run, and to get up the long drag from the beach up to the junction, they needed to be flat-tack. The last Bondi tram to "shoot through" was during the early hours of Sunday, February 28,1960. The R class corridor tram was crammed with last tram riders and had a boisterous journey. It left Bondi at 3.30 am and arrived at the Dowling Street depot minus most light globes, some handrails, all upholstered seat cushions, the lifting jack, a headlight glass and all destination rolls.


'The Tram to Bondi Beach', text by Libby Hawthorn, illustrations by Julie Vivas, published by Harper-Collins in 1992.

Find it. Buy it. Read it. Treaure it. It is the history of this wonderful city.

Then & Now - Oxford St, Darlinghurst

This is the block of Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, between Taylor Square and Darlinghurst Road. The comparison is between 2010 and 1960 as the last trams were trundling through our city. Fifty years of change. But some things remain identifiably similar.


Take your bearings from the raised bill-board and the building on which it is perched with that small rounded turret.

Whenever I make these direct comparisons, I am always delighted with the greening of our city over this time span.

The Womens' Weekly is still published, but it comes out monthly.

Then & Now - Broadway

Looking east along Broadway toward Railway Square, January 2010

Some of the modern range of billboards have humour but little wit. The yellow and red billboard on the right screams "Read me aloud".

Looking east along Broadway in 1910. Note the horse and cart and the sulky.

The main street of Sydney, George Street, was formerly known as High Street but renamed by Governor Macquarie in 1810. It is 3.5 kms in length, snaking from The Rocks way up to Central Station where it executes a 90 degree turn before heading west.

At Railway Square, the dramatic west turn, a turnpike was installed in 1811 (see extracting tolls for travelling isn't just the quirk of modern NSW politicians!) that levied travellers to raise funds to maintain the hazardous road to Parramatta.

Left: The marker authorised by Governor Bourke to indicate the western extremity of the city in 1837 which now stands on the corner of Glebe Point Road Right: the marker commemorating the widening of Parramatta Road in 1911 which stands beside the Footbridge to Sydney University

In 1815, after further major overhauls, the road was widened with the turnpike eventually moved to Grose Farm in 1836 (the site for the location of Sydney University in 1850). The western boundary of the city was declared at the corner of Glebe Point Road and Parramatta Road during the governorship of Richard Bourke (1831 – 1837).

A zoom down Broadway as it is today

Sometime between 1906 (when Central Railway station was built in its current form) and 1911 (after the 1908-09 Royal Commission on the Improvement of Sydney) many streets in Sydney were widened and entire strips of houses flattened in the process.

The short strip of roadway between Railway Square and City Road was flattened and widened being renamed “The Broadway” in 1911 and thereafter referred to as Broadway. It is 1km in length. At the same time, Parramatta Road was yet again widened. All turnpikes in this part of the city were long gone.

I am sampling the joys of Melbourne - including a day at the tennis. I will be back at my desk on Thursday 28th January.

Then & Now - Trams in Darlinghurst

A tram heading into the city from Bondi, turning from Burton Street into Bourke Street with the Caritas Mental Hospital behind.

Dating this photograph simply involved tracing when “Diamond Horseshoes” was showing at the old Tivoli Theatre in George St, City. “Diamond Horseshoes” played at the Tiv throughout 1959. It was preceded in December 1958 by a season from Winifred Atwell, and followed, in October 1959, by the “Pleasures of Paris”. I can call it the “Tiv” because I have been regaled since childhood of tales from my father’s mad dashes down there each time a new show headlined in the ‘30s, especially if it was Roy Rene and his alter ego Mo McCackie.

Ah, 1959, those were the days. I was 11 years of age, living in the country, learning how to shear sheep rather than chat up boyz. Being an egg-head (aka a geek), I knew that “Martello Towers” won the Australian Derby in Easter of that year at Royal Randwick; I knew that the mighty red’n’whites, St George, won their 6th straight Rugby League premiership by trouncing Manly by 20-0 in the Grand Final in September. Even worse, I knew that Bob Heffron succeeded J.J. Cahill as the Premier of NSW and that Harry Jensen was the Lord Mayor of Sydney. Facts matter to an eleven year old!

Note how the wall that held the Tivoli advert is now converted to apartments with windows

This tram route stopped in 1960. The 389 bus route still follows much of the old tram route from Elizabeth Street to the North Bondi terminus. However, there is still evidence of trams along the way: exposed track, sidings cut back to allow trams a more gradual climb up a hill, the Cutler Footway behind St Vincent’s Hospital, a tram siding near Gurner Street , and many rounded corners to enable trams easier passage round corners.

What a difference 50 years makes!

NB: I know the old photo is time-stamped 4:57pm. But the shadows put the lie to this. That tram is heading west into the city, yet the shadows are being cast by a rising sun.

A 389 bus turning from Bourke St into Burton St, Darlinghurst with the Caritas Mental Hospital diagonally ahead

Part of the Sundays in my City community.