I built my house of bricks, 'cause straw and twigs don't last

I thought, perhaps, that the tale of "The Three Little Pigs" was devised by a brick-making family of yore, out to plead the case for their favoured building material. Whichever, I cannot see these towers of steel, and concrete, and glass lasting anywhere near as long as the buildings erected from sandstone.

The first image shows the third St Phillip's church down on York Street (Church Hill) which was erected in 1856. It replaced the second St Phillips, just a little further down the hill, which was regarded as "the ugliest church in all christendom", which had been erected in 1804. The middle image, shows St James Church on Macquarie Street, which was constructed between 1820 and 1824, initially under the stewardship of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Both these churches are of the Anglican (Church of England/Episcopalian) persuasion. The third image shows the C. W. Foley building down on Erskine Street which was constructed in 1899, just before the 1901 demolitions in that very area, which attempted to rid Sydney Town of poor people who it was easy to blame for the plague.

The Foley Building nestles into the glass ediface of the corporate head office of Westpac Bank (formerly the Bank of New South Wales). This entire city block was "rejigged" by Westpac during the 2000s, some old stuff being retained, and other "stuff" getting the heave-ho. With the current construction of the Barangaroo complex and its adjoining Wynyard Walk, another facelift is occurring. Over the next little while, I will try to unpack this down-at-heel part of my city.

Street walkers < 24/7

Looking south at the corner of York Street amd Barrack Streets in the CBD.

A member of the Walk in the Street community.

Oh for a lane, an alley, a row

This is the sort of streetscape that sets my curiosity afire. I don't give you tuppence for the gloss of the Pitt Street Mall, with its concrete and glass and designer stores, tickling brass farthings. Give me an alley, with a rusty fire-escape draped with potato sacks anytime.

Off-cool

And yet, some of York Street can be acceptable, if you know where to look, and squint just the right way. You see, York St is off - I cannot say 'off Broadway' because we actually DO have a Broadway, and unfortunately, York St is nowhere near Broadway. I think it boils down to, York St being 'off-cool'. Our main street is George Street, and York is one to the west of that. How last-year can a street get!

Man in phone booth

This is a study in depth. There is a tree. Behind that is a facade. Within the facade are the internal lights. Imprinted on that is the reflection of the building across the road, in front of which I am standing.

Cities can be glamorous places. But much of a city is simply tawdry. York Street borders on tawdry on occasion.

Grey, but not bleak

Lincraft is just on this corner, and I was looking for squares of felt to use as grass, and mud, and a pond, and stuff to go with the village through which our wooden train set runs. It was spitting a smidge, but the people scurrying back to their burrows after lunch were not overly worried. I am looking south, down York Street towards the Sydney Town Hall. On my left is the Queen Victoria Building. Back over my right shoulder, out of sight, is forever imprinted on my psyche as the corner of York'n'Market'n'Clarence where my father started work in 1936 as a 15 year old, on the 4th Floor in the haberdashery firm, D&W Murray. He used to pack suitcases for the travelling-salesmen who did set routes through the country areas of the state.

The penal colony at the end of the earth!

Taken from the lookout at the top of the South-eastern pylon of the harbour bridge in the middle of winter with the temperature at a very mild 19C. This is looking south, on the right is the Bradfield Highway which is the road across the bridge. This highway segues into York Street which runs all the way down to the Town Hall.

Then we meandered around Circular Quay to the Opera House and had a couple of wines as we watched the sun set behind the very pylon we had looked out from two hours earlier. The lookout is that little bit right at the very top of the pylon.

Magic!

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?

Art-deco (2) - The Grace Hotel

Situated on the corner of York, King and Clarence Streets this was a "folly" by the Brothers Grace who gambled that the advent of the Sydney Harbour bridge would see a slight shift in the location of retail trading in the city. There had been much horse-trading in the corridors of power re the location of City Circle underground train stations with the Mark Foy family supporting the Museum location and the Lloyd Jones family supporting the St James location. Grace Brothers opened their new York Street store in July 1930. The entire ground floor was given over to retail.


Based on the design features of the Chicago Tribune building, the Grace Building was one of the first in Sydney to be clad in glazed terra cotta and marked the high point of the Commercial Gothic style, the immediate precursor of art-deco. Within the Gothic style, there are extensive art-deco elements.

The building has a distinct vertical emphasis with a Gothic corner tower, with flying buttresses, pointed windows and quatrefoils, with details picked out in green. It was designed by the architectural firm of Morrow & Gordon and constructed by Kell & Rigby. The building was extensively refurbished in 1995 and opened as The Grace Hotel in 1997. Although of immense beauty, the exterior of the building (up high) shows much chipping and damage to the tiling.