History of convict colonial settlement from the beginnings of the First Fleet in 1788, and other significant parts of Old Sydney Town's heritage.
Sydney keeps knocking itself down. This scrapbook is the retail and arcade wound — not another Domain palace essay — the covered walks between George and Pitt where you once bought a hat, a bolt of cloth and a theatre ticket without getting wet. The photographs name the losses: Hordern’s Palace Emporium, the Royal and Imperial Arcades, Farmer’s, Snow’s, Hoffnung’s, the first David Jones shop, Parkes’ fancy-goods counter, the Woolloomooloo Fish Markets. Part 2 on this blog is the same roll-call in words; this page is the picture desk.
The building everyone still argues about is Anthony Hordern & Sons. From Ann Hordern’s 1823 drapery grew the New Palace Emporium at Brickfield Hill (George, Pitt and Goulburn), opened 1905–06 after the 1901 fire and demolished in 1986–87 for World Square — a sandstone city in a building replaced by a hole that sat empty for years. The arcades are the other death: Thomas Rowes Royal Arcade (1881–82) fell in 1969 with Tattersall’s for the first Hilton; the Imperial (opened 1891) lost its Victorian fabric in 1961. Of the Victorian five, the Strand is the one still standing.
Don’t flatten every name into Hordern’s dates. David Jones opened at 19 George Street on 24 May 1838 an origin story, not today’s Market Street store. Farmer’s became Myer / Grace Bros and was rebuilt more than erased. Caption the live plates from what they show; send readers to Part 2 for the longer name-list essay.
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| 001 Anthony Hordern’s Palace Emporium | 057 Anthony Horderns Palace Warehouse | 129 former Horderns Emporium/ Barlow st |
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| 009 Royal Arcade | 012 Sydney Arcade | 044 David Jones' First Shop, George St. |
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| 045 Henry Parkes' Shop, Hunter St. | 070 Murdoch's department store | 071 Victoria Arcade |
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| 087 Imperial Arcade | 104 Farmers Store Cnr Market/Pitt Sts | 090. Snows drapery store |
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| 110 Farmer's Victoria House Pitt Street | 111 S Hoffnung and Co premises 165-169 Pitt St. | 123 Woolloomooloo Fish Markets |
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| 161 Market Square Anthony Horderns Palace Emporium Royal Arcade Sydney Arcade David Jonea First Shop Henry Parkes shop Murdoch Department Store Victoria Arcade Imperial Arcade Farmers Store Snows Drapery Huffing And Co Stpre Farmer Victoria Hpuse Woolloomooloo Fish Markets Market Square |