Thursday, February 25, 2016

Frog Hollow - Albion St & Riley St - Surry Hills

Frog Hollow - Cnr Of Albion Street & Riley Street - Surry Hills

Frog Hollow, at Albion and Riley Streets in Surry Hills, was long written up in Sydney newspapers as a dense lane-and-terrace pocket and later as a target for slum clearance. Contemporary photographs of the corner sit alongside digitised cuttings from the Australian Star, Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Telegraph and other papers. This post gathers those Frog Hollow images and press clippings.

Boy Has This Place Changed, Even Since I Was Young. This Is Where I Spent My First Christmas Alone After I ran Away From Boarding School In 1993.

I Was 15, It Was Christmas Eve & Both My Parents Had Bombed Themselves Out On Sleepers, Valiums, Rohypnols....

Whatever....

Needless To Say They Slept Right Through Till Boxing Day Night...

So There I Am In The Old Frog Hollow....

& It Was Really Quite Scary... I Met This Aboriginal Girl Who Lived In A Tent Like Thing In The Corner Of The Park Section...

For The Life Of Me I Can't Remember Her Name...

But She Was Homeless & I Remember She Took Me Under Her Wing That Night & We Got Drunk On Passion Pop.

She Took Me Right Around Kings Cross. I Got To Meet A Lot Of Working Girls & Other Homeless People..

I Remember Arriving Back To Queens Park Hilton About Lunchtime On Christmas Day Exhausted & Hungover. & That Was My Christmas 1992

Frog Hollow, corner of Albion Street and Riley Street, Surry Hills — opening site photograph.

Frog Hollow / Albion Street & Riley Street, Surry Hills — historic or contemporary site view (filename not descriptive).

Press clipping: A Clever Capture — Australian Star — Wed 21 Nov 1888, p. 8 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Alleged Disorderly House — Australian Star — Tues 9 Sept 1890, p. 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Abolition of Slums — Sydney Morning Herald — Wed 12 Sept 1923 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: All Fine Sports — Daily Telegraph — Thurs 16 Aug 1928, p. 5 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Back Alleys Night Tours — Sydney Morning Herald — Fri 7 Jul 1933, p. 11 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Back Alleys Night Tours — Sydney Morning Herald — Fri 7 Jul 1933, p. 11 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Back Alleys Night Tours — Sydney Morning Herald — Fri 7 Jul 1933, p. 11 — clipping part 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: City Slums — Daily Telegraph — Thurs 20 Jul 1922, p. 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Eject FH Residents — Northern Standard — Tues 12 Mar 1940, p. 4 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Eject FH Residents — Northern Standard — Tues 12 Mar 1940, p. 4 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Fall From Balcony — Daily Mercury — Mon 6 Aug 1923, p. 6 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: FH — Early Days — The Sun — Thurs 13 Sept 1923, p. 10 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: FH — Early Days — The Sun — Thurs 13 Sept 1923, p. 10 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: FH — Early Days — The Sun — Thurs 13 Sept 1923, p. 10 — clipping part 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Frog Hollow Again — Evening Star — Sat 7 Feb 1891, p. 6 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Houses Upon Houses — Sun — Thurs 13 Sept 1923, p. 10 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Insult to Workers — Labor Daily — Wed 13 Sept 1933, p. 6 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Lost His Job — Sun — Wed 27 Jul 1949, p. 5 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Moving Pic Show — Sun — Wed 25 Apr 1934, p. 6 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Moving Pic Show — Sun — Wed 25 Apr 1934, p. 6 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Moving Pic Show — Sun — Wed 25 Apr 1934, p. 6 — clipping part 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Moving Pic Show — Sun — Wed 25 Apr 1934, p. 6 — clipping part 4 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Moving Pic Show — Sun — Wed 25 Apr 1934, p. 6 — clipping part 5 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Plea FH Residents — Gosford Times — Thurs 8 Nov 1923, p. 12 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Plea FH Residents — Gosford Times — Thurs 8 Nov 1923, p. 12 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Plea FH Residents — Gosford Times — Thurs 8 Nov 1923, p. 12 — clipping part 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 1 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 2 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 3 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 4 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 5 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Press clipping: Syd Slum Must Go — Times — Sun 25 Jan 1920, p. 5 — clipping part 6 — Frog Hollow / Surry Hills history.

Refloating HMS Endeavour off a Coral Reef – 1770

Just before midnight on 11 June 1770, HMB Endeavour — Lieutenant James Cook in command — struck coral on what we now call Endeavour Reef, off the coast near modern Cooktown. She was surveying the east coast after leaving Botany Bay and Port Jackson behind. Not a Sydney story; a Great Barrier Reef one. The crew lightened ship — stores, ballast, and six carriage guns went overboard — and got her off on the rising tide around 12 June.

They nursed the leaky bark north and into the mouth of the river Cook named the Endeavour River, on Guugu Yimithirr country. There she was careened and patched for weeks before sailing on toward Torres Strait. The reef grounding is the near-miss; the river camp is the repair. Cannons recovered from the reef in 1969–70 now sit in museums — including a Darling Harbour thread at the Australian National Maritime Museum — a Sydney cross-link without pretending the grounding happened off South Head.

The First Fleet Women Come ashore - 6th Feb 1788

The first fleet women come ashore

On Wednesday 6th Feb 1788, The Women Were Brought Ashore From Their Transport Ships.....

"At 5 O'clock In The Morning, All Things Were Got In Order For Landing The Whole Of The Women, And 3 Of The Ships Longboats Came Alongsude Us To Receive Them; Prevoous To Their Quitting

The Ship, A Strict Search Was Made To Try If Any Of The Many Things Which They Had Stolen On Board Could Be Found, But Their Artiface Eluded The Most Strict Search, And At 6 O'clock, We Had The Long Wished Pleasure Of Seeing The Last Of Them Leave The Ship. they Were Dressed In General Very Clean, & Some Few Amongst Them Might Be Said To Be Well Dressed. The Men Convicts Got To Them Very Soon After They Landed, & It Is Beyond My Abilities To Give A Just Description If The Scene Of Debauchery

Some of the First Fleet journals and letters do not even mention this little ceremony, there were only a few officers and men involved. There appear to have been no convicts on shore for this ceremony, or if they were, they didn’t rate a mention. A number of the officers were also not present nor mentioned it in their journals. Those who were not on shore or who did not mention this incident include: Worgan, White, Tench, Collins, Blackburn, Bradley and Clarke.
This could indicate, to the participants, this was nothing more than a thanksgiving for their safe arrival. None of the reporters give the incident much importance, unlike the reading of Phillip's Commission on 7 February 1788. Some of the male able-bodied convicts were disembarked the next day, 27 January, and the remainder over the next few days. None of the female convicts were allowed off the ships until 6 February 1788, when the sick were also landed and admitted to the tent hospital.
Therefore, in reality, on 26 January 1788 the only event was the anchoring of the ships of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove, the running up of a flag and a toast to the King and success of the colony.
The official ceremony occurred on the 7 February 1788.
Phillip:
"The 7th of February, 1788, was the memorable day which
established a regular form of Government on the coast of New South
Wales. On a space previously cleared, the whole colony was
assembled; the military drawn up, and under arms; the convicts
stationed apart; and near the person of the Governor, those who
were to hold the principal offices under him. The Royal Commission
was then read by Mr. D. Collins, the Judge Advocate. By this
instrument Arthur Phillip was constituted and appointed Captain
General and Governor in Chief in and over the territory, called

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Bradfield - The Harbour Bridge - The Trains - Water - irrigating The Continant

bradfiendl

The Harbour bridge

the Sydney Train System

Sydney has A Number Of Little Known railway Tunnels. The Oldest one Was built Under george Street in 1855 From The Sydney Railway Yard to Darling Harbour. A Gap At Broadway Let the Smoke From The Steam Trains Escape. The Tunnel Is Still in Use ((Not Sure What It is in Use For ))

Another Old Tunnel runs underneath Jubilee park At Glebve. It Forms Part Of The Metropolitan goods line Which Runs From Darling Harbour to Cantebury. The Line Was Started in 1855 & Finished In 1917. The Line Is Only Used For Goods And As No Passengers Travel on It, Few People outside The Railways Knows Of Its Existence.

However the Line Was Known To Thousands of American Troops Whio Labnded At Rozelle Bay Firing The Scond Woprld War,. A Monument In the Rozelle Mar5shalling Yards In A Reminder Of Those Days

A Number Of Unused Tunnels Were Built in The 1920's As Part Of the Dr J. j. c. Bradfield Scheme For Sydneys Transport. They Include tunnels Near Wynyard Station Which WEere Used For Many Years By Trams. They Are now Used As A Carpark Under the Menzies hotel .

Short tunnels Constructed in the 1920's Around Town Hall Were Built In Case trhe Railways System Was Extended At Some Point in The Future`

Water

Bibliography

Bibliography

The Queen Victoria Building - A Sketch Portrait - Allan Gamble.
First Published 1988
ISBN 0 947131 12 4

The Copming Of The British To Australia - 1788 - 1829- By Ida Lee ( Mrs Charles Bruce Marriott)
First Published 1906

Last Stop To Nowhere - the Australian history You Never Learnt At School

Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash - Published 14 Feb 2002
ISBN - 0-575-07024-2

Arthur Phillips Commission - Opened At Circular Quay 6th Feb 1788 - Instructions And Setup of A British Colony Making Arthur Phillip Commander In Chief

Governor Phillips instruction - From the british Parkliament - 25th April 1787

Captain Cooks Secret instructions Frmo King George III 1770

Queen Victoria's instructions to governor General - 29th October 1900

Order In Council Ending Convict Transportation - 22nd May 1840

New South Wales Courts Sct - 1787 - Enabling Judiciary

University Of Sydney Act 1850

An Act For The Better Government Of Her Majesty's Australian Colonies - 16th July 1855

Sydney in 1848 - by Joseph Fowles - Illustreated By copper Plate Engravings - Principal Streets, public buildings, Churches, Chapels

History of New South Wales From The Records - VOLUME 1 - Governor Phillip - 1783 - 1789

Manly - First Fleet Records - 1788 - 1790

Hstorical contect Of The Conservation Of The Conservatorium of Music Site Which Was the Governemtn Horse Stables

The Founding Of Australia - First Fleet & convict Notes

Serenade To Sydney

This Fabulous Century

Rum, Rebels And Ratbags

the Dirt On the Rocks - www.dirtontherocks.com
- the Rocks Pol\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The Sydney Train SWystem - As Designed by Bradfield

The Bradfield Scheme - Watering Inland Australia

Nationasl Trust Register Listing Report - Circular Quay Railway Station -

National trust Register - The Conservatorium Of Music

Queen Victoria - Diamond Jubilee - 1898

Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee sixty years on the throne — was celebrated across the Empire on 22 June 1897, not in 1898. The live slug is almost certainly confusing the jubilee with Sydney’s municipal thank-you gift: the Queen Victoria Markets Building, which Council resolved in 1897 to name for her unprecedented reign, and which Mayor Matthew Harris opened on 21 July 1898. George McRae’s Romanesque pile on George Street is the lasting Sydney monument to that jubilee; the calendar date of the jubilee itself is 1897.

Treat this post as two linked facts: empire party June 1897, QVB doors July 1898. Don’t invent a second Diamond Jubilee in 1898. Golden Jubilee 1887 is the earlier sibling post on this blog — keep the fifty- and sixty-year marks in separate drawers.

Queen Victoria – Golden Jubilee – 1887

20–21 June 1887 marked fifty years since Victoria took the throne (20 June 1837). London threw the pageant; Sydney kept empire time. The town treated the Jubilee as a public holiday pair — illuminations, loyal addresses, sports, school marches, and a flood of commemorative medals. At the Sydney Mint, Jubilee-head sovereigns and half-sovereigns began striking on 18 June 1887, with the Governor and Lady Carrington present for the first piece (Sydney Morning Herald, 23 June 1887).

This is not the 1897 Diamond Jubilee, and it is not the excuse for the Queen Victoria Building (that naming belongs to the later jubilee). Keep 1887 as golden — processions and coin dies — and leave the Market Street Romanesque pile for 1897–98.

Description Of Sydney New South Wales

Sydney, The Capital Of New South Wales & The Metropolis Of Australiasia, Is Siutated On The Suthern Shore Of Port Jackson, At A Distance Of 7 Miles From The Pacific Ocean,

In Latitude 33 Degres 55 Minutes South

And Longtitude 151 Degrees 25 Minutes East

It Is Built At The Head Of The Far Farmed "Cove", & With Darling Harbour As It's General Boundary To The West, extends In An Unbroken Succession Of Houses For More Than 2 Miles In A Southerly Direction.

As A Maritime City It Is Unrivalled. Possessing At Least 3 Miles Of Water Frontage, At Any Part Of Vessels With The Heaviest Burden Can Safely Approach The Wharves. The Ground Is Mainly Sandstone

Nelson Head Inner Lighthouse – Nelson Bay – NSW

This is not a Sydney Harbour light — it is the Nelson Head Inner Light at Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, the harbour guide that told vessels they had found the southern shore entrance. Soften the live wreck-count if you cannot cite a register; what is solid is the light itself.

A temporary wooden tower with kerosene lamps went up in 1872 (the Gazette promised a harbour light from 1 April 1872, visible some eight to ten miles in clear weather). The present cottage followed about 1875, and the light was first shown from it in 1876 — not from a tall tower, but through the lantern room of the keepers’ house, which is why the place still looks more like a yellow cottage than a postcard lighthouse. Fourteen successive keepers lived here before automation (1984); the light was shut down as unnecessary in 2003. The house is now a small maritime museum under Marine Rescue care.

Fix the title spelling (Lighthouse), keep the Port Stephens frame clear, and leave Chinese-fishing and early-wreck colour soft unless you are quoting a named source beside the photo.

Nelson Head Inner Lighthouse

Begore The First Permanant Inner Light Was Erected In 1872, There Were At Least 11 Shipwrecks Resulting In The Loss Of 37 Lives. The Wrecks Date Back To The "Cumberland:" I 1797.

The Government Gazette Of 1872 Promulgated Tat "From The 1st Apri 1872, A Harbour Light Will Be Exhibited On Nelson Head, Visible To A Distanver Of 8 To 10 Miles In Clear Weather... To Be A Guide To Vessels Coming To Nelson Bay."

The Light Was Mounted At Nelson Head On A Post, And Was The First Recorded Beacon Light In the Bay. It Is Possible That Other Navigational Markers Were Used Before 1872

Chinese Fisherman Were Reported To be Using The Bay As Early As 1800 Or Earlier.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Argyle Cut - Argyle Street-Millers Point

THE ARGYLE CUT - THE ROCKS

Do you go cut is a striking example of conflict public works. It was a colonial effort to overcome a challenging landscape, providing a more level crossing between the rocks and Millers point.

In 1843, convict labour was deployed to cut the roadway through the rocky peninsula. It was completed in 1959 with the use of explosives and council labour. Bridges over the cup were completed later.

The Uncle cup was also taken in the 1920s with the construction of the approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Argyle Cut is A striking example of convict Public works. It was a Colonial effort to overcome a challenging Landscape, providing a more level crossing between The Rocks & Millers Point,

In 1843, convict labour was deployed to cut the roadway through the rocky peninsula. It was completed in 1859 with the use of explosives

Whenever I Happen To Pass The ARGYLE CUT I Always Think What An Amazing Piece Of Work It Is. Can You Imagine The Hundreds Of Comvicts All Chained Together In Chain Gangs. With Nothing More Than Blunt Picks Hitting The Sandstone.

Walking Through The Cut You Just Can't Imagine Gravity Of Human Labour to Cut This Straight Out Of The Rock.

Also Hard To Imagine The Bits Of Broken Sandstone Being Either Carried By Hand Or Using A Wheelbarrow Style Tool...

Down To The Coastal Estuary Called Circular Quay And Tipped Into The Tidal Flat. The Reclaimed Land Has Added About 50 Metres To The Quay, And the Semi Circular Walls Were Built.

When You See The Sandstone Sea Wall That Goes Right Around The Working Harbour From Millers Point, Dawes Point To Circular Quay And What Would Have Been Fort Macqaurie.

"This Square Forms A Part Of An Area Of Old Sydney Called The Rocks, Once Famous As A Residential District And A Notorius Haunt Of Sailors. Argyle Street Was Named By governor Macquarie In 1810 After His Native Country.

In The Cut Itself - High On The Wall There Is ThisNotice

" Chas Moore -Mayor- 1867 - 1868

Above This Spot A Bridge Known AsThe Princes Street Bridge Spanned The Original Argyle Cut. As A Memorial Of The Bridge, The Above Stone, Which Formed Part Of It, Is Placed Where The Shadow Of The Bridge

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Royal Victoria Theatre

Sydney’s first large purpose-built theatre sat on the western side of Pitt Street between King and Market — Joseph Wyatt’s Royal Victoria, opened 26 March 1838 with a hotel in the front section. Locals called it the Victoria or the “Old Vic.” Architect Henry Robertson gave it a Georgian street front and a Regency auditorium seating about 1,900 (a deep pit under the dress circle, novel here), and Shakespeare’s Othello opened the house. Gas lighting followed in 1841.

For more than forty years it was a leading stage for drama, opera, pantomime, minstrelsy and touring stars — George Coppin’s Australian debut among them in 1843. Joseph Fowles’s Sydney in 1848 plates still show the Pitt Street elevation. On 22 July 1880 the uninsured theatre burned; the fire also took Hardie and Mitchell’s steam mill behind, and collapsing walls killed three men. It was not rebuilt.

Later the Pitt Street site cycled through auction rooms, cinema and retail. This post is site-and-memory history — the theatre itself is gone.

Joseph Fowles’s 1848 Sydney views document the city’s buildings and streetscapes, while this image records the interior of the Royal Victoria Theatre. The theatre was one of Sydney’s early performance venues, and the engraving preserves its galleries, boxes and decorated auditorium.

Pitt Street – 1848 – Joseph Fowles – Sydney

Pitt Street in 1848 was already the shopfront spine of colonial Sydney — the street you walked when you meant business, theatre, or a new hat. Joseph Fowles (18101878) drew it in copper plate for Sydney in 1848, the twenty-part elevation book that tried to shut English mouths about a “bush capital.” He wanted gas-lit streets and sumptuous shops on the page; Pitt Street obliged.

The Pitt Street plates run the commercial blocks: Hunter to King, King to Market (with the Royal Victoria Theatre among the fronts), Market to Park — eastern side left-to-right, western side the reverse, letterpress names under the windows. Printed by D. Wall in York Street and sold from Fowles’s Harrington Street address, they are measured street walls, not picturesque sketches. Facsimiles and the Gutenberg text are how most of us meet them now; the Mitchell still holds original parts.

This post is one street from that project, not the whole Fowles hub. For the book’s purpose note, dedication to Governor FitzRoy, and the index of other elevations (George, Bridge, King, Hunter…), see the longer Sydney in 1848 essay on this blog. Keep the live plate; treat captions as a walk down the 1848 shopfronts.

Joseph Fowles – Pitt and Hunter streets, Sydney — Joseph Fowles Pitt and Hunter streets from his Sydney views. Wikimedia Commons / check file page for exact licence and date.

Pitt Street formed a central part of Sydney’s commercial district in the nineteenth century. Joseph Fowles’s 1848 illustrations record the buildings and businesses lining the street before later redevelopment changed the city centre. These elevations provide a valuable snapshot of colonial Sydney.

This 1848 view of Pitt Street, Sydney, is associated with Joseph Fowles and records the buildings lining the street in the colonial-era city. The illustrated elevations offer a detailed glimpse of Sydney’s commercial centre.

King Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

King Street is where Fowles admits Sydney has a centre. In Sydney in 1848 the street "running from east to west, from the Government Domain to the shores of Darling Harbour, completely intersects the City." Plate 26A is the shop frontage, George to Pitt and Pitt to Castlereagh, both sides - "a line of thriving shops." That is the live stub. The letterpress then turns left, up King Street East, and the public buildings arrive: St James' on the right, the Supreme Court beside it, Hyde Park Barracks in front of you. Brick, unornamented, "an imposing and dignified whole."

St James' is the building to name. Foundation 7 October 1819, Francis Greenway for Macquarie, the spire "a conspicuous object from every part of the City." Fowles has it seating 1,500 after a gallery refit, with Robert Allwood as incumbent. It is not the oldest church and not yet the cathedral; it is the fashionable one, next to Government House, where Broughton had been installed Bishop of Australia in 1836. The convict barracks across the park are still in the picture as a government pile. The theatre crowd is one block south on Pitt - the Royal Victoria, opened 1838 - which Fowles gives its own plate.

So the elevation is shops; the chapter is a cross. George and King as the four-way heart, Church of England and the courts up the hill, harbour down the other way. Believe the buildings first.

George Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

This is the stretch of George Street Fowles was proudest of — the bit facing the eastern wall of the old Barrack Square, from Hunter Street down to the Post Office. Plate 22A in Sydney in 1848 is his fifth descriptive engraving: wealthy tradesmen’s stores, land at £20 a foot, and that blank barrack wall on the west that still interrupted the street like a military fence through the middle of town. Head-quarters had already moved out to Darlinghurst; Fowles hoped the straggling barracks would soon be replaced by “elegant and useful edifices” and proper cross streets. Wynyard was waiting to happen.

On the east side he names the things that made the strip feel finished: Skinner’s Tavern on the angle, the Australian General Insurance office, the massive stone Bank of New South Wales the colonial bank, founded in 1817 — and the Atlas newspaper office under Welch. A short walk south and you hit the Post Office portico: six Doric columns, royal arms by Mr Abraham in the tympanum, with the full rebuild still only a promise. Plate 24A is that building on its own; this street plate is the approach. Don’t flatten it with the Lower George or Bridge Street plates. This is the 1848 retail peak, not the wharf end.

Fowles’s point, as always, is argument. England thought Sydney was still a bark camp. Here he gives you Regent Street manners, gaslight shops, and a blank wall that proves how fast the town had grown around its own garrison.

George Street & Hunter Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Hunter Street meets George at a right angle on a gentle climb, and Fowles's Plate 20A is that corner in 1848: George Street continued south from Jamison Street to Hunter, then both sides of Hunter from George to Pitt. He is almost rude about it. The locality "has long been built upon" and "contains, however, little deserving notice, except perhaps the quondam Bank of Australia" - founded 1826, closed as a bank in February 1843. Ruin is a fact, not a metaphor. On the south side, Regent's Terrace and the rest of the houses are, he says, not eight years old. Behind Mr Solomon's stores is the site of the Pavilion Theatre, "the ephemeral existence of which is now well nigh forgotten."

Around the corner in Charlotte Place, in the same chapter, St Patrick's has just gone up: foundation 25 August 1840, dedicated 18 March 1844, Decorated Gothic in dressed stone. That is the Catholic Church Hill companion to St Philip's, and it belongs to this plate's neighbourhood even if the elevation is the George/Hunter frontage. The old Bank of Australia building is the ghost on the street; St Patrick's is the new stone on the hill.

Don't file this as a generic "early commercial heart" paragraph. The commercial heart Fowles is showing off is further south, at the Post Office and the Barrack wall. This corner is the older town still turning over: a failed bank, a forgotten theatre, new terrace houses, and a Gothic church not yet five years dedicated.

Lower George Street – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Lower George Street is where Sydney still looked like a seaport in 1848. Joseph Fowles drew both sides from Queen’s Wharf up to Essex Street — Plate 16A in Sydney in 1848 — and then told you what you were seeing: a tight, stone-built maritime strip, “a strong resemblance to part of a maritime town in England,” swarming on the shipping. This is the oldest end of George Street, the slope the First Fleet actually built on, with Gaol Hill still in the memory of the plate even when the elevation is mostly shops and hotels.

Fowles points at the working names. Dawson’s foundry, established in 1833, with a homemade steam engine and a reputation for heavy castings. Opposite the Australian Hotel, F. Mitchell’s marine store, the house behind it built by a Mr Redman and called the oldest in this stretch. Mr Holmes’s shop standing on the old Sydney Gazette office, the colony’s first newspaper, already long defunct when Fowles went to press. The live stub says “site of the old gaol”; keep that, and keep the foundry, because this is not generic George Street. It is the Rocks-end, the wharf-end, the bit that still smelled of iron and tar.

The book is copper-plate street elevations, issued in twenty parts from 1848, printed in York Street and published from Harrington Street. Fowles was not writing an almanac of the whole colony. He was arguing with England: look, gaslight, shops, a city. Lower George is his proof that the first street had grown up without quite becoming respectable.

George Street & Bridge Street – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Bridge Street is the street that remembers the creek. It runs east from George Street toward Macquarie Place because that is where the Tank Stream was bridged, and the colony needed a way from the western camps to the governor's side. Fowles's Plate 12A in Sydney in 1848 draws both sides of Bridge Street, George to Pitt, and the George Street frontage from Essex Lane down past the Herald office to the corner. The live boiler calls it shops and hotels. The letterpress is more useful: this is Underwood's ground.

James Underwood's grant ran from George Street to the water. On it he built the first colonial ship, the King George, launched 19 April 1805. By 1848 the street wall is Underwood's Buildings, from the old Bank of Australia to the Sydney Morning Herald office. Fowles gives you the Herald: founded 1831, daily from October 1840, "the Times of Australia." Between the Herald and Bridge Street had been the garden of the Female Orphan School. The south side of Bridge Street is "the Colonnade." He thinks the street is still unfinished. He is right; the Lands office and the Chief Secretary still lie ahead.

Do not turn this plate into a Tank Stream biography or a Lands Department essay. Those posts exist. This is the 1848 corner: gaol hill to the north, orphan-school garden just gone, shipyard memory under the shops, and a creek still dictating the street name.

George Street and Charlotte Place – Sydney – 1848 – Joseph Fowles

Charlotte Place is the name that throws people. On Fowles’s first street plate — Plate 10A, Sydney in 1848 — it is the short east–west street running from George Street up to Church Hill, drawn on both sides, with George Street itself shown from Lyons’ Mart to Jamison Street. The parade-ground origin is the fact to hold: Charlotte Place began as the military Parade Ground; the guard house sat where Fowles says Mr Cleeve’s house stood in 1848. The street was later renamed Grosvenor Street. If you walk it today you are on the same alignment, under a different saint’s name.

Up the hill is St Philip’s, the parish church Fowles cannot leave alone — clock tower first, church in use from August 1809, a new church already starting behind it. Across the George Street frontage he wants you to notice the Bank of Australasia (royal charter 1835) and Mr Lyons’ Auction Mart. Behind, until 1828, a garden ran to the hill; on the Tank Stream side the Lumber Yard was not cut into allotments until 1830. So the plate is a hinge: barracks memory, new banks, Church Hill still in charge.

Fowles drew streets as four stacked elevations to a page. Don’t treat the live scan as a single panorama. Charlotte Place is the Church Hill street. George Street here is the block that had just stopped being a garden.

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