Industrial Cathedral

Industrial Cathedral
"Industrial Cathedral" charcoal on paper 131 x 131 cm Jane Bennett. Finalist in 1998 Dobell Drawing Prize Art Gallery of NSW Finalist 1998 Blake Prize Winner 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize

About Me

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Sydney, NSW, Australia
I'm an Industrial Heritage Artist who paints "en plein air".If it's damaged, derelict, doomed and about to disappear, I'll be there to paint it.
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pub. Show all posts

Tuesday 28 July 2020

In the pink -the former Pyrmont Arms Hotel, Harris Street Pyrmont

The former pub 'The Pyrmont Arms' was at 42-44 Harris Street, Pyrmont on the corner of Harris and Bowman Streets.
Built in the 1870s,it closed in the early 1990s when the CSR refinery and distillery were progressively shut down and demolished to make way for the Jackson's landing development. Since then, it has been renovated as retail outlets, restaurants and home units.

P248 The 'Pyrmont Arms' from the CSR 1
1990 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
I first painted the Pyrmont Arms Hotel as a bird's eye view from the roof of the CSR refinery.I had been the 'Artist in Residence' at the CSR Refinery from the late 1980s to the start of its demolition in the mid 1990s. I had previously been painting at the top of the Panhouse, but one day in a fit of bravery I decided to paint from the top of the Boilerhouse next to the chimneys.
The CSR boilerhouse is now the site of the 'Elizabeth' apartment block of the Jackson's Landing LendLease development.
The Pyrmont Arms Hotel was then still an operating pub and was painted a grubby faded pale pinkish beige. On the back of the pub's western side facing the Scott Street squats, there was a huge ad for 'Have a cold gold KB', unfortunately not visible from my rooftop studio. Across the road was the brick facade of the CSR chem labs.
It didn't stand out from the rest of the rather dingy terraces at the 'Land's End' of Harris street, but what caught my eye was the contrast between the terraces and the overgrown area around the squats that was rapidly turning into a wilderness. I painted a small square canvas focussing on just the Pyrmont Arms, and resolved one day to paint a panorama of the northern end of Harris Street from this vantage point.

P249 'Pyrmont panorama- from the CSR '
1991 oil on canvas 46 x 92cm
A few months later, I climbed the many levels of revolting, sugar syrup encrusted stairs to the top of the CSR boilerhouse again, to paint this panorama, and was startled to find that the formerly almost unnoticeable pub had succumbed to a brash attempt at 'renovation'.
Weirdly, it shared the same revolting shade of pink with another dying pub at the other end of Pyrmont, the 'New York Hotel' in Edward Street, opposite the Pyrmont Power Station.
This fluoro paint job was such a product of its time that it defined the late 1980s to 1990s, a period without style or taste. I remember leggings and jumpers in that same fabulously horrid "glow in the dark" colour, possibly an over-reaction against the ochres and browns of the 1970s. In architecture, it was known not very fondly as "Paddington Pink" or "Paddo pink" for short, although the examples in Paddington itself were much more muted.

P248B 'The 'Pyrmont Arms' from the CSR 2'
1991 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
It made the Pyrmont Arms stick out like a sore thumb from the dingy red brick warehouses and bond stores, and not in a good way.
I don't know if it was still an operating pub then or whether the new paint job was a desperate last ditch attempt to attract customers or preparation for its sale and possible redevelopment.
For the truth was that the pubs of Pyrmont were hanging by a thread. Their customers were gone with the destruction or relocation of the local industries that had employed them, and the industries of Pyrmont's future were yet to replace them.
The CSR Refinery and Distillery, which had replaced the sandstone quarrymen of northern Pyrmont a century before, was almost deserted and would be demolished and replaced with Jackson's Landing by the middle of the decade. But there was a strange interregnum before the new apartments were built and filled with inhabitants, and the northern end of Harris Street was a ghost town.
The iconic Terminus Hotel, only 2 blocks further up Harris Street, had already ceased trading a decade before, and stood abandoned, neglected and a constant source of speculation for the next 30 years, before its very recent renovation. How the 'Royal Pacific', later to be rechristened the 'Pyrmont Point'/ 'Point Hotel', ever kept on trading is a much bigger mystery that any of the urban myths swirling around the 30 year vacancy of the Terminus.
What is it with the lurid colour schemes inflicted on moribund pubs?
Far from Pyrmont, another doomed hotel, the 'Jolly Frog' also got the pink treatment not long before it suffered one of those mysterious fires that afflict abandoned buildings.
They must have used the same colourblind painter and decorator. And he must have got the paint at a huge discount, or it might have 'fallen off the back of a truck'.
Either way, it didn't work. All closed as pubs not long after.

P248C '42 Harris st -ex Pyrmont Arms'
2012 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
The 'New York Hotel' has been painted a tasteful off-white, and is now a medical centre, of all things!
'The Pyrmont Arms' has now been painted a dull blue on the ground floor and a muted yellow for the upper floors. It is no longer a hotel, but has been reasonably sympathetically renovated and is now a combination of apartments above and a bottle-o below.
And the Jolly Frog, 6 years after its devastating fire, is still awaiting redevelopment.

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Saturday 20 June 2020

In the shadow of the Bridge -Night Observatory Hill

Today's painting on the deck gallery is a nocturne painted from Observatory Hill.
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available
I've often painted the Rocks and Millers Point from this vantage point.
When I used to teach art classes, I'd give everyone a map of the best spots to sit so they could avoid having to include the Blues Point Tower!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm
Available

































This view looks straight down Lower Fort Street where I have also frequently painted the heritage terraces, the Garrison church, the Harbourview and 'Hero of Waterloo' hotels.
Some of this collection are on my Miller's Point page in this blog.
It's a postcard perfect Sydney Harbour scene during the day. but at night the shadows make it evocative and mysterious.
The tales from the rowdy and sometimes sinister era of the Rocks 'Push' don't seem to be quite as distant at night!
Plein air oil painting of nocturne of the Rocks and Sydney Harbour Bridge from Observatory Hill painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
O15 Night, The Rocks from Observatory Hill
2000 oil on canvas 84 x 112cm

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Sunday 8 April 2018

Terminus Redux

I have mixed feelings about the renovation of the Terminus.
Although it's been restored,not demolished or replaced by apartment blocks as so often happens, it has been stripped of its poetry.
Plein air ink and charcoal painting of the renovation and redevelopment of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P286A 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 ink, charcoal on paper 131 x 106cm
Enquiries :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
I painted a large mixed media work on paper, as well as an even larger oil on canvas, just before the iconic vines were removed. The awning had been stripped back to a fragile skeleton, but the bricks had yet to be sand-blasted.
However well a place is renovated, inevitably there must be compromises between keeping the original character and making it a viable business.
No expense was spared on the fitout.The designers and architects have done their best to restore the old pub building while retaining quite a lot of the original pub from tiles to timber. The pressed metal ceiling upstairs is a sympathetic replacement not the original, which was too badly damaged.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation and redevelopment of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P286 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

I miss the vine-covered facade. It had probably been planted early in the 20th century by a CSR employee, as the same species of Virginia creeper covered the manager's residence and the courtyard of the 'Rum Store'.
Recently I attended the launch of Shirley Fitzgerald's wonderful book on the history of the Terminus. I was honoured that Shirley had asked me to contribute a photo of one of my paintings of the Terminus facing opposite its longtime companion and rival, the Pyrmont Point Hotel (aka the Royal Pacific).
Plein air oil painting of the Point Hotel and the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
P252 'The Terminus and the Point'
2011 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Private Collection : Sydney
Enquiries :
janecooperbennett@gmail.com
When I went upstairs, I almost walked into one of the walls, not from one too many cocktails, but because I'd expected the hall that once led through to the building next door. I believe this passageway had to be closed off due to updated fire regulations.
A typical pub menu, priced rather steeply, cashes in on the hipster ambience from the 32 years that the Terminus spent as an icon of urban decay.
As a contrast, when I'd visited the Terminus prior to its closure in the early 1980s, they were giving out free food. Possibly this had contributed to its original decline and fall.
The new owners aren't making that mistake, quite the opposite.
Ironically despite having kept the ghost sign outside, no Resch's is on tap.
For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

Sunday 20 August 2017

Terminus Indeterminate

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

The Terminus Hotel, corner of John and Harris St, Pyrmont is being renovated after over 20 years of not so benign neglect as part of the Wakil's collection of derelict inner city buildings.
The former poster child of urban decay has fallen to the inexorable tide of gentrification. It won't be totally obliterated as so many unfortunate heritage icons all over Sydney have been.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available
Enquiries
Hopefully as much as possible of its quirky heritage will be retained, but at this stage it is difficult to predict the outcome, as so much depends on the personal taste of the developers, architects and designers.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

The cantilevered rusty steel awning has just been stripped down to a skeletal framework. It matches the bare branches of the tree on the corner of John and Harris St opposite the old bakery.
I don't know if the awning will be removed or restored.
Usually I paint the Terminus from the other side of Harris St, to pair it with its rival pub, the Pyrmont Point (aka 'the Royal Pacific). However, one of its most distinctive characteristics, the distinctive parapet skyline, a key feature of Federation Free Style architecture is best displayed from the John st vantage point.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

Some tendrils of the Virginia creeper that once covered most of its facade still cling to the top. It was possibly the only thing binding all the bricks together.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available
Enquiries
The creeper is usually (and wrongly) known as 'ivy', however ivy doesn't change to russet tones in autumn, or drop its leaves for winter.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

The same creeper also covers much of the facade of the CSR manager's house further south down Harris St. An entire courtyard in the CSR refinery used to resemble a jungle.
Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

Long before 'green walls' became fashionable decor, the south facade of the building now rather bizarrely known as the 'Rum Store' was entirely covered in Virginia creeper from floor to ceiling.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

I've always wondered whether the Virginia creeper so prevalent in the Pyrmont of the last part of the 20th century had been planted by the same shade craving person.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

I'm glad that I took the opportunity to capture this moment. This is possibly the last time the Terminus will be in anything resembling its original state or composed of its original materials.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

It won't be very long before the Terminus is boarded up to undergo the sort of serious structural alterations that will be required for its reinvention.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available

It's unknown at this stage whether the famous ghost sign on Harris St will be retained, as it is painted on the original brickwork.

Plein air oil painting of the renovation of the Terminus Hotel corner of John and Harris Street Pyrmont painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel'
2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm
Available 
For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

Monday 29 August 2016

"The Mother Art is Architecture"

"The Mother Art is Architecture" is part of a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The full quotation is  : "The Mother Art is Architecture. Without an Architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization".
I am one of 6 artists, John Waters, Isabelle Devos, Jane Bennett, Stephen Nova, Chris Brown, and Hadyn Wilson currently exhibiting in the group show "The Mother Art is Architecture" at FrancesKeevil Gallery, 28-34 Cross Street Double Bay. Architecture is  the theme; yet each artist takes it in quite different directions.
Almost everything that I have ever painted has either been demolished or changed beyond all recognition: the pubs have been gentrified, working class terraces are now apartment blocks and Sydney is no longer a Working Harbour.
I have spent most of my career painting the loss of Sydney's "soul of civilization".
Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklloyd127711.html
Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/franklloyd127711.html
I was "Artist in Residence" at the "Hungry Mile", East Darling Harbour Wharves during its last years as a working port, courtesy of Patrick Stevedores and Sydney Ports Corporation. When I knew that port operations were ending, I used the wharf itself as a studio and gained unprecedented access to every aspect of the activities there. I painted on the wharves, from the bridge of the ships (courtesy of the ship’s captains) and wonderful bird’s eye views from the top of Harbour Control Tower. After the last ship had sailed, I continued my epic series of paintings of Barangaroo, the largest and most controversial Sydney Harbour construction project in living memory.
Plein air oil painting of the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
MW62 Harbour Tower from Moore's Wharf '
2015 oil on canvas 51 x 41cm


I had the run of the top floor and the amenities level of the 87 metre high Harbour Control Tower from the early 2000s until port operations finished there in April 2011, and afterwards had access to create paintings of various stages of the construction of Barangaroo. I spent many  New Year’s Eves on the top floor, painting 360 degrees of the fireworks exploding underneath against the unforgettable harbour view.
Two major works on paper which I painted from the top of the Harbour Control Tower a couple of years apart, will be featured in this exhibition.
These two large mixed media drawings show the maximum possible contrast between old and new; between heritage and development; between tradition and progress.
One shows views over Barangaroo and the waterfront. The other looks out over Millers Point towards the bridge. A nod to the past - and a look to the future.
The 2 works overlap slightly,  sharing the sweeping curve of the workers terraces of High Street as well as the quirky asymmetry of the old Palisade Hotel in common. They are on the far left hand side of the earlier work, and on the far right hand side of the later work.
ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point from the Harbour Control Tower  by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
HCT34  'Millers Point and Barangaroo
 from the top of Harbour Tower' 2010
ink acrylic gouache on paper 102 x 125cm
Enquiries
 
 






















By the time of painting the later work, the Palisade had nearly completed its transformation from a down at heel wharfies’ dive into a luxurious upmarket watering hole for the new residents of Barangaroo and Walsh Bay Wharves.
The earliest version of the Palisade was built in the late 1800s, but the Sydney Harbour Trust commissioned Henry Deane Walsh to build a hotel on top of the pub, which was completed in 1915. The Palisade Hotel was literally a landmark as it was the highest building in Sydney at the time. Many diggers sank their last beer at the hotel before they boarded ships bound for the First and Second World War. It was also used as a lodge for workers constructing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Over the years, the hotel has been frequented by many “colourful characters”. There's almost too much history in the walls.
Atop Millers Point, high above the harbour, the old Palisade Hotel sat forlorn for 7 years from the end of World Youth Day in 2008 until its reopening in August 2015, just in time for its centenary.  It had been closed in 2008 for an renovation by the then owner and sold at auction in March 2015 for about $20 million. Now the new owners have given it a $5 million renovation and reopened the ground-floor public bar.
This large mixed media drawing shows the view looking south from the Harbour Tower. The wharf buildings have just been cleared, revealing a bare expanse of concrete with a few cryptic markings which could either be for vehicles or possibly guidelines for future construction. The white marquee in the centre right of the wharf is the temporary cruise ship terminal. Soon afterwards, it was removed when the new cruise ship terminal at White Bay was opened.
 A faint shadow of the Harbour Tower is cast over a section of the wharf, about to be excavated for the Barangaroo Headland Park, which opened a year ago in August 2015.
The left hand side shows the early 20th century Federation heritage architecture of Millers Point, still at this stage inhabited by the descendants of 5 generations of waterside workers. The staggered walls and gables that serrate the roofline of High Street are groupings of 4 individual flats, rather than individual houses.
Upper flats were divided from lower flats by an ingenious use of panels, to lessen noise and the risk of the spread of fire. Each flat had its own ventilated laundry, bathroom and scullery at the rear to maintain hygienic living conditions.
The lower flats had a courtyard to dry clothes and access to a rear lane for rubbish collection. The upper flats had rooftop drying platforms made of solid hardwood beams, packed tightly side by side and bonded by steel rods. The washing was launched into the air by nifty pulley mechanisms. Brick chutes and concrete tubes allowed rubbish to be dropped to the lane below.   
These humble dwellings were actually cutting edge design solutions to the problems of medium density urban living. They pioneered some of the earliest use of now ubiquitous technology in Sydney housing and incorporate some of the aesthetics and principles of Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed buildings should be made from the land and benefit the environment.
Another famous quote by Frank Lloyd Wright can be used to contrast the modest utility of the workers flats with the pomposity of recent development at Barangaroo : "A building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped to harmonize with its surroundings if Nature is manifest there.”
 
ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014
 ink acrylic  gouache on paper
106 x 136cm
Enquiries
























This mixed media drawing was one of the last I was able to paint from the top of the Harbour Tower.
It's the quintessential Sydney Harbour view, with a breathtaking panorama of Walsh Bay Wharves and Millers Point below my feet, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.
 I have painted every single building in this canvas from ground level, often from several angles, and met most of the residents and workers, old and new.

Detail of ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Detail of protest banners in High Street -

HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014

ink , gouache on paper 106 x 136cm

Enquiries





 


















The heritage architecture of Millers Point is festooned with a few defiant banners protesting against the inevitable eviction of the residents of High Street, Windmill Street, Lower Fort Street and Dalgety Terrace.
Reg Mombassa designed a T-shirt with the logo of a skull smoking a cigar and wearing a top hat, symbolizing the real estate agents and developers now infesting the once sleepy backwater.
A few hang from the rooftop drying platforms in Dalgety Terrace.

ink charcoal gouache drawing on paper of Barangaroo and Millers Point, Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hammerhead Crane from the Harbour Control Tower by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
Close up detail of
protest T Shirts in Dalgety Terrace
HCT42 'Vale Millers Point' 2014 
ink acrylic  gouache on paper 106 x 136cm

 

At the time of painting, the Palisade Hotel was soon to be re- opened after 7 years of emptiness. In contrast, the city and Walsh Bay Wharves remain shrouded in darkness. 
In the background, cranes pick at the skeleton of the half demolished Hammerhead Crane on Garden Island. 
Earlier that year I had braved the daunting bureaucracy of the Navy to become the ‘Artist in Residence’ on Garden Island for several months so that I was able to paint the last days of this historic naval relic before it was demolished.
While painting this work, I realized the Harbour Control Tower was under threat of demolition, despite being an iconic landmark. 
The demolition process began in March 2016 and will continue until the end of the year.
Another quote from Frank Lloyd Wright :
“Architecture is life, or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.”