Royal Edward Victualling Yards (REVY), Darling Island, Pyrmont

Today's painting on the deck shows a small panorama of Sydney Harbour with a cargo ship berthed at the East Darling Harbour Wharves in the background. The strange looking building in the centre surrounded by piles of timber is the REVY C building on Darling Island. I painted it in the early 1990s from Ways Terrace.

 

 

 

P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'

1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

Available for sale

On Darling Island, nothing is now left of the timber and shipbuilding yards. Today the water’s edge bristles with new apartment blocks gazing over sheltered waters. Yet beneath the silvery surface lies a hidden history.

The Royal Edward Victualling Yard, ( REVY A,B & C), was built between 1890 and 1911, by the revered Government architect Walter Liberty Vernon in the Federation Free style.

They were some of the last working buildings on the Pyrmont waterfront and had rivettingly odd architecture. Revy A and B  consisted of a 5 storey and a 6 storey pair of large red brick warehouses set at right angles to each other and linked by a square central  water reservoir tower. They were built in a flamboyant neo-Gothic style which reminded me irresistibly of the Bargello in Florence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P8'REVY C from Ways Terrace'
1992 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

Available for sale

Revy C is a narrow, skinny, rather ungainly eight-storey, red brick Federation Warehouse, and still the tallest structure on Darling Island.  It had a rusticated ashlar bluestone ground floor, and a riveted truss jib crane facing Jones Bay Wharf. Its 4 large lift towers on the roof always reminded me of the crenellations on top of medieval castles.
Early fire fighting relied on steam pumped water pressure which could only reach up to a maximum of 2 storeys. So the set of external steel fire stairs at either end were a very practical solution to this problem, even though I used to curse them for being a perspective nightmare to paint.

 

 

P12B REVY 3 from Jones Bay Wharf with 'Nederburg'
1990 oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm
SOLD
Enquiries about other paintings of Darling Island
Revy's original purpose became obsolete due to the increasing size of cargo ships and the introduction of container shipping.
The painting above shows the 'Nederburg' one of the last cargo ships docking at the Pier 19/20/21 (now known as Jones Bay Wharf) opposite Revy C.
During the 1980s REVY C was remodelled for the Defence Science and Technology Organization.















P12 REVY from Jones Bay Road
1990 oil on paper 25.5 x 31 cm
Available for sale

This small oil study shows the timber yard on the other side to the previous painting.

In 1994, REVY A and B were renovated for Naval Support Command , and I was commissioned to paint 3 huge paintings for their foyer.

They could be seen from Jones Bay Road until 2005 when Channel 7 moved in. Now these paintings are on Spectacle Island, where unfortunately they can't be seen by the public.

REVY C was vacant from 2005 until its recent redevelopment for apartments.

 

Related Posts 

 

My page of Pyrmont paintings 

 

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 

 

Uptown Festival 2011

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.

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.

P286 'Terminus Redux'
2017-8 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm

Enquiries -janecooperbennett@gmail.com

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).

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

see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant  

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Let there be rock

Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available
Not far south of the Terminus Hotel, another formerly ignored and derelict site is being gentrified.
There was a 'no man's land' between Harris and Mount streets which was an overgrown wasteland, with the southern end used as a carpark for the past 3 decades.

P241B 'Panorama from the roof of Pyrmont Power Station
from Harris St, Mount St to the CSR Distillery'
1991 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Available
This is a small canvas I painted from the roof of the Chem-Lab of the Pyrmont Power Station in 1991, looking west towards the ethanol tanks of the CSR Distillery. In the centre is the handsome vine-covered Federation building that was once the house of the CSR Manager. The carpark can be seen to the right of the Manager's house.
Clumps of pampas grass used to poke through the badly laid bitumen, which was covered with weeds and strewn with discarded bongs.
This wasteland occasionally featured as a backdrop for early 1980s rock video clips.
Only a brick pier wall facing Mount st and a tumbledown graffitied sandstone block wall remained above ground level as relics of the row of terraces once occupying that site. The terraces had been pulled down long before I started to paint in Pyrmont.

Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
The carpark has now been excavated, revealing the golden sandstone beneath. This is one of the few remaining still undeveloped sites in Pyrmont, and I took the rare opportunity to paint the honey coloured tones of the yellowblock sandstone before it is removed and construction starts.
It isn't far from the McCaffery's stables, which had been built over the legendary 'Paradise Quarry', where the best quality sandstone in Sydney had been extracted.

Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
Under the bitumen, an archaeologist's dig had revealed a cobbled sandstone path, a neatly finished sandstone cesspit, carved sandstone steps and mysterious carvings. One of the carved images resembled a child-like version of a church or chapel. Paul Gye aka 'Pyrmonstrosity Pyrmontosis', who has dedicated many hours into painstakingly and expertly researching Pyrmont's hidden history, has concluded that these carvings might have dated from as early as 1840 and could refer to Dr JD Lang’s Presbyterian ‘Long Lost Chapel of Pyrmont’. The full album of photos of 'Pyrmonstrosity Pyrmontosis' site visit with photos of the carvings can be seen at Facebook album : Archaeological Site Visit - Mount & Harris Streets - 10 May 2017
The chapel was later relocated to Ultimo, and its current location is the 'Mustard Seed' ministry in Bulwara Street (ironically opposite the Lord Wolseley Hotel).
Unfortunately despite their unique heritage value, the carvings have by now been completely destroyed by the excavation.


Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
During my site visit, I tried to persuade the archaeologists to let me paint on site before the demolition started, but they gave me the brush off, no pun intended.
Frustratingly I had to peer through the hoardings and shadecloth.

Starting my painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
The 2,300sq metre site on the south-western side of the Terminus Hotel, will be soon transformed into a collection of 15 low-rise terrace houses, aka the 'New Life Pyrmont' project.

My painting of the
'Excavation between Harris and Mount Streets, Pyrmont'
2017 oil on canvas 51 x 61cm
Available 
I persuaded a kind passer-by to hold up my painting so I could take a good photo of it against the demolition.
The top half of the stairs once leading from Harris Street to the carpark have already been demolished, and the Harris Street frontage has been completely excavated and removed to allow trucks to enter and remove the sandstone.

I've heard that the terraces have been designed to incorporate some of the excavated sandstone from the site.

For more information see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

Pyrmont Paintings past and present
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Terminus Indeterminate

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Enquiries

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.

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel',

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available

Enquiries

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.

Starting a new canvas of the 'Terminus Hotel'

2017 oil on canvas 56 x 76cm

Available 

Enquiries 

For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels

see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts
Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont
To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free

Pretty vacant  

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present 
Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Pretty vacant

The Terminus Hotel has been sold at last.
I've heard that the new owners intend to relaunch it as a boutique hotel, over 30 years after it last traded. The Pyrmont Point Hotel will finally have its old competition back.
The 'For Sale' sign is still perched on its awning, so I thought that I would paint a few canvases before the renovations start in earnest.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

I'll be curious to see how this poster-child for urban decay will look after renovation.

The vines covering most of the northern facade of the Terminus, which add to its 'Miss Havisham' air, will probably have to be removed.
The vines are actually Virginia creeper, not ivy, as is commonly stated.
The old late Victorian mansion behind the Harris street tennis courts, which used to belong to the CSR Refinery Manager, has a similar covering of Virginia creeper. The 'Rum Store' of the former CSR Refinery, and current Jacksons Landing development, used to also be completely covered in this spectacular vine.
I particularly love painting the Terminus Hotel in late autumn, as the Virginia creeper is changing colour from lime green to burgundy over the burnt orange Federation brickwork.
Burgundy, claret and wine colours seem appropriate to an old hotel.
This might be the last autumn to paint the vines.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available
The legs of the Anzac Bridge straddle the end of John street. It is easier to see in autumn, as the plane trees are losing the leaves which obscured them.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

During the demolition decade of the 1990s many Pyrmont hotels stopped trading : the New York in Edward Street, the Pyrmont Arms at 42 Harris Street, the pub on the corner of Mount and John street. These are now, respectively, a medical centre; apartments above a bottle shop and yet more apartments.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

Other attractive heritage buildings and quirky industries disappeared without trace. Nobody really remembers much about what happened to them. The Terminus seemed to always have had an intangible charisma that set it apart from the rest. Why, out of all of these neglected and forgotten buildings did the Terminus alone become a legend?

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

How any of the pubs except the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel survived the Pyrmont diaspora decade of the mid 1980s - late 1990s is possibly the greatest mystery of all.

One reason it was so hard to pin down when the Terminus was finally shut is that by the end of the 80s, Pyrmont in the daytime was nearly deserted.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

The industries that provided the customers for the traditional 'early opener' pubs were winding down and moving out. The last sugar ship left in 1991 or 1992; the CSR were winding down their operations and had only a skeleton staff; Pier 19, 20 21 had almost ceased to be a working wharf ; the cruise ships stopped coming to Pier 13 by 1992.

Starting a plein air nocturne oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

The Royal Pacific was seriously down at heel and unless a few familiar faces were drinking there I would feel a bit ill at ease walking around there late at night as there was sometimes a fairly dodgy looking crowd there and some of the locals would say quite flatly that it used to be full of gangsters. The Terminus seemed to be mostly full of boxers & bikies, so, take your pick!

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

By the early 1990s both places seemed very quiet, day or night, so it was hard to pin down exactly when the Terminus had shut.

Starting a plein air oil painting of the Terminus Hotel,

corner of Harris and John streets, Pyrmont.

Available

You can still see the 'ghost sign' saying 'Royal Pacific' on the eastern facade of the Pyrmont Point Hotel.

City's mysteries up for sale (smh.com.au)

For more information about the Terminus and Pyrmont Point Hotels see My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related Posts

Paintings of Pink Pubs

The Boiling Frog

My page of Pyrmont Paintings

A Tale of 2 Pyrmont Hotels - The Terminus and the Point

To the Point

Terminus Redux

In the pink- Former 'Pyrmont Arms Hotel'

Open House

A not very architecturally distinguished housing commission in the hinterland of Glebe/Ultimo was being demolished in 2011. 
I jumped the fence and painted some small plein air canvases while it was being demolished.

 "Half demolished apartment block
in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo"
2011 oil on canvas 15 x 15cm
Enquiries

 

The 'Mirragang' at first sight looks quite presentable, until the lack of glass in the windows hints at something not quite right....

'Open Plan'  -half demolished apartment block 

in Cowper Street Glebe/Ultimo"
2011 oil on canvas 13 x 18cm
Enquiries

 

The shell of the 'Mirragang' apartments on the left, and the 'Mirrabooka' on the right, frame the handsome dark brick building in the centre.

This former wool bond store, the Farmers and Graziers No 2 Store, was the last of the great bond stores, and replaced a swath of houses in 1936. The low-lying swampy area of Glebe and Ultimo has always been known for cheap and often nasty housing.

 From the 1850s onwards, a jumble of workshops, slaughter yards, boiling-down works and other scrappy industries sprang up around the noxious waters of Blackwattle Creek. Cramped cottages without water or sewerage, were erected by landlords for the working poor. People lived cheek by jowl with domestic animals. Refuse and offal from the slaughter yards often remained to rot on the mudflats. The abattoirs provided the bones to be burnt in the Char Tower of the CSR Distillery, which were used to filter sugar. And all of the residue was pumped right back into the Blackwattle Creek.

However uninspired these redbrick tower blocks looked, they were a vast improvement on their predecessors.

Mind you, that wouldn't have been hard.

Almost anything would have been.

 'Open House' -
2011 oil on canvas 25 x 20cm
Available
Enquiries

The patch of sky behind the half-demolished windows gives a feeling of a stage set.
These 15 public housing apartment blocks in Cowper Street, Glebe, were demolished by the state Labor government in 2011, resulting in the eviction of 130 tenants. Although new housing on the site was promised, to be funded by the proceeds of money raised by the sale of 99-year leases to Millers Point terraces, the land was left vacant for years as a development application was lodged and contested in court.
The O'Farrell cabinet approved construction plans for 153 public housing units, 95 affordable housing units and 247 private apartments on the site in 2013.

Now the Baird government has finally announced plans to rebuild this demolished public housing estate on Cowper Street as a mixed private, public and affordable housing community.

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