Looking over the overlooked-Urban decay in Pyrmont

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." — Jonathan Swift

The next Pyrmont Festival of Food Wine and Art will be held 11am - 5pm on Sunday 20th May at Pirrama Park, the old Water Police site.
I will exhibit a selection of my Pyrmont canvases painted from the early 1980s - 2012. Pyrmont has changed beyond recognition from the early 1980s, from an almost deserted industrial ghost town to a media, retail and entertainment hub.
I painted 'en plein air' and was 'Artist in Residence' at many locations including Pyrmont Power Station, the CSR Refinery and Distillery, Pyrmont Goods Yard, the Waterpolice site, Jones Bay Wharf, Union Square and the top of the half completed Anzac Bridge. Most of my paintings were created on sites that were off-limits to the public.
However, sometimes I set up my easel by the side of the road - or even right in the middle of the road. There were few passers-by and almost no traffic. I have returned to paint scenes that I last painted a couple of decades ago to compare and contrast the past with the present.
On Harris Street a handful of derelict buildings still rub shoulders with the clean sharp angles and acidic colours of Jacksons Landing.
The "Terminus Hotel" on the western corner of Harris and John Street has become a pin-up for lovers of urban decay.
Its burnt sienna brickwork and emerald green doors mock the tastefully muted hues and expensive renovations of the up market "Point Hotel" on the other side of the road. This vine encrusted ex-pub proudly flaunts an air of seedy glamour, and stories about its scurrilous past and its mysterious closure have become part of the local mythology. It is going to hell in the proverbial handbasket and doesn't care who knows it.

'Old bakery corner of John and Harris St' 2012
oil on board 35 x 28cm.
Enquiries
However the opposite corner of Harris and John Street has an equally haunting ruin which has been gently mouldering away for at least as long as its more spectacular neighbour.
This building on the corner of Harris and John Street was once a bakery, and then a typical Greek milk bar. The proprietors used to make their own icecream in the traditional way - twirling it around on a stick.
They had one of those old-fashioned football machines operated by a handle, with rows of wooden "players" kicking a ball. It would have pre-dated the pinball machines by at least a decade.
I have painted in Pyrmont and Ultimo for over 30 years now, but I don't actually remember when this ceased to be a thriving business.
If it ever really thrived.

"Pyrmont streetscape : Anzac Bridge from the corner

of John, Pyrmont and Point streets" 1994

oil on canvas paper 100 x 75cm
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ANZAC Bridge from John st 1994 oil 91x31cm

PRIVATE COLLECTION SYDNEY
SOLD
Enquiries  

Next door to the ex-milkbar is "Chicks on Harris" ("chicks" in this context refers to fast food- I'm not sure that the owners thought through the implications of their name as a number of establishments in this area in the past have had chequered reputations).

Black Dog (old bakery from John St)' 2012
oil on board 31 x 25cm
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The old milkbar had already been boarded up for some time, as there were archaeologically interesting layers of tatty posters layered on top of the boards which sealed the doors - a tradition that has continued to this day.

Related posts

Terminus Redux

To the Point
Wrong side of the tracks - Darling Island Bond and Free
Pretty vacant 
My Pyrmont page in this blog

A Tale of two hotels - the Terminus and the Point

The bad twin of Pyrmont Street

Pyrmont Paintings past and present

A Tale of two Pyrmont Hotels - 'The Terminus and the Point'

A Tale of two Pyrmont Hotels -

'The Terminus and the Point' 2010-2011

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Sold : Private Collection Sydney
Enquiries about similar paintings
I started painting this in 2010, but they started to dig up the pavement.
Again.
What a surprise.
As well as the construction of new buildings and demolition of the old ones, there has been what seems like endless removal and replacement of the cobblestones. Pyrmont is famous for its golden sandstone, but there must be genuine gold deposits underneath as they've been digging up the streets of Pyrmont as long as I can remember.
I had painted the Point hotel but had trouble seeing the Terminus from my chosen angle. Rather than repaint it I put it on the backburner and resumed last month.
By this time, the Point was under new management and had been repainted and renovated. I decided to keep the 'Point' as it had appeared when I started the painting rather than update it. You'd get dizzy keeping up with its changes anyway.
I've lost count of all its colour changes - it's gone through the entire Dulux Weathershield chart over the past 3 decades.
When I first saw it in 1981 as the 'Royal Pacific' it was a rather shopsoiled white with a royal blue trim.
It's much more chic now, in keeping with its new surroundings. Inside and out.
When the block down the road has been redeveloped by Lendlease to be one of the final buildings of the Jackson's Landing Precinct, the Point won't look out of place to its upmarket new customers.
The Terminus hasn't changed much throughout the years since it was abandoned, except that some of the ivy has died.
The network of dead vine tendrils twining over the sunburnt brick facade look like a rotting veil of Belgian lace.
It enhances the "Miss Havisham of Harris St" aura clinging to the Terminus.
Quite a contrast in style.
The striding legs of the Anzac Bridge at the top of John st link the past and the future together like a giant clothes peg.

See more about the Terminus Hotel at My Pyrmont page in this blog

Related posts

Recently sold Pyrmont paintings at Workplace 6
Terminus Redux
Wrong side of the tracks
Pretty vacant
To the point

Looking over the overlooked

Pyrmont paintings past and present