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

UPtown Festival 2011

The 30th Pyrmont Ultimo Festival
Saturday 19th March 2011

The Pyrmont- Ultimo UPtown Festival 2011

Photo is courtesy of Jeffrey Mellefont,

Australian National Maritime Museum.

Quarry Green is a charming little park between Quarry St and Bulwara Road behind Harris St Ultimo. Its most famous landmarks are the church and tne pub, which lie close to the border between Pyrmont and Ultimo.
The festival began modestly thirty years ago, when it was started by two enterprising local residents, Debra Berryman and Olga Reader, as a simple get-together to unite the small local community. Since then, year by year, the UPTown Festival has witnessed the Ultimo Pyrmont precinct’s remarkable re-birth and transformation from a quiet, post-industrial area in the early 1980’s, with a population of under 2000, to today’s thriving business, media and education centre, with a dynamic, multi-ethnic community of around 20,000.
I had displayed some of my many paintings of Pyrmont and Ultimo in previous UPtown festivals, but always inside the church hall which made them difficult to see. This time I was given a large tent and a prime position outside the local community's favourite watering hole, the Lord Wolseley. This delightful old pub, at the northern end of Quarry Green on Bulwara Road, is one of the narrowest in Sydney, but makes up for that in 'character'. Its interior boasts a bullet hole left in the pub mirror by Neddy Smith, who had rather shakily aimed at the bartender during the 1980's gangland wars. Those were the days!
Despite the heavy rain the festival drew a large crowd-the organizers estimated that there were over 4,000 people attending. I caught up with lots of people I hadn't seen for years and met many new residents who were interested to see what their suburb used to look like.The tent sheltered my 40 paintings and 2 large drawings, attached with cable ties to the 14 easels I had again borrowed from my long suffering mate John from the Australian Society of Marine Artists. Lots of people helped me lug the easels from the Mustard Seed Centre where they were stored.
The paintings in this photo are some of my more recent Pyrmont artworks. In the foreground is the "Carpentaria and the James Craig" from just outside Wharf 7, and above it are 2 views of Jacksons Landing from Glebe Island Wharf and a painting of Pyrmont from the East Darling Harbour Wharves.

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 
Not the Writers Festival- Exhibition of Pyrmont Paintings by Jane Bennett at 2013 Pyrmont Festival
We like sheep - Waite and Bull Building 137 Pyrmont Street
Marine art exhibition at Australian National Maritime Museum
Pyrmont Sandstone - The Lizards of Oz

My paintings in the Xmas Exhibition at Camden Fine Art Gallery :

My Paintings for sale in 'Sydney Harbour and Country Links'

My Paintings will be for sale in the annual Xmas exhibition at Camden Civic Centre (Undercroft), Oxley Street, Camden, on 14-18 December 2010. 

A preview of some of my paintings on display in this exhibition:

Sydney Harbour Ferries

The 'Charlotte' arriving at Milson's Point Jetty 
2009  oil painting on canvas 25 x 25cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The 'Charlotte' departing from Milson's Point Jetty 
2009  oil painting on canvas 25 x 25cm 
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Sydney Harbour Bridge by day and night

'Sydney Harbour Bridge Panorama- day' 
2009 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
Sold
Enquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

'Sydney Harbour Panorama- evening' 
2009 oil painting on canvas 31 x 61cm
Enquiries about this painting:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

"Some pubs with no beer"

Paintings of 2 ex-pubs, once favourite wharfie watering holes at the northern end of Harris st, Pyrmont. The 'Pyrmont Arms' has now been redeveloped as an apartment complex and a boutique wine cellar. The aptly named 'Terminus' remains abandoned and derelict to this day.

 

'The Pyrmont Arms from the roof of the C.S.R.' 
1990  oil on canvas 31 x 31 cm
Enquiries about this painting:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Painted from the roof of the CSR Boilerhouse, CSR Refinery, Pyrmont. This was during the 'Pyrmont Arms' Hotel's last days as a working pub.

The ex- pub 'The Pyrmont Arms' 
1992  oil on canvas 31 x 31 cm
Enquiries about this painting:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

A later chapter in the afterlife of this shabby old pub. Also painted from the roof of the CSR Boilerhouse, CSR Refinery, Pyrmont.

'The ex- pub 'The Pyrmont Arms' from the CSR Boiler house' 1992 oil painting on canvas 40 x 80 cm

Enquiries about this painting:

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This was also painted from the roof of the CSR Boilerhouse, CSR Refinery, Pyrmont. In the foreground are the rusty tin roofs of Bond Stores (now replaced by "Sanctuary Sanatorium') and the CSR Chem labs (now replaced by a vacant block, awaiting development of the last block of Jackson's Landing by Lendlease)

'The Terminus- pub with no beer' 
2010  oil on canvas 31 x 31 cm
SoldEnquiries about similar paintings:
janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Once a notorious bikie HQ, this picturesque vine covered ruin on the corner of John and Harris streets has been derelict since 1992.
The rumour mill has it that the Terminus was closed after the only son of the manager was shot. I have heard that it is owned by an odd couple with a penchant for collecting a portfolio of down at heel properties in similar condition, which to this date have not yet been redeveloped.
Why it has been derelict for 18 years remains a disquieting mystery.

For more information about my Pyrmont paintings :
My Pyrmont page in this blog 

 Update

This exhibition has now closed

Enquiries about my paintings:

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Related articles

• Pyrmont paintings past and present- My Exhibition in the Australian National Maritime Museum
• Not the Writers Festival- Exhibition of Pyrmont Paintings by Jane Bennett at 2013 Pyrmont Festival
• Storm warning, Goat Island

• Recently Sold Paintings (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)