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'

Sign of the Palisade

The Hotel Palisade was closed in 2008, just after the World Youth day celebrations and spent seven years in hibernation.

MP7 Sign of the Palisade 2014
acrylic on canvas 10 x 10cm
Available for sale

During its long sleep, many locals worried that the Palisade would never reopen, and would end up as apartments like so many other historic buildings, but it reopened in 2015, appropriately just in time for its 100th birthday.

MP39 'Sign of the Palisade' 
2014 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Available for sale

The renovations added a rooftop cocktail bar boasting sweeping 360 degree views of the Harbour, Millers Point and Barangaroo, as well as a new main bar and boutique accommodation.

I'm not a personal fan of the blocky design of the new roof, which to me spoilt the line of the original roof-top design, but at least it's not too obtrusive from ground level.

I'm so used to seeing it from a bird's eye view from the top floor of the Harbour Control Tower, which has been my studio for well over a decade.

Although a waterfront pub, it wasn't the pub of choice for the smarter wharfies - at least not since 1972 when the Harbour Control Tower was built, anyway, for the good reason that being directly opposite the Harbour Tower, the HarbourMaster had an excellent view of the comings and goings of any stevedores that might have clocked off early for a long liquid lunch. Moreton's (aka 'The Big House') where Sussex Street becomes Hickson Road, was overshadowed by the escarpment below High Street, and there was an entrance to the Lord Nelson in Kent street that also wasn't able to be overlooked. The entrance of the Hero of Waterloo in Lower Fort Street also wasn't visible to any sticky beaks in the eye in the sky.

The Hotel Palisade is now a seven-storey masonry building banded with strips of sandstone. There is a basement, five storeys of rooms and the new roof-top enclosed bar and terrace.

MP39 'Sign of the Palisade' 

2014 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm

Available for sale

This small canvas, painted 'en plein air' just before the re-opening, features the iconic name plate which is attached to the parapet. I'm fascinated by the way that the "is" of the Palisade sign is enclosed inside a sandstone vignette, while the rest of the word is painted on the brick facade.

Related Posts

Millers Point from the top of the Harbour Control Tower

My page of Millers Point Paintings

The Last of the Hungry Mile

Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

Another painting of the "Jolly Frog" before the fire.
I've just read the excellent historical notes on theself-guided Windsor Heritage Walks, that I found in the Macquarie Arms Hotel.
I painted this view from the site of the Windsor Barracks and Guardhouse opposite.
According to the guide "in 1818 a substantial brick barracks accommodating up to 60 soldiers was completed on this site by Richard Fitzgerald. The foundations of the guardhouse constructed in 1830 at the entrance to the barracks were unearthed by roadworks in 1976 and the site preserved. The guardhouse consisted of 3 small cells which were used for the confinement of subordinate soldiers. The site was surrounded by a high wall, remnants of which survive today. The barracks and guardhouse were demolished in about 1928 to make way for the construction of a police station and lockup."

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations

of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Enquiries

Whenever I painted the "Jolly Frog" I found myself thinking about Edward Hopper's paintings, while listening to the Buena Vista Social Club on my mp3 player.In Edward Hopper's paintings, encroaching shadows express the tension between nature and culture, and past and present.

Although roads are typically associated with the noise, speed, and rapid change of modern life, this scene is curiously still and silent.

I've finally tracked down the Edward Hopper painting that I feel it most resembles " Early Sunday Morning" 1930.
After crossing the Fitzroy bridge over South Creek, for a minute I thought I had arrived at a sleepy Cuban shanty town. The shabby facade of the "Jolly Frog" painted like a block of liquorice allsorts , a combination of sublime architecture and gorblimey colour evoked the streets of Old Havana.
I've always wondered about the inspiration behind the surprising and lurid colour schemes of moribund pubs.
For comparison, I have included 2 of my paintings of the ex-pub "The Pyrmont Arms".

"P248A The 'Pyrmont Arms' from the CSR 2
1991 oil on canvas 31 x 31cm
Enquiries                        

The pink paint job is startling enough on the close up bird's eye view study I painted from the roof of the CSR boilerhouse (now the 'Elizabeth' apartment of the Jackson's Landing LendLease development)

But just look at how it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all the dark decaying bond stores and warehouses!

P249 "Pyrmont panorama- from the CSR 2"
 1991 oil on canvas 38 x 76cm
Enquiries

Same fabulously horrid "glow in the dark" shade of "Paddo pink", but a very different fate was in store for the ex- Pyrmont Arms Hotel. 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.

The real mystery is how the "Terminus Hotel" a block further south in Pyrmont has so far escaped. The Terminus has been derelict since the mid 1980s, and must surely be a candidate for the Guinness Book of Records for the longest existence as a derelict building without having suffered a mysterious fire. If you're interested in its strange history see my posts in this blog "To the Point" , "Looking over the overlooked" and "A tale of Two Pyrmont Hotels"

Update

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations
of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Enquiries

 

Past and present at the Jolly Frog, 26th January 2014

WJF4 'The 'Jolly Frog' from the foundations
of the Military Barracks
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 61cm
Enquiries

 Past and present at the Jolly Frog, 26th January 2014

WJF5 'The 'Jolly Frog' (there's nothing...)
 2013 oil on canvas 25 x 31cm
Private Collection : Windsor
Enquiries

Related posts

See my page of Windsor paintings

See my page of Pyrmont paintings

"A tale of Two Pyrmont Hotels"

"Looking over the overlooked"

"To the Point"

The Boiling Frog

The Phantom Toll House

Historic Sydney pub The Jolly Frog destroyed in blaze (abc.net.au)

6 Year sentence for Jolly Frog Arsonist  Hawkesbury Gazette 26/10/16

The Boiling Frog

 WJF1 'Door of the 'Jolly Frog' 
2013 oil on canvas 15 x 15cm

Enquiries
                      

The "Jolly Frog", was "mysteriously" burnt down at about 10pm on the 20th January.

A popular local watering hole, it had been derelict for several years.

Its lurid fluoro pink paint job was the first visible landmark after crossing the bridge into Windsor.

Now it's gone up in smoke.
A few months before, I painted some small studies from a small road opposite the "Frog"  I also painted a few small studies from my car behind the pub, where there was a wasteland used as a carpark.
The "Jolly Frog" certainly had the atmosphere of an accident waiting to happen. it reminded me of  the former White Bay Hotel, which a couple of years ago had suffered a similar fate.

 WJF3 'Study of the 'Jolly Frog' 
2013 oil on canvas 18 x 13cm
Enquiries                       

WJF2 'Sign of the 'Jolly Frog' 
2013 oil on canvas 18 x 13cm
Private Collection : Winmalee
Enquiries               

This trio of tiny oil studies have a slightly "Edward Hopper" air about them; never a bad thing to have.
Closed shutters, boarded up doors and a disquieting mystery inside.
In my next post about painting the 'Jolly Frog' I have some 'before and after' paintings.

Related posts

See my page of Windsor paintings

Paintings of Pink pubs - Painting the Jolly Frog Part 2

 
The Phantom Toll House

Fish and chips

 Painting Thompson Square, Windsor

Historic Sydney pub The Jolly Frog destroyed in blaze (abc.net.au)

Friends of the Jolly Frog

6 year jail sentence for Jolly Frog Arsonist

Hawkesbury Gazette 26/10/16

Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb

I was asked by the National Trust After Hours Committee if I could help with a heritage walk "Macdonaldtown Meander" on Sunday 3rd March.

This was quite a challenge.

I have painted Macdonaldtown's majestic neighbour,the Eveleigh Railway Workshops many times,but Macdonaldtown itself had never appeared as an obvious source of inspiration.

But I was intrigued and decided to explore. I'm glad that I did. Often I can concentrate on more obviously spectacular vistas, and miss the subtle charms of smaller details, such as the exquisite series of classical heads as vignettes between each terrace in a row close to the start of Wilson Street.

Macdonaldtown's streets were full of delightful surprises.
This charming decorative corbel is carved into the classically inspired head of a lady.  It separates a row of five 3 storey terraces at the western end of Wilson street. Some of them have been tastefully gentrified in harmonious neutral shades, while their neighbours sport shabby yet garish liquorice all-sorts colours. 
The hot pink terrace on the right reminds me of the time in 1986 when  a couple of local lads decided to beautify Macdonaldtown Station by painting it pink. All of it. Tables, chairs walls and even a pot plant were glued down and painted pink in an "overall effort to enhance the station". No conviction was recorded and the State Rail Authority's claim for damages was rejected by the Magistrate. I had hoped that the hot pink terrace had been occupied by these 2 intrepid painters, but they actually lived in Enfield at the time.

 'The Lady of the house' 
Row of terraces in Wilson street
2012 oil on canvas 18 x 13cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Macdonaldtown, despite its freshly renovated railway station, is not actually a bona fide suburb.

It's a "locality". More of a state of mind, really. The slightly shabbier sister, always being dominated by her more prominent Newtown, St Peters, Enmore, Erskineville and Redfern.The hinterland ; with most of the local landmarks residing slightly outside her nebulous borders -the exciting King Street shopping strip; the funky CarriageWorks; the chimneys of the St Peters Brickworks; the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Macdonaldtown remains the almost invisible space in-between.

While painting in Macdonaldtown, I found most of her inhabitants actually denied living there. They lived in "Newtown", "South Newtown", "near Eveleigh", "west of CarriageWorks", "Hollis Park", "North Erskineville", even the marvellously convoluted "south of Wilson Street West". This could be influenced by the vagaries of  real estate prices rather than dislike of the name Macdonaldtown.

Macdonaldtown mostly consisted of terrace houses of the cheapest possible construction,generally 4 metres (13 ft) wide "two-up two-down" with a rear kitchen.They usually had adjoining walls only one brick thick and a continuous shared roofspace. Hundreds of these  formerly humble dwellings still remain and are rapidly being gentrified. 19th century property developers would build a row terminating in a house of 1 1/2 width at the corner of the street, to be used as a commercial premises, or "Corner Store".

'Someone to watch over me' 
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 25cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

So this lion watching over a shabby shop on Erskineville Road opposite the Erskineville Hotel came as quite a surprise. This is the sort of rooftop sculpture that I would expect on a castle or mansion, rather than in the middle of a tatty row of terraces. It hints at a sort of delusion of grandeur.

 Only 1 person in the pub opposite had ever noticed it peering down at them!

'Derelict 'Edward Brooks'
factory in Wilson street  2012
oil on board 22 x 28cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Another architectural surprise.

The terraces at the northern and eastern end (closer to the University and the city) are as a rule far more prestigious than the workers cottages to the west and south, especially the row in Georgina Street and Warren Ball Avenue next to Hollis Park.

However, next to the very upmarket Hollis Park area, is the very large and very derelict 'Edward Brooks' factory, crumbling into Wilson Street. The winch above the window hints at its industrial past.

 'Edward Brooks building, Wilson Street'

2013 oil on canvas  46 x 92cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This larger painting shows the steps up to the lovely park next door, and how the old factory contrasts with the freshly renovated terrace next door.

 The former 'Edward Brooks building' was known locally, rightly or wrongly as the 'Hat Factory'. By the size of the winch hats (and presumably heads) were a lot bigger back in the good old days!

 None of the locals have so far been able to tell me very much about its history. One man from the Erskineville Hotel, whose dad used to live 3 doors down, said that it was a foundry, which seems possible, although records show the "IronWorks" as being a block further west down the road at no. 150 Wilson Street.

His dad, like so many of the former residents of Macdonaldtown's workers terraces, was an employee of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.Built in 1878, the Eveleigh Railway yards housed the Government Railway Stores and Workshops, and the Locomotive Engineer’s Department from 1901. Production declined in the 1970s and ceased in 1988. The site lay mostly disused til 1996 when the northern (Darlington) end was developed for a communications and science research facility known as the Australian Technology Park.  In 2002 the central part of the north-eastern site became the too cool for school Carriageworks performance space. The forecourt hosts weekly farmers' markets and monthly craft markets. 

 'Pediment with wheat sheaf-
old Henninges bakery in Wilson street -
now 'Original Finish'
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The wheat sheaf on the pediment, reveals the original use of 'Original Finish' as a bakery.
The former Newtown Bread Factory, on the corner of Wilson and Watkin Streets, was run by Henry Henninges in the 19th century.The lane behind the factory still bears Henninges' name.

 Henry Henninges' bakery in 1912.

The building has been very sympathetically and respectfully restored, with small cracks and weathering bearing witness to its previous history,which is appropriate considering that its current occupier, 'Original Finish' specializes in antiques.

Henry Henninges Bakery in 1983

 The former 'Edward Brooks building had been occupied by squatters since about 2001.
The building had last changed hands (for a derisively small amount of money) in 1981. The owner apparently only lives a few blocks down the road, but allowed the property to rot, in a similar fashion to the Terminus Hotel and the Darling Island Bond and Free Store of Pyrmont. Landbanking played as an extreme sport.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so a variety of squatters and local community groups had apparently moved in.
They were forcibly evicted in a very heavy handed fashion by the riot squad on Thursday 31st July 2014.
The once-shunned building has now been bought for $1.7 million at a hotly contested auction and will now apparently be renovated rather than demolished. 

Related articles

Riot police raid Newtown Squat by Rose Powell, SMH Thursday 31st July 2014

Eveleigh Community Heritage Day