Railway Square & Broadway

 

NOTE! ALL PHOTOS ENLARGE IF CLICKED.



Between May 1964 and the end of 1966 I became very familiar with the area in Sydney from Railway Square, down Broadway to Abercrombie Street and also the top end of Harris Street.

This was where I attended what was then called Sydney Technical College ("STC" or more commonly "Sydney Tech") - now known as the University of Technology, Sydney, or "UTS".

My employer was located in O'Connor Street, Chippendale, just off Abercrombie Street, so it was an easy walk from Central station to the tech and/or down Broadway to O'Connor Street.

Later in my working life, between 1967 and 1975 (when the Chippendale factory closed down and most of us went out to Bankstown under the Otis Elevator umbrella) I was based in the engineering department of the company and, if not driving to work, would still do the walk from Central station (or Redfern station) so the area was still a very familiar one.

Until visiting Sydney this past weekend for my uncle's 100th. birthday celebrations I had not travelled on the suburban train network since approximately 1972, when my then fiancée and I used to commute between Toongabbie and Central/North Sydney, so I had not had an opportunity to stroll around this locality for several decades.

I stayed in the Adina Executive Apartments, right on Railway Square.
This building, back in my day, was the HQ of the Railways Post Office service, where mail would be pre-sorted before being loaded onto the mail trains that left Central for country destinations overnight.
The shell of the building has been retained (Heritage listed) and the interior has been turned into a very pleasant and comfortable hotel.

The photograph at the head of this article was taken from one of the three windows and presents Central Station and the road sweeping up to it from Railway Square/Lee Street.
Apart from some more modern architecture in the background, this view is very similar to what one would have seen from the same window some 40 years ago.

This next photo, taken from the corner window, looks across the conjunction of Railway Square, Lee Street, Pitt Street and George Street, the latter disappearing up into the canyon between the high-rise buildings as it makes its way to the other end of the city at Circular Quay and the harbour.
Once again, there is much that I still found familiar, with the two old office buildings, one on the left and the other on the right, acting as gate guardians to the start of George Street.

The last photo above, taken from the left-hand window, looks straight across Railway Square and shows the old Mark Foys department-store building that harks back to the 1930s.
This is now an annex of the UTS but when I was going to tech between 1965 and 1967 it was in limbo, the retailer having terminated business from this address.

Just to the left of the Mark Foys building, and in a basement location, was a pool-hall where my fellow class-mates and I would play snooker on a Friday afternoon after tech had finished.
We would have a few beers at the Agincourt Hotel on the corner and then spend a couple of hours or three before catching our respective trains home.

Agincourt Hotel on the left - corner of Harris St. & Broadway

The pool-hall is still there!

So imagine my delight when I saw that this old haunt was still in operation.
Certainly some of the businesses that are adjacent have changed but to learn that the Agincourt and the snooker establishment were still operating was a delight.

Armed with camera and on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon I ambled from Railway Square down Broadway to Abercrombie street.

Back in the 1950s and until his retirement my late father-in-law was employed at the Kent Brewery owned by Tooth & Co..
This brewery covered a vast area, from Kensington Street in the north to Abercrombie Street in the south, Broadway to the west and Wellington & O'Connor Streets to the east.
In its day it was one of the largest breweries in Australia.
The main entrance was a landmark due to its archway, shown in the next two photos.......

 

 

This is all that remains of what existed when I used to walk past on my way to work back in the 1960s, when the brewery was operational.
From all appearances, it has most likely been preserved under a Heritage classification, as the entire site is undergoing massive redevelopment as "CentralPark", a residential, retail and commercial enterprise.
On the left of the archway is the original Clare Hotel which I think must also be under a preservation order.

The following series of photos show what is there today - and bear in mind that this project is far from completion - there is still a lot of bare ground to be developed.

The first of the new buildings to be constructed on the old brewery site.

An amazing structure; cantilevered platforms and hanging gardens.
This is like something straight out of "Blade Runner"!



The CentralPark development from the north, taken from the train
as I was departing Central on Monday morning. 

In the last photo above that tall "glassy" building is the one with the cantilevered platforms. The main UTS building is the brown one behind it, on the opposite side of Broadway.

At the bottom end of the development sits Abercrombie Street, seen below.....

After wandering down Broadway from Central I would turn left here, walk up the street past St. Benedict's church and primary school on the right and then turn right into O'Connor Street and walk another 50 yards to the factory.

In the above photo, the Abercrombie (aka "Australian") Hotel has not changed and is still a licensed pub.
But the view behind it is somewhat different, because there was once a high wall of dark brick, the bottom boundary of the Kent Brewery. There also used to be a small fish 'n' chips shop located a bit further along, before O'Connor Street, I remember. It sold excellent school prawns and if we were working a Saturday's overtime we would invariably buy our lunch from that shop.

I'll complete this article with the above photo, showing a view from the corner of Abercrombie Street and Broadway, looking west towards City Road and Sydney University in the far distance.

Nothing much has changed in this view; that older office building was there (it housed a branch of the ANZ Bank) and the buildings along the right are the same, although the businesses may be different.

It was a very enjoyable walk and I was heartened by the fact that there was enough original architecture for it to still be very recognisable for me.