St Mary's Cathedral - From a distance

Photography can be deceptive, I suspect you might agree. It is all in the framing. This first image was taken from the viaduct that separates The Domain from Wooloomooloo. Not sure why the viaduct is there: it does not carry water, it does not carry cars. It allows pedestrians to cross from Cook+Phillip Park over to The Domain, and hence to the AG-NSW. It is excessively ugly when included.

As you can see from this second image showing the viaduct obliterating the beauty of St Mary's Cathedral. This was taken from the intersection of Riley Street and Sir John Young Crescent, the head of Wooloomooloo Bay, prior to it being retained by a wall, and extensively retained, in the 1860s.

This third image was taken having crossed the viaduct and on my way across the grassy expanse of The Domain sports fields. I looked back, judiciously framed my shot, removing all ugly, and just showing a magnificent contrast of old vs new. The new is the building in which my daughter currently works; on the 22nd floor. Below is a paining by Geoge Lambert in 1849. It shows the ridge upon which St Mary's Cathedral is now located. Actually, the original St Mary's is in the painting, but the new building was swung around to be north-south. The church with the spire is St James.

I built my house of bricks, 'cause straw and twigs don't last

I thought, perhaps, that the tale of "The Three Little Pigs" was devised by a brick-making family of yore, out to plead the case for their favoured building material. Whichever, I cannot see these towers of steel, and concrete, and glass lasting anywhere near as long as the buildings erected from sandstone.

The first image shows the third St Phillip's church down on York Street (Church Hill) which was erected in 1856. It replaced the second St Phillips, just a little further down the hill, which was regarded as "the ugliest church in all christendom", which had been erected in 1804. The middle image, shows St James Church on Macquarie Street, which was constructed between 1820 and 1824, initially under the stewardship of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Both these churches are of the Anglican (Church of England/Episcopalian) persuasion. The third image shows the C. W. Foley building down on Erskine Street which was constructed in 1899, just before the 1901 demolitions in that very area, which attempted to rid Sydney Town of poor people who it was easy to blame for the plague.

The Foley Building nestles into the glass ediface of the corporate head office of Westpac Bank (formerly the Bank of New South Wales). This entire city block was "rejigged" by Westpac during the 2000s, some old stuff being retained, and other "stuff" getting the heave-ho. With the current construction of the Barangaroo complex and its adjoining Wynyard Walk, another facelift is occurring. Over the next little while, I will try to unpack this down-at-heel part of my city.