Hot Asphalt

Crystal Street, Rozelle on Thursday, 21 January 2021

Crystal is a U-shaped, small street between Wellington and Terry ending at Victoria Road. It seems to be hard to reach, coming from the city by car. Maybe that’s why it still looks like a remnant of old times in the midst of new developments. Not in the sense of historical buildings, but rather something thrown together haphazardly and then forgotten. There is a mix of modest homes and local industry. One of them is a panel beating shop. So there must be a way for the initiated to get in here with their cars.

In fact, the difficulty reaching this spot at the moment is due to the extensive road works happening in Victoria Road. The pungent odour of hot tar is drifting over from the construction site. The smell should be unpleasant, but I almost like it. It brings back memories of playing in the streets in my hometown Hamburg, when, in hot summers, the asphalt melted in the heat.

Isabella among the smells of industry

Isabellla Street, Camperdown on Thursday, 28 May 2020

Isabella is a very short street which I first couldn’t find. When I finally drive into this narrow one-way lane, there is a big SUV in front of a new apartment building, blocking the way. A man with a big, black beard is talking to the driver. I immediately think that the car is collecting a COVID-19 test sample. At other times I would have thought they are just having a chat. The bearded man opens the garage door, but the car drives off. There is something strange about that car since I see it again a bit later, parking around the corner, then driving away, apparently having gone around the block as it comes back and enters Isabella Street from the wrong side.

This part of Camperdown has an industrial feel. Even though most of the old warehouses are now residential dwellings and the former factories are gone. At the Layton Street exit is a heavily fenced and barb-wired property that warns of high voltage. It has a rusty, crane-like contraption with a hook in the shape of an anchor. In Isabella Street are three small one-level terraces wedged between two dark brick warehouses.

I imagine the whole street would have been lined with terraces, like in working-class areas in England. These three are the leftovers. Maybe the warehouses came later. It’s dark in the street and the houses look utterly depressing. They were probably built to house the people working in the surrounding factories, as there was a foundry, a tannery, a coach works, biscuit factories, soap manufacturers, Fowler’s pottery and more.

Somewhere in the City

Eve and Pearl Street, Erskineville on Monday, 11 May 2020

Somewhere in the City, 2003

Eve Street is part of the new apartment complex which once was Ashmore Industrial Estate. I know the name from my old map. I saw one side of this new complex from Victoria Street in Erskineville just recently. 

I don't remember the name of the street where I took photos of old industrial buildings in this area many years ago. The Ashmore estate looks as if it was much bigger, and it was probably securely fenced in. Further down from Eve Street is Pearl Street. It must be new, not listed in my old street directory. One building has an old photo of working-class women and children on their front porch enlarged and imprinted on a perforated metal fence and garage door. 

A row of the old terraces in Eve Street is still standing, looking a bit lost. A dilapidated timber house is leaning against the self-proclaimed luxury estate The Secret Garden. Nevertheless, the old house has a satellite dish on its roof. You have to know where your priorities lie. I watch a man taping a poster to a lamp post. It’s about a lost cat. I feel sad for him.

While preparing this blog for posting now in January 2021, I am still thinking about the photos I took in 2003 somewhere around this area. I finally dig them out and can decipher a company name on one of the factory walls. It's Brightwell Transport and they still exist in Coulson Street, just around the corner from Eve Street. One of the photos kickstarted my project Night Cruise. I named it Somewhere in the City. Interesting that these buildings are still there. The other photo was taken through my car windscreen and includes the opposite side of the street. It shows a long building with a row of windows, no doors on that side. Whatever it was, it’s now gone and replaced by apartment blocks. 

View from the railway bridge to 'Brightwell Transport’ in Coulson Street, January 2021

From the series ‘Night Cruise’, 2003