Charlie, why can't it be like it was

(tt)   Here as promised are some shots of the Cross and Darlo the day I met up with Ewing.

This section of terrace would once have been the typical Victorian household, then flats then in the seventies and eighties a series of brothels and discos and watering holes. The World Bar once advertised The World's Biggest Bed

Once one of THE eateries in Sydney,The Bayswater Brasserie has gone and even its replacement has folded

Have always loved this little building

A grand old pub, cut off from Paddington by the motorway, is now a back-packers. At least it is not painted turquoise any more

Now we are at The Cross   This was a quaint bohemian village in the twenties and thirties with eccentrics and theatriicals and pockets of crime. Now it is the straight sex and alocohol heartbeat of Sydney nightlife though there are closures and changes here too.

And the brass inlays which cnronicle the history of the Cross show much the old place has weathered and lost
This commemorates a bloody street fight in 1929

Kellet St has long been taken over by restaurants and bars but all the regular dives we actors went to are distant memories.

Looking towards the top of William St, the potentially beautiful boulevarde from the city, down from which the famous tram would shoot through to Bondi

A strip of Darlinhurst Rd with coffee shops next to Strip joints and 24/7's  Lots of 'For Lease' signs

How sad in the day the gaud looks

For all you "Priscilla" fans this building housed "Les Girls" where the fictional Bernadette rose to dragdom. The entrance was along the side

From this corner there is an instant change from sleaze to selecte. This is Potts Point. Miss Nancye Hayes and Mr Bob Birtles have a  next to penthouse on this gracious street. It runs down to Woolloomooloo

The El Alamein fountain gushing like a dandelion

And here you will see that NY is but a short hop across the Pacific and then a bit more

This was one of the hottest and  often most dangerous nightspots, The Bourbon and Beefsteak which never closed.  It was THE place for the R and R boys to start or finish their evenings of excess. Sheldon and I tried to get in once but the burly bouncer turned us away with a gruff, "No shorts, boys" !  We had class that night.  Now even a multi million dollar face lift and an annex for the Sydney Swans can't drag the punters in

Even The Cross can disguise what goes on here with its greenery

A notorious 70's crime

It is rumoured that those who silenced her had her remains tarmacked in the runway of the airport

And I was there....not even a request for the time

Wonder how many "Gday darlings" have been breathed under this flag pole

A local artist, Lennie Lower, has his say

Top of the Cross looking down William St to the city. Ms Weaver has a little pied in the tower.

The lovely old Darlo fire station

This sign will NEVER be taken down

A charming bit of graff

 Into the classy and elegant part of old Darlo

An important piece of sculpture that the current government would LOVE to tear down

 It's surprising how many "tea rooms" in Sydney have become tea rooms

 And this little cafe round the corner from Robert and Barry in Glebe was a bog once

Battery on camera dying by now but here are a few shots of Taylor Square once the hub of gay life at the top of Oxford St. "Changing, it keeps changing...."   The window with the man's photo in it was was open as a restaurant and you paid premium prices to watch the Mardi Gras parade turn here on its way to the Show Grounds for the mammoth party

And here is Kinsela's. It had been for years a funeral parlour. We reckon you got horribly drunk here because  the formaldehyde seeped out of the walls. The Sydney Theatre Company presented a couple of shows here and I did the second one. It was a tribute to the great revuew writer John McKellar and starred Maggie Dence, John Derum, Linda Nagle, Bob Hornery and Sue Walker. It was directed by Richard Wherret and designed by Brain Thonpson and it was called "Four Lady Bowlers in a Golden Holden" and it was so so so much fun to do. If any one can find photos of this on the net please send and I'll put it on the blog.

Oh and yes...I would go up to The Cross for cakes!!!