Verandahs were for hitchin'

The verandah outside the 1886 Soul Pattinson Chemist

Pitt Street Mall is now a pedestrian plaza. I will chance my arm and declare it the retail heart of Sydney. Once upon a time, the streets of Sydney were littered with shop-front verandahs. They were probably a harking back to "the old country", but I prefer to think of them as a protection from the heat, or even a hitching post for the horse'n'buggy.

This is the facade for Eway & Co, a drapery department store established in 1891 and taken over by Farmers in 1955. The verandah is faux.

Showing the detail in the Soul Pattinson wrought iron.

The "Pitt Street Mall" in 1878. First the east side, then the west side.

Nowadays, there appears to be a harking back to the mid-19th-century, with the return of shop-front verandahs (faux, invariably). It is more easily accommodated in a pedestrian mall, than on a busy footpath beside a major street, like Pitt Street. I quite like the mental image they conjure up, of continuity. Make sure you enlarge the two historic images which I found on State Records Archives Investigator.

The detail of The Strand Arcade wrought iron.

The Strand Arcade (1891)

The heading for this post is not true, of course. 1891 is, indeed, the date on the shingle above the entrance to the gallerie. However, 1n 1976 and again in 1980, the arcade suffered extensive fire damage. In appearance, if not function, it was restored. The Strand is the last survivor of five glorious arcades built between 1881 and 1892 , faithfully reproducing the galleries of Paris and London. The other four were: the Royal Arcade; the Piccadilly Arcade; the Victoria Arcade; and the Imperial Arcade. Many of them were designed by Thomas Rowe, after whom Rowe Street - may it rest in peace - was named. Developers, nowadays, seem to raze entire city blocks en-masse and build interconnecting passageways here, there, and everywhere. These are NOT arcades ... (sniff, sniff).