CRYPTS and CATS: A Menu Of Secret Places And Special Treasures Around Kings Cross

Entrée: Uncovering Magic

Kings Cross is famous for night life and restaurants. Few party goers realise that this is also an exciting place to live. Café society at the doorstep has its attractions for those who love the cosmopolitan air of bohemian life. Stylish sophisticates interweave with the decidedly unartistic in a street based mélange described elsewhere in these blogs as flashy, sassy, and colourful.

There is another side to the Kings Cross lifestyle equally attractive. It is an area where walking just 100 metres takes one into another world. Just 20 minutes walk encompases a plethora of interesting places. Many of them are well known, but just to the left field of the average tourist brochure lays an entire world of undiscovered treasures, many unfamiliar even to long time local residents. Sometimes that is because they are in out of the way corners, sometimes they are actually off limits to the general public.

This blog is devoted to the unusual or special places, people and 'things' just a short walk away. Welcome to the secrets of our neighbourhood.

1st Course: Australia's Oldest Crypt

Title: Crypt of St James and the Childrens Chapel
Status: Open to the Public
Distance: 20 minutes Walk
Location: Queens Square
Cost: Free

Imagine Sydney's oldest church built by Australia's first architect back in 1820. For such an important historic building, it is surprising how few people find this beautiful place. But now imagine that underneath the church in the simple crypt lies one of Sydneys best kept secrets. Have a look at the photographs in the Photo Album at right to discover the beauty of the murals that adorn this half sized chapel (complete with children's-size dark wood pews and pint sized altar.)

The chapel was made in the 1920's and contains the co-operative efforts of some of Australia's finest modernist artists of the day particularly Ethel and Bethia Anderson, Gwen and Jean Ramsay, Roi de Mestre, and Roland Wakelin. The space was treated like an illuminated manuscript with the images surrounded with gold leaf, and with a vaulted ceiling of flowers, sky and gold leaf. It is simply beautiful.

Included in the design are reminders of the day, such as the beginnings of the arches of Sydney Harbour Bridge being built then. A romantic touch is the use of Bethia Anderson's future husband as the face of St John the Baptist. Bethia might be forgiven for making this St John the Baptist possibly the most handsome in all Christendom.

Despite the touches of the day, the design is based on the Christmas carol 'I Saw Three Ships' with the difference that now the Holy Family is sailing into Sydney Harbour instead of Bethlehem. The Madonna of the Ship shows Sydney Heads in the background.

As I sat under a sycamore tree,
A sycamore tree, a sycamore tree,
I looked me out upon the sea,
On Christ's Sunday at morn.

I saw three ships a sailing there,
A sailing there, a sailing there;
Jesu, Mary and Joseph they bare,
On Christ's Sunday at morn.

Jesu did whistle, and Mary did sing,
Mary did sing, Mary did sing,
And all the bells on Earth did ring,
For joy, our Lord was born.

O they sailed in to Bethlehem,
To Bethlehem, to Bethlehem;
St Micheal was the steersman,
Saint John sate in the horn.

And all the bells on Earth did ring,
On Earth did ring, on Earth did ring,
Welcome be thou, Heaven's King,
On Christ's Sunday at morn.

Ethel Anderson, it appeared liked  the patina of age and requested that no  restoration work be carried out in her lifetime. She died in 1958, and her wishes were  kept for many years. Unfortunately, unforseen by the original artist's, the natural salts in Sydney sandstone started to endanger the mural's existence with the result that in 1992  Claude Cox, who had been present when the murals were first made, left  a large bequest for their conservation. Since that time the  murals have been  lovingly restored  using methods usually reserved for the most treasured  ancient  artworks in Europe.

The crypt of St James Church can be found by entering the simple stone arch on the west wall. A special treat is the many reproductions of photographs and engravings showing the changing appearance of St James over the last 185 years that are displayed on the Church notice board near the crypt entrance. They prove that the older this lady gets, the more beautiful she becomes.

Side Salad: TRIM, The Cat Who Explored The World With Mathew Flinders

Title: Trim Memorial Sculpture.
Status: Open To The Public.
Distance: 20 Minutes Walk.
Location: Outside State Library.
Cost: Free.
Mathew Flinders circumnavigated the globe, then became the first man to circumnavigate Australia providing the first complete map in the process       and he was the man who named the continent Australia. Before Flinders it was called Van Dieman's Land or Terra Australis. He sailed in a row boat so small it was called the 'Tom Thumb' At his side all the way was his assistant between 1799 and 1804, a loyal cat called Trim.

Eventually they were marooned together on the island of Mauritius and Flinders was imprisoned for many years by the French as a spy. It was at this time that Trim met an unfortunate death. Mathew Flinders recorded in his journal at the time:

To the memory of Trim, the best and most illustrious of his race,
the most affectionate of friends, faithful of servants, and best of creatures.
He made the tour of the globe, and a voyage to Australia, which he circumnavigated,
and he was ever the delight and pleasure of his fellow voyagers...

People being people, when it came time to erect a memorial to the great man, the cat was totally forgotten, and a beautiful bronze sculpture of  Flinders on his own was placed beneath spreading fig trees on the west  side of the State  Library.

Almost 200 years after the death of Trim however, a movement started to restore the memory of Trim to where it belonged.Leaping from Flinders own words in his journals, bronze cat-prints were placed at the base of his sculpture, and on a window ledge about 6 or 7 metres behind Flinders a bronze sculpture of Trim was installed, looking up at his friend and fellow explorer. This must be one of the most unusual yet somehow poetically real memorials on planet Earth. The sculpture was made by  John Cornwall.

Trim has since been honoured in other ways, the many writings about Trim by Mathew Flinders was collected together and published as a book called simply Trim. This surely goes into history as one of the longest periods ever between the original manuscript and publication of the book. I can't help but feel that spirit of Mathew Flinders must be very pleased.

More of a surprise to him would be the Trim beach towel, Trim the cartoon book, the Trim tee-shirt, Trim badge, the CD, postcards, or bronze miniatures of the Trim sculpture all for sale at the library shop, or that the library cafe is called Cafe Trim.

Aperitif: The Lost Garden Of Elizabeth Bay House

Title: Elizabeth Bay House Gardens (Remnants).
Status: Open To The Public. (please observe the privacy of the apartments adjacent)
Distance: 7 Minutes Walk.
Location: Onslow Avenue, near 'Eltham'.
Cost: Free.

This watercolour by Kings Cross artist Tony Johansen depicts a secret known only to locals. These stairs were made in 1835 by Alexander Macleay, the builder of the nearby Elizabeth Bay House, an exquisite Georgian mansion now open to the public as a museum. On every tourist map, EBH is justly famous, and well worth a visit.

Originally, EBH was set among 54 acres of beautiful gardens. Macleay was a naturalist of distinction. I can recommend visiting the Macleay Museum at Sydney University to see some of his collections of birds and insects. His gardens were a Botanic wonder of his day, and most people assume that the little park with fish ponds and bridge opposite EBH are the remains of the garden. Not true. That park was made some time in the 50's or 60's and is on the site of the original garden party lawn at the edge of which was a long wall. It no longer exists there.

Closer to Greenknowe Avenue, along Onslow Avenue can be found an old building called 'Eltham'. Just beside it is a narrow set of concrete stairs. Most people assume they are the private walkway to the back of Eltham. In fact they are a public walkway that takes you down a most unpromising little track (in the photo) that leads to the beautiful stairs in the watercolour. Beside the stairs is a Grotto also made by Macleay in 1835, and the last remnants of the original EBH stone wall.

A modern garden retaining wall can also be found here that has used other stone blocks from the original garden, so among its rough construction can be found worn blocks that have the remains of carved betails.

Sadly, another remnant, a bridge over a moat survived until the 1960's but was destroyed to make the giant apartment block to be seen immediately behind the grotto. Luckily these little pieces remain of a former glory, ancient treasures in a secret corner of an otherwise busy and uncaring city

Snack: The Crypts Of Victoria Street

Title: Crypts Under Victoria Street.
Status: Not Open To The Public, But Visible From The Street.
Distance: 3 Minutes Walk.
Location: Victoria Street, Opposite Orwell Street.
Cost: Free.

This row of Victorian terrace houses in Victoria Street (opposite Orwell St) hide a large secret from the nineteenth century that has left a remarkable piece of evidence of past wrong doing. To discover the truth look for the public stairway on the southern end of the terraces and go about half way down the stairs, and look at the back of the terraces.

The houses are built on top of huge arches and vaults that rise 3 stories to the base of the houses. To stand inside them is to have the feeling of being in ancient Roman ruins. Unfortunately, they are not generally open to the public, but good views of them can be had from Rowena Place and Butler Stairs.

Why are they there? This is the site of an old quarry. In the days of the clipper ships coming to Woolloomooloo they would at times be lightly laden for their voyage back to England. At those times they needed ballast, and this is where the Woolloomooloo sandstone was dug and crushed for the ships.

Unfortunately the quarryman kept digging all the way to the edge of the carriageway in Victoria Street. It was no doubt highly illegal, but it happened anyway. When finally he could get no more stone he sold the land to a developer who had a problem. The land that technically faced Victoria Street was now 3 stories below it and the only solution possible for building Victoria Street frontage houses was the massive foundations seen today.Then, as now, Victoria Street frontage meant much higher prices. He also created Rowena Place, the street below, which he named after his daughter. This all happened in 1883.

Hors d'Oeuvre: This House Was Once On A Farm

Title: Stone Farm Cottage.
Status: Private Dwelling. (Please don't disturb the resident. The interior is NOT open to the public)
Distance: 9 Minutes Walk.
Location: 59 Dowling Street, Woolloomooloo.
Cost: Free.
This simple stone cottage is unique in the area. No one knows when it was built exactly, but in 1859 it was recorded as being on a dairy farm. Presumably this was the 9 acres granted to Alexander MacDuff Baxter in 1831.

Around this time the city did not come this far, although on the ridge behind, then called Woolloomooloo Hill, now called Kings Cross, stood 2 large windmills that produced a substantial part of the colony's flour. In the mid 1830's the hill was subdivided into large estates for the wealthy. Elizabeth Bay House is a surviving example. A painting by George Peacock done in 1849 shows this area was quite  rural, large scale development of this area didn't occur until the 1850's and 1860's.  The oldest house in Woolloomooloo that can prove it's age was built in 1853.

Meanwhile we know this house was here in 1859, and was on a dairy. I have often wondered if  it is actually the little house down the hill seen in Peacock's painting. No one will ever know, but every time I walk past this little treasure the romantic inner me wants to believe that this is really the oldest house in Woolloomooloo, and in my minds eye I see a cow or two in the shadows out back.

2nd Course: The World's Longest Moving Footway

Title: The Domain Carpark Moving Footway.
Status: Open to the public daily.
Distance: 15 minutes walk.
Location: Domain Carpark, Sir John Young Crescent.
Cost: Free

There was a time when futurists believed this was the way of the future. In the 1950's many people thought roads would become a thing of the past as the helicopter replaced the car and foot paths, well, moved. Robert Heinlein wrote a novella called from memory 'The Roads Must Roll' in which engineers working beneath giant moving walkways form a religion of belt workers as they battle the evils that seek to stop the roads moving.

Such dreams proved to be impractical for many reasons, for the cost of maintaining such moving footways was substantial and besides, most people prefered to, well, walk. A few were built here and there during the 50's and 60's and the longest one of all, at more than 400 metres in length, was here in Sydney, buried in a tunnel beneath the Domain. Problem was it didn't really go anywhere, connecting Hyde Park with a parking station was its main function.

Back in 1996 artists used the walls as a giant mural called Tunnel Vision, and today the tunnel walls are a delightful elongated panorama that flies by as one walks. Oh, didn't I tell you, moving footways were designed so people didn't have to walk, but once on that moving belt there is a special joy in walking as well as being moved. It's the best shortcut into the city that I know of.

Photographs of the walkway and the artworks that line the walls are in the Crypts and Cats Album at top right.

Tidbit: A Waterfall In The City

Title: Elizabeth Bay Waterfall.
Status: Open to the public.
Distance: 6 minutes walk.
Location: Cnr Greenknowe Ave & Onslow Ave, Elizabeth Bay
Cost: Free.

In the middle of the densest population in Australia, with art deco Apartment buildings rising all around is this tiny treasure at the intersection of Greenknowe and Onslow Avenue. The water has been cascading here for as many years as anyone can remember.

I remember sitting on the rocks with my feet in the brook and watching the sunrise through the tree ferns on the way home from boho party's back in the mid 70's. Then in subsequent years leading my children along the creek like it was in a distant rainforest, a rare treat for children of the city.

It may vie for the title of the worlds smallest park, but it packs an entire wilderness worth of memories into its peaceful few square metres.

Steak For Bohemian Cats

Claud and Cleo are two white cats who live the bohemian lifestyle in and around "The Hopes" in Darlinghurst Road. They have their carer well trained, they eat only the best steak while she makes do with cheaper cuts. They live in a beautiful bohemian apartment decorated with angels. Their carer is an artist, and it is her studio. They came from the country, but once in the city quickly adapted to the lifestyle that suited their talents. One of the photos shows them singing together.

Claud spends most of his time over the back fence in Baz Luhrmann's yard, hobnobbing with the stars and becoming famous around the neighborhood. Cleo, meanwhile, stays closer to home.

She of course still had her mysterious affair one time, disappearing for 10 days before coming home again. No one knows where she was, but it seems suitable to imagine her, like Agatha Christie with her famous romantic disappearance, never telling, and allowing the world to think what it may.

Picnic: Checkmate In The Park

Title: Chess In Hyde Park.
Status: Open to the public.
Distance:15 minutes walk.
Location: Hyde Park, near corner of Elizabeth and Market Streets.
Cost: Free.

Here is where those who are passionate about chess gather. The photograph was taken on a Saturday afternoon and shows a player moving a piece on the giant chess board. He was winning, but couldn't quite get to checkmate yet. Passers-by find the big board fascinating, and love watching the decisive strides to move pieces contrasting with tentative walks onto the board of those less sure. There is often advice over moves to be heard from those watching. It ranges from the polite "good move" to the less polite "You bloody mug, he'll have you." Generally, however, the deep thought and pressure of public matches creates an atmosphere of smoldering excitement.

Under the trees around about there will be several standard size boards set up on tables or park benches with intense players surrounded by small knots of onlookers.