ST LEONARDS THEN AND NOW

I found this amazing 1950s photo of St Leonards on Sydney’s North Shore last week and was amazed - St Leonards was the first suburb I lived in when I moved to Sydney from country NSW and I still haunt it regularly. Today I stood in the same spot this anonymous street photographer did way back when - here’s the “then and now”:

Amazingly it’s still recognisable almost 60 years later, save for a major upgrade to St Leonards Station, which is now the Forum complex (and the building my first Sydney apartment was in - I remember hanging over my 11th floor balcony cleaning the glass dividers because they didn’t send window cleaners round much!), the tramlines we see in the 50s shot are long gone (along with the fabulous decorative cast iron street lights - I want them!) and several borish office buildings are now dotted up the Pacific Highway. On the right most of the original buildings remain - in fact the shop on the far right was and is still a dry cleaners!

Meanwhile welcome to my first blog post, it’s been a long time coming, and will be a mixed bag of general happenings in my life and my love for all things vintage - I hope people can make some sense of my inane ramblings and enjoy! It’s taken so long mainly because I am technically “special” when it comes to web applications and the like - still some little things to be cleaned up but I intend to add to it regularly so if you love photography, vintage fashion, or are a follower from the many internet things I’ve been a part of, add the main blog page to your bookmarks or subscribe to the RSS link for email notifications when I update and keep checking back. And I’m a newbie “blogger” so all advice and feedback is welcome!