Brickfield Hill, George St and Liverpool St

This photograph was taken looking south down George Street from northwest corner of the intersection with Liverpool Street. This area used to be known as “Brickfield Hill” which got its name because it was south of Liverpool St where many of the bricks used to build early Sydney were excavated.

But by 1899, the brick fields were already a distant memory as site was hindering the expansion of metropolitan Sydney and in 1841 they closed the works. However the name continued to be used well into the twentieth century.

In it you can see the tram pylons and wires in the image but no trams. The reason for this could be due to the photo being taken just before the trams started operating in the area in 1899.

This detail is a closeup of the west corner of Liverpool and George Street. The ‘Sir George Young Hotel’ is still on this corner although the building is substantially different from the one in the photograph. In this detail we can see the top of the hotel and the sign on top of the building next door.

The size of the building a scale of the billboard on top gives you an idea of how popular tea was in the colonies. In fact if you look closely you ca actually see the giant letter ‘T’ on the George street frontage.

It seems odd to see a place for teetotalers right next door to the pub. Given the much stricter gender divide perhaps one was for the ladies, the other the men.

No known copyright restrictions