Neighborhood Update
Although I like the idea of living in the Erskineville/Newtown area (so I can call my chapter of the Keith Richards Athletic Klub “KRAKEN”), Surry Hills is just nicer overall, from what I’ve seen. After living on Glebe Point Road for the last few months, however, I have to admit that the city-denizen in me rears an ugly head now and then to ask, “where shall we go to eat?” We’ve been to nearly every restaurant in Glebe – and mind you this is important, not merely within Glebe, but across the city, as we do anticipate visitors, even international guests, which will require us to be able to show off and to avoid cooking now and then (admit it, guests are fun, but when they’re staying for a while, take-out makes a valuable option) – and one of the best things about the Point is the easy accessibility of a few low- to mid-range establishments. So when I’m in Surry Hills I want to believe that I have the same resources within reach. That doesn’t appear to be the case, precisely. Surry Hills is a neighbourhood with an interesting history. It’s been a working-class suburb, and by that you should picture in your mind those labourers you remember from My Fair Lady, especially Eliza Doolittle, her father and his cronies, and it’s had the usual history of pub life, prostitution, gambling, etc., that so often goes hand-in-hand with the plight of the working class. The cottages that went up in support of the warehouses and factories that operated there over the years are still largely present, but their character has changed substantially, as has that of the factories and warehouses: although proximity to Darlinghurst and thus to King’s Cross, a fairly notorious district even outside Sydney, continues to have an impact, Surry Hills has become rather an upscale neighbourhood over the years, so that everything is becoming housing of boutique appeal. What backyards exist are the areas formally surrounding the unattached kitchens or outhouses (dunnies) providing back lane access for the nightsoil removers left after these structures were joined to the house proper. Apartment blocks, which are few, that aren’t housing commission monstrosities or developer condo-sprawl are usually renovations of previously existing large structures – the warehouses and factories whose businesses moved further into the suburbs for tax relief or whatever other motivation they had. But as is typical of these kinds of neighbourhood reclamations and renovations, pockets of development occurring over the years haven’t fully joined up, the way you’d see in the overcrowded urban landscape of Manhattan, for example. Thus if you are looking for a restaurant, you are looking at crossing from one part of Surry Hills to another, especially if you have a specific cuisine in mind. This isn’t as true of Glebe or Newtown, where commercial development has restricted itself to the main road, by and large. Surry Hills is a neighbourhood bounded by its main roads, rather than surrounding one, and these boundary roads have their own distinguishing characters, apparently from the kind of immigrant-enclave-and-dispersal that seems always to occur in cities over time, especially when ethnic or language discrepancies are particularly marked, and which act on the areas immediately within their reach in a sphere-of-influence manner. Down by Cleveland & Elizabeth, for example, the influence is Middle Eastern, so you can get plenty of tabouli and falafel. Up by Oxford and Crown, however, where Surry Hills abuts Darlinghurst and Paddington, the influence is Gay, so it is a more eclectically vegetarian area. Of course, everywhere in Sydney, the presence of Thai is undeniable, and often very good. Ultimately, one of the more interesting points in favour of living in Surry Hills is the joy to be had in discovering the hidden gems. This is city life at its best for many people, since it confers distinction to know where the “best of” is located when others don’t. I now know a terrific pasta shop for when I want to throw a dinner party, but don’t want to cook, and I’m not telling anyone who doesn’t already know.