Blackwall foreshore & The Boulevard

(Random walkies)

Couldn't be buggered trekking up to Gosford. Walked in Woy Woy along the Blackwall foreshore instead. Very pleasant walk looking at some nice old houses and across the water to St Huberts Island and Mt Pleasant on Saratoga and so forth.



This was a fish&chip shop most recently I think. The paint on the sign's fairly fresh but I can't remember when it shut. A Dear Old Thing who grew up just down the road gave me its history of occupation. It was an oyster merchants shop in the late 1920s.

That's the Watersedge Motel on the left of it. Eighties reno. It used to be the Super Fit Clothing Company factory from 1947 to 1965 or 66. Look at the windows just above the veranda. Those are the original factory windows.

Hard to pick the style. Due to the apparent age of the materials and the symmetry of the facade, I'm plumping for Inter-War Free Classical (circa 1915 - circa 1940).



Caprice Brick Wharf Road Woy Woy, just down the road from the pub and Huckleberry Finn's.

This place leaves me gobsmacked. Why the fuck would anyone build directly across the road from such a pleasant view of the water and be so careful to make sure the view was lost to the occupants? Barmy.

Also, I'm not loving the whole red brick slabbiness of it. It's fifties yes, but it's such a claustrophobic example of fifties architecture. It'll be gone in a few years. The Dear Old Things living out their last years in it will pop off (hopefully gently) and it'll be razed to the ground and a block of snappy white two-storey units slapped up in its place and flogged at 300,000 each.



Federation repro on Blackwall foreshore Woy Woy. I like this one. Plenty of the repro is half-arsed but this one looks good. Even the chimney is pretty close to the real thing. The house isn't a slavish copy of the Federation Queen Anne style (circa 1890 - circa 1915) but a slavish copy would be tricky to fit round modern building regulations and might look a bit precious anyways. This is better.

That veranda's a lot deeper and wider than it looks. Plenty of room for sitting and watching the fisherman row past.



Ducklings are starting to be seen along the water. They shelter in the mangroves and make short excursions into the big wide world. This lot are waiting near the Duck Feeder's house.



Near Park Road I think. They sound beautiful in even the slightest wind. The Queen Anne repro is just out of sight on the left.

Not too hot today. Yesterday was back into the mid 30s (around 80F) with a nice bit of wind at lunchtime, and we'll be back up there next week.