Monday, October 15, 2007

House prowed

(Random walkies)

House prowed

House prowed. (Hur hur.)

Dry dock in a Umina side street.

There's always boats being worked on in driveways on the Peninsula, like everywhere else. But this one was so large it was like a building in its own right.

'Nother angle


Purple People Eater West Street Umina

I call this row of shops the Purple People Eater. It's the last shops on that side before the car yard.

It went up not long before I started my walkies, and I'm damned if I remember what was there before. Older shops I expect.


West Street anomaly

West Street is the shopping precinct of Umina. Between the roundabout (traffic circle) at Ocean Beach Road and Rickard Street it's all shops and banks, the Post Office, doctor's surgeries and the like.

And this place.

It's right on the street front, wedged in between the Charcoal Chicken and the Amcal Chemist.

It seems to be someone's house. Don't know if they own the shop in front and live out the back or are unrelated and just refuse to sell their land. I've never seen movement in there though the cars come and go a bit and the gates were open one time.

The large board on the fence usually details a hand-written grievance against the local council or state government. There's a different grievance every couple of months.

Locals either ignore it completely or slow down a bit as they come up to it, scan the latest grievance quickly then scurry past pretending they didn't see it.

It fascinates me. It's obviously been there since at least the forties, possibly longer. Can't see it in any of the old West Street photos. (There's a rather fun photo in that link of the old Rileys Bros buses that used to run on the Peninsula.)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

there used to be a service station where the shops are i think it was a mobil

Spike said...

Think yer right. Didn't they move in to the servo at the O. B. Road roundabout opposite this one?

Anonymous said...

yeah i think they did but i am pretty sure that ones was an ampol at one stage too

Spike said...

God knows what it is now. It's been fiddled with for yonks now. How long can it take to renovate a bloody servo?

Anonymous said...

it does seem to be taking a long while doesnt it

Spike said...

Shit yeah.

Went past it t'other day. It is Mobil, BTW.

Anonymous said...

I just remembered the name of that petrol station where those shops are now - it was Esso!!!

Spike said...

Must've been a fair while back. They're extinct now aren't they?

Anonymous said...

yeah they are and it was a while ago that it was there and i remembered that there was also a caltex on the corner where civic video is now that opened in 1990

Spike said...

Civic round the back of Deepwater?

Anonymous said...

no no the one in west st umina

Spike said...

I'm with yer now. Next to the hardware and across from the pub. I knew that bit was new but I didn't know what used to be there. Before my time that one.

You know that pet (?) shop and real estate and something else opposite the servo being renovated? How long's that row been up and what was there?

Anonymous said...

i know what you are talking about - i dont know exactly how long they have been there but they were there when i was a kid it had from memory a real estate and a bowls wear shop and i think there was a pinball parlour at one stage as well I cant remember what else was there but if i think of anything else i will let you know

Spike said...

Real estate, bowls and pinnies? Neatly catering for the well-heeled, the Dear Old Things and the slack-arsed young things in one small row.