Queen's Place, Sydney, Nov 1875

PXA 984/5-6

series

1875

Graphic Materials, Photographs

421811

Photographs - 12.8 x 19.6 cm., on mounts 20.5 x 27 cm. - 2 albumen photoprints

No.5 includes a view of `Ebsworth's Stores' at rear of Queen's Place

Personal inspection by sub-committee no.1, consisting of, R.B. Read, Esq., and M. Chapman, Esq.
Seventh day, Thursday, 25 Nov, 1875. Along Pitt Street, commencing at Queen's Place.
" ... we inspected a row of cottages, which, in a sanitary point of view, are quite unfit for human habitations. The front doors were open, and we could see that the lower rooms were not more than 6 or 8 ft. wide. We could also perceive a ladder leading to a very small apartment above ; but the window upstairs does not open, and there can be no ventilation of any kind. Some light may enter from the small panes of glass in front, but there is no sash to raise or let down, and the ingress of fresh air is impossible. Just in front of the doors and running parallel with the row of cottages, of which there are six, is an open drain which discharges into a large hole in the wall enclosing the yard, direct into the Tank Stream. When this sewer is full a regurgitation takes place, so that the inmates of these hovels have in front of their doors, within 3 ft. of them, a sort of tidal stream of filthy drainage, polluting the atmosphere and inviting pestilence and disease. These cottages should be pulled down at once and should not be replaced by any others. The closets used by the inmates are beyond description. This was our second visit to this place, which, it must be remembered, is in the centre of the business part of the city, not more than fifty or sixty yards from the Exchange, and some attempt had been made to give it a cleaner appearance. The above description may therefore be taken to represent the place at its best." -- Excerpt from: Sydney City and Suburban Sewage and Health Board : Eleventh progress report. Evidence taken before No. 11 Committee / NSW Legislative Assembly. Sydney : Thomas Richards, Government Printer, 1876. pp.18-9. (Q628.0991/S Mitchell Library)
PXA 984/6 is unavailable (Nov 2007); another copy of this image is at PXA 514/62
Digital order no:a424005

Page 18 / Queen's Place / 7th day 25th Nov 75 -- in pencil below images at lower left
"Lower George St near Bridge Street" -- in ink below image at lower left of No. 5