Has Surry Hills lost its edge?
Has Surry Hills lost its edge? That was the big question tabled by Time Out to a crowd of influential Sydney identities recently at the Cricketers Arms’ Bistro Morelli.
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Maya Stocks, artist/designer “Surry Hills was so inspiring in my teen years. Now I’m back after 14 years abroad and it feels really homogenised.” |
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Ralph Myers, artistic director, Belvoir St Theatre "Post-war Surry Hills was working class, then came the artists and bohemians, now it's the nouveau riche. Belvoir sits squarely on that housing estate/ arts community schism so, like it or not, we’ll respond to this changing scene." |
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Hellen Rose, performance artist “If they turned the Town Hall into a taco bar there’d be an outcry, but not in Surry Hills. This used to be a place where music was everywhere and pubs were think tanks. Now cash is killing culture rather than aiding it. The soul of Surry Hills is being smothered.” |
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Rich Roberts, creative industries specialist “Sydney wants to be Los Angeles but LA doesn’t have a soul. I see here what I saw happen to Camden in London, but when I walk down Little Riley Street I still love it. I think the rise of small bars and reactivated laneways has been great for Surry Hills.” |
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Andy Kent, You Am I/
Love Police Records “Sydney doesn’t respect its cultural heritage. We need a tangible organised history of Surry Hills so people who are new to the suburb can understand that these streets inspired The Harp in the South and formed the Beasts of Bourbon and Hoodoo Gurus.” |
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Nathan Hudson, singer-songwriter, Faker “I’ve played all the venues, drunk in all the bars, hit all the clubs. But I also spent five years volunteering at a refuge on the needle-exchange night shift. Drug users, sex workers, homeless youth – Surry Hills has changed but that ‘colourful’ side still exists.” |
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Stephen Ferris, FBI radio DJ “Surry Hills has become a professional’s playground and young creatives have to live somewhere else. The dollar power of property developers rules now. But a monopoly of power in venues is dangerous – we need to set a limit on how many bars people can own.” |
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Anna Plunkett, designer, Romance Was Born “I’m a country girl but Surry Hills is my home away from home, personally and professionally. I’d like to see the crazy, wild, completely off-the-hook party that was the Surry Hills Festival returned to run the length of Crown Street and shake it up again.” |
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Mark Poston, CEO, EMI Australia “I love highbrow, I love lowbrow… so I love Surry Hills. EMI relocated to Flinders Street in 2011 because I wanted to rebuild some mystique into the office and give back to the community. That’s why our front window showcases local artists like Beastman.” |
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Dominic Juillet, Cricketers Arms licensee “Between 1996–2000 [the pub] didn’t get one complaint but since 2005 it’s been a nightmare. New residents complain about loud footsteps, even people talking as they walk past. The cops used to help block this street for the Golden Bone dog race on Australia Day!” |
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Jack Tarlinton, publisher, Skateboarders Journal “Surry Hills used to be genuine, a place of real substance, a home and hub for artists and cartoonists. Now it’s where 20-somethings come to fuck up without giving anything back. But creativity isn’t an organised sport, you have to do things on a grassroots level.” |
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Nick Dent, Time Out editor We lost the Hopetoun and the Excelsior as venues. The rents are scaring off the bohemians. But here’s the positive: Surry Hills is hands-down the best place to eat, drink and brunch in Sydney. Question is, can we keep the cool factor but retain a sense of community and shared recent history?” |
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An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
An uneducated hate filled non entity is who you appear to be.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:33:16
That's what the Nazi's said to the Jews.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:28:51
Not really thinking LE are we?? EMI funds music a taco bar destroyed music... perhaps you should listen more carefully to your elders Libral Elite wtf is that name, perhaps your elders in Tony Abott, yech!
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:27:44
Your not quite getting it are you JP. Destroying music/art culture is what Fascists do... think Nazi's, Nth Korea, China... getting clearer?
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:22:25
Ha, ha, yes the new intelligentsia of Surry Hills!
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:18:06
What an extra ordinary grasp of the English language. Positively bilious and bilesome. Yes you are one of the new very unattractive yobbo's with money who has ruined something that was beautiful.
Posted on Wed 09 Jan 2013 09:14:43
Best rant I have read all year - I 100% agree with Billy Custard. This argument people in the article are trying to make reminds me of people complaining about traffic - if you are in traffic you are traffic - if you don't like it shut the f*ck up and get out!
Posted on Fri 24 Feb 2012 01:31:44
I actually LOL'd at the fact a CEO of EMI who relocated his offices to Surry Hills has to gall to comment about the suburb losing its bohemian edge! This article was so predictable it could be parody. The FBI guy has it right, gentrification is a natural and unavoidable process, now deal with it. "I was into it before it was cool" gives you zero cred and sadly y'all sound like my uncle reliving his glory days "back in my day....". Miss that stabby edge of Surry Hills yesteryear? Take a walk down the road through the estates of Waterloo/Redfern. If you don't like a scene then quit bitching and go create one!
Posted on Thu 23 Feb 2012 22:26:56