Naked City: Signs of the Times
Much has been made about the rejuvenation of the classic Coke sign in Kings Cross and its status as the gateway to the Golden Mile. There’s been a Coke sign atop William Street since the 1940s but many of our other iconic neons and advertising hoardings have been lost to the ravages of time.
Sydney was once dotted with large flashing neons as any photo of William Street in the 60s will testify with the huge Dunlop and Philips signs taking pride of place. And who could forget the wonderful Sharpies Golf House neon which greeted train commuters to the city for what seemed like an eternity.
These days you would be hard pressed in finding a sign that has stood the test of time although some defiantly do like the welcoming Chateau Tanunda neon at the entrance to St James Station. Kept more as a museum display than a working piece of advertising it certainly evokes a bygone era both in its elegant design and less than subtle placement in today’s era of responsible drinking.
All over Sydney the big flashing neons have been replaced by billboards and illuminated panels. Ironically a new breed of much smaller neons have sprung up in shop windows across the city and inner city, nearly always in red and most of them reading “Massage”.
So what happens to all those marvellous signs that once bloomed prolifically from building tops and fronted the shops, pubs and restaurants that were so much a part of Sydney history. Along with a number of other historic signs the Sharpies Golf Sign has found salvation in the Powerhouse Museum after it was listed on the State Heritage register.
No doubt there have been many casualties along the way as the demolition/building boom of the 70s and 80s saw so much of the city’s history bulldozed into oblivion. It would be nice to think that at least some of the memorable signage from that period has been salvaged by private collectors and might one day find its way into the Powerhouse collection.
Even some of the so called lesser signs need to be preserved rather than ending up as landfill when businesses are sold or buildings redeveloped. Let’s hope the long running Oceanic Café in Elizabeth Street never closes but if it ever does its priceless tri-colour “FRESH CHIPS FISH & CHIPS READY TO SERVE” needs to be saved as a kind of perpetual epitaph.
What for example happened to the plain but ever welcoming New York Restaurant sign which drew budget diners to its Kellett Street premises for decades for what was undoubtedly the cheapest chicken soup in Sydney? All along Darlinghurst Road the much maligned strip club neons and hoardings need to be added to the State Heritage Register. Even the now mercifully defunct Astoria Hotel deserves some kind of remembrance with its tatty foyer signage enshrined on the ‘State Flophouse Register’.
If you have ever watched an episode of the TV show “American Pickers” you’ll realise just how much collectability our American friends place on advertising and business signs from the very small to the very large. There’s certainly a buck to be made in collecting old signs and neons but there is also a reverence for history that drives that buck.
Let’s hope we see all potentially lost signage, be it of the slightest everyday significance, as a valuable artefact of the past. And if you are sitting on something interesting, salvaged from a demolition and only gathering dust in your back shed, maybe you should give the Powerhouse a ring.
