cut

See original - www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2632248823/

I am not sure there was ever a "Playfair Place", and wonder if "Playfair Stairs" is a better title?

Thanks beachcomeraustralia, we have amended the caption

The glass negative is in the Tyrrell Collection. and it is one of a pair with this photo in State Records NSW - investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp... . Or

This photo was recently determined to be part of the Rocks Resumption photographic survey, the title and date of the image has been changed accordingly Here is a map of the Rocks Resumption area (last one in the sequence)

Useful history and explanation of the Argyle Cut including this picture - www.sydneyarchitecture.com/ROC/ROC23.htm . I have a hunch that a photographer was commissioned to photograph The Rocks and Millers Point in c.1901 after the bubonic plague outbreak to capture the squalor and slums before the NSW Government resumed the area for rebuilding (and later the Harbour Bridge). Many similar photographs are showing up in the State Records NSW photostream on Flickr. My idea is that the prints are the documents the relevant Government department required, but the glass negatives from the unnamed photographer eventually became part of the Tyrrell collection.

A print on Flickr from State Records NSW -

Wow, great perspectives! What an eye!

Wonderful picture and perspectives - it reminds me of an Escher print with the almost impossible bridge. When you know there is a steep hill on the right with a road cut through the rock (Argyle Cut) along the bottom of the picture, it begins to make sense. The area has changed considerably since then. Slum clearance after the bubonic plague in 1900, and the approach roads for the Sydney Harbour Bridge flattened the right side of the street. The corner house (with penthouse) at centre is no longer there, but the next house is - a top floor window is now the front door, due to s street level rise of about two metres (to raise the bridge?). See Google street view: maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

The previous photo of Cambridge Street is dated "Aug 1901". The shadows and lighting are similar to this, though a reverse view. And there is that advert (see note) for disinfectant - I would say that this is also August 1901. About 9am !

A print of this photograph appears in State Records NSW here: www.flickr.com/photos/state-records-nsw/3683566916/

See www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2632248823/