White Bay Hotel

Too bad if you are feeling thirsty on the way to work - this is one pub that has not served beer in a long time. I guess this is where the wharfies that used to work at White Bay would have had a drink when the wharves were packed with bludgers stealing cargo and skimming overtime. Not the place I probably would have chosen for a refreshing ale.



The smoke stacks of the old White Bay powerstation can be seen jutting up behind the hotel, and the grey monstrosity to the left rear of the pub is part of the powerstation building - broken windows and all.

If this was London, the powerstation would have been redeveloped into an art gallery and the pub would be a very flash gastro-pub by now serving lambs brains with black pudding. But it is Sydney, and stuff like this is left to rot on the edge of the CBD.

I wish they'd flatten the pub, just to widen the footpath so that cyclists and pedestrians could avoid killing each other during the morning and evening rush hours. The footpath alongside Victoria Rd is supposed to be a bike route. It's not. It's a fucking joke, and riding on Victoria Rd is a death wish for anyone but the insanely fit and fittingly insane. The footpath is obstructed with badly placed bus shelters, bins and signs - and it's too narrow in places for one pedestrian to get past the street furniture, let alone someone on a bike, or a bike and pedestrian trying to get past each other.

Flattening this useless old pub could provide a bit more path width at a spot where it is particularly narrow and stupid. But I suppose it is protected by some sort of heritage order or green ban. That's irony for you. Cycling, a green form of transport, is being heniously held up by a green ban on a building that no one likes or wants.

Modern fucking life in all its stupid glory.