*Remember me to Herald Square

(*'Give My Regards to Broadway' by George M Cohan)

There is an interesting coincidence with the reference to Herald Square contained in the famous old tune celebrating New York's theatre district, Broadway. Herald Square took it's name from the New York Herald (now defunct) which had it's headquarters in the district.

Sydney has a Broadway too which is basically a broad (by Sydney's standards) but not overly long stretch of road which links the inner western suburbs with the southern edge of the city's Central Business District. One of the intersections at Broadway's northern end is Jones Street which for many years contained the headquarters of the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), Australia's oldest continuously published newspaper.

In the mid 1990s, the SMH moved from it's Jones Street premises which became the home for the Sydney Organising Committee of the (2000) Olympic Games and the comparable organising committee for the 2000 Paralympic Games.

The southern end of Broadway was for many years the home of the Grace Brothers department store which from 1923 filled two grand old buildings on either side of the Bay Street intersection. I suppose there was a time when that branch of the Department store operated successfully but I have no recollection of it being other than a sad, struggling barn of a place devoid of life and more importantly devoid of customers.

The southern of the two buildings along with adjoining property was converted into the Broadway Shopping Centre in 1988 and at the same time the northern building was converted into student accommodation taking advantage of the presence on either side of two universities, Sydney University to the south and the University of Technology to the north. An outposted branch of (the USA's) Notre Dame University is now located to the east. The shopping centre was an immediate and ongoing success probably to the chagrin of what was left of Grace Brothers' old management. The centre is always packed whenever I visit.

I used to attend the cinema complex at the centre regularly but nowadays only visit the centre occasionally; mostly, as I did today, to lunch with Kn who works at Sydney University. One of the side benefits of any visit is the terrific eye candy on view regardless of your gender and sexuality.

I took a quick snap to illustrate this point whilst stopped at the lights as I waited to turn into the car park.

One guess which of these attracted my attention

Observant local readers will notice the electorate office of the Federal Member for Sydney, Tania Plibersek, in the background.