There are two bollards in the St Vincent’s Hospital carpark on Burton Street, Darlinghurst. One is covered in a sock.

Pat Armstrong, who spotted the single sock covered bollard, said: “Well, that’s one way to get rid of an old sock.”

It’s clearly seen better days. Is a sock restretching service? The sock afterlife? Hiding something?

Masking tape holding the remote to its top, this TV was looking forlorn on Burton Street, Darlinghurst, outside the East Sydney Doctors surgery/gallery.

“I work, colour too!!!”

It would have been a prime find once upon a time. But, you know, people have these huge TVs now, and by the way everything’s on the internet. It’s gone now, probably for an art project.

This instant gallery is a long way from Dubbo, that’s for sure. It’s under the Burton Street bridge on Barcom Avenue, Darlinghurst.

That’s just one piece of paper fixed on the wall. But there are plenty more, fixed to the walls with fat slathers of glue. The DIY gallery runs on the walls on both sides of the avenue. Lots of names checked, and plenty of different styles.

Lots of collages. Mostly printed on paper. But otherwise, not much in common.

It seems like the work of a bunch of artists, maybe an art class?

[UPDATE June 7, 2010]
Turns out it *is* a group of artists, thanks to Hamish in the comments below. It’s a crew called International Noise – some of their work points to a site at internationalnoise.org, but there’s nothing there. You can find out more at Valentina Schulte’s website, she’s a member of the group. Apparently it’s a Sydney based artist run initiative with local and international artists collaborating using guerilla tactics to do art on the streets.

Walking through Darlinghurst this week, I spotted a chalked message. Something’s happened, and something’s changed. Someone’s trying to claw their way back.

This one was outside the Darlo Bar at the corner of Darlinghurst Road and Liverpool Street.

While on Burton Street, the chalked up ‘Miss You’ appeared on the wall. This one, below, was further up Liverpool Street at the corner of Darley.

Someone’s feeling the autumnal mood. Hope it works out.

Have you noticed St Vincent’s Hospital is gradually moving north up Victoria Street?

Bill Warner’s chemist recently shut up shop, but it too is moving north, to the old laudromat site, on the corner of Surrey Street.

With the Garvan Institute on one side of the pharmacy, the other used to be two Victorian terrace houses, one of which was St Vincent’s Hospital’s Diabetes Education Centre. I am sad to see these lovely old buildings go.

The new community health unit is about to open on Burton Street, or maybe it already has, meaning the old Caritas building on Forbes Street is up for redevelopment and residents don’t seem all too happy about it.

The skyline looking south down Victoria Street is about to change.

And it’s called St Vincent’s Hospital.

We missed the parade last night, but headed out this morning to take a look at the carnage.

Feathers, glow-sticks, flags, head-pieces, goon-bags, discarded shoes, more feathers.

They were all spotted on surrounding streets – Bourke, Crown, Palmer, Burton.

Oxford Street was looking remarkably polished.

More so than those kicking on.

It’s Valentine’s Day on the weekend, so it’s no surprise to see people breaking out their best romantic moves in the neighbourhood.

These two are walking home via a bollard on Macdonald Street, Paddington – just over the bridge from Darlinghurst, after it stops being Burton Street.

It’s a paste-up, with Mini Graff‘s distinctively clean, pop style, though it’s the first of her cute characters I’ve seen about in a while.

This rabbit popped up down near the corner of Hardie and Burton Streets, Darlinghurst, this week.

It’s a cute bunny, but it’s a bit early for Easter decorations, right?

Christmas dollars make as much sense to Darlinghurst shops as anywhere else. But there’s a different vibe here. So when decorations go up, they’re generally on a different tip.

A dishevelled looking Santa Claus appeared hanging from the roof outside the Darlo Bar on Darlinghurst Road this week. There’s a moulded plastic Santa in the window at hip second hand shop Blue Spinach. And at the cafe named for its location at the corner of Forbes and Burton Streets, a very rock’n'roll Santa Claus is tearing across the outside wall, propelled by a giant shark.

It’s well into the Christmas drinks season in the neighbourhood, so the streets are permeated with a generally relaxed vibe. Which is great, unless you’re still hard at work, of course.

Cafes and garage roller doors and hotels around Surry Hills and Darlinghurst have been tattooed with a round face with a laughing, open mouth.

This one’s on Whittel Street, Surry Hills. The cheeky thing has two horns, dimples and a cross on its forehead – there might be a goatee in the mix, too.

But there are plenty of these hexes – and they really do look like bad luck stamps – around town.

There’s a hex on the wall of Recess cafe, Burton Street. There’s another on Sandwell Street, across from the Cricketer’s Arms hotel. The Hopetoun hotel got a stamp, though I think it came after the veteran indie rock venue shut.

This one’s on West Street, Darlinghurst, across the road from Bills cafe.

What would bring someone to hex the entire neighbourhood – bad coffee, messy break-up?