I spotted this flower on the wall where Foley Street ends on the Darlinghurst side of Taylor Square.

It was a gorgeous spring day, which seems less than a memory in today’s rain. But a closer look revealed an opportunistic bouquet of lips, perched above a guerilla fern on the wall. It reminds me of a rougher take on Phillip George’s remarkable Edge of Empire show at Breenspace.

I can’t imagine how different it must have been in this neighbourhood 30 years ago, but these guys might.

Our photos are usually our own, but this time I’ve included these photos of Darlinghurst in the early ’80s from a new blog called Darlinghurst Eats Its Young.

It’s all punk and post-punk, squats, fun, beautiful and sometimes bleak scenes.

They were put together for a show at the great Sedition record shop/barber/gallery.

This one’s a bottle wall at the Gladstone Hotel squat, on the corner of William and Palmer Streets, Darlingurst.

Madeleine Preston put it together, and took the photos of familiar but alien spots in the inner city, and truckloads of great bands, music makers and artists. It’s quite strange working your way through the posts, but I recommend you do.

Taylor Square has its own theatre, that’s for sure. But tonight it had the staging, seating and lights to go with it.

Approaching Taylor Square, I heard screams – which is fairly typical – but louder than normal, amplified, and as I rounded the corner, I realised it was a couple of actors. They’re in out of focus picture above, sitting on those round seat like objects.

It’s Milk Crate Theatre – based in Darlinghurst since opening in 1999, and working with homeless people.

It has one of the most striking sets in the inner city. With the background of bustling Oxford Street, and, in the distance, the sandstone courts, it’s set design taken to the limits. Something funny happens when you put actors in front of the scene, it does actually become a set.

My pictures don’t do the scene justice, it was hard to tear your eyes away from the actors.

This photo was taken while waiting for the lights to go green – looking from behind the actors to the audience.

I walked in half way through, and I couldn’t stay, so I can’t say too much about the plot. I would love to be able to next time.

Storage space comes at a premium these days, especially in the inner city.

I happened to glance skywards whilst heading down Victoria Street, in Darlinghurst the other day.

I just hope the rust doesn’t set it.

Actually we don’t hear the sounds of the police in this neighbourhood as much as you might think.

This graffiti on the corner of Kells Lane and Langley Street, Darlinghurst, seems like a way to claw that back. Yes, the police visit our neighbourhood. See, look at this permanent bit of police tape, the paint on the kerb seems to say.

On Ryder Street, Darlinghurst, someone’s eating their heart out.

“While you make pretty speeches, I’m being cut to shreds,” says the graffiti.

It’s scrawled, but it doesn’t feel rushed. The writing doesn’t give much away.

“You feed me to the lions. A delicate balance.”

A poem?

UPDATE: Duh. Just got a tweeted reply. It’s a Radiohead song, ‘Like Spinning Plates,’ from Amnesiac. Of course it would be. There goes my stadium art rock cred.

We love the staff at our local DVD store – Darlo DVD – and were amused to see a sign expressing their gratitude at discs being returned.

Okay, I admit the first time it was pointed out to me, I just thought it was a picture of Tom Hanks, saying thanks for returning the DVD. I thought, “That’s nice.”

But no, it is genius.

There’s a lot of talk about what St Vincent’s Hospital is doing to Darlinghurst, but most of it is as seen from Victoria Street.

Here’s the view from inside. It used to be called Chaplin Street, but it’s been so remodelled it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at now. A series of larger terraces have been carved out of the ground, and for the moment, replaced by utes, cranes and forklifts.

Changes to the terraces along Victoria Street in Darlinghurst have shocked locals.

In March, we blogged about the hospital’s moves.

This week, all over Darlinghurst, stickers appeared saying, “STOP ST VINCENT’S HOSPITAL DESTROYING DARLO!!!”

The changes are shocking. So OK, not like electric shock. But walking the streets – one of the greatest things to do in this neighbourhood – it’s changing very quickly. The sight is an unpleasant surprise, and some locals have reacted.

The stickers are outside the Green Park Hotel on Victoria and Liverpool streets, and on walls and telegraph poles right around the neighbourhood. St Vincent’s Hospital has long owned the stretch of terraces, but the rapid expansion is really changing the local skyline, and more importantly, the street level urban fabric.

The work has well and truly begun, though, so I wonder if there is anything to be gained from this street activism?

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.