These characters are on the back entrance to a Little Riley Street terrace, just up from Devonshire Street in Surry Hills.

A bird, a skater, a man holding a child, a cat. Simple stencils, painted in black on a yellow wall. More ‘house proud’ than ‘street art’.

The back fence in this neighbourhood typically faces dirt, rubbish and needles – which makes it an unexpected site for personal expression. But it’s also where people park their cars, have backyard barbecues and and handball matches.

The ultimate aspirational Surry Hills pad: home, family and… a good looking back fence.

This Albion Way back fence has a distinctly Rosalie Gascoigne style: starkly geometric, rustic and quite beautiful.

Patches of rust on the corrugated iron suggest they were rescued from some old roof. But nothing about this fence seems accidental, it’s obviously composed. You know, the back fence isn’t where you expect people to invest their artistic energies, but in Surry Hills you have to use what you’ve got.