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.

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.

The crossroads where Darlinghurst Road meets Victoria and William streets is busy, and there’s no shortage of bright lights. But this weekend, a phone company started projecting ads on the Top Of The Town building, right there, at the intersection.

They’ve borrowed the idea from progressive graffitiists, but I’m not sure. It colonises more of the fabric of this part of town, and the ad was pretty weak. But it’s a fairly non-invasive advertising – it’s there on Saturday night and then it’s gone – and when it comes down to it, I like the neon brightness of Tokyo (or Kings Cross).

Darlinghurst’s hectic Victoria Street, just outside the Wicked Weasel emporium. It’s a place where people spend every weekend, pretty much all the time, bumping up against boundaries… But in this tiny corner, someone’s made a claim.

You can usually see a homeless man on this bench. He engages all passers in conversation, ‘though we can rarely keep up. He often has a bag of jumbled up food, just like the one sitting there.

Once, walking past, there was a wallet lying on the ground open, with cards and things scattered.

But whatever the usual life of this area, the claim says, this corner is just off limits. They even added an extra ‘m’ for good measure.

Those carefree moments, throwing shoes to the side when they were holding up the party, they’re long gone.

This sign appeared on a telegraph pole on Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, last week.

It’s rainy and grey. The party season’s gone and the summer sun has faded. All those shoes people left around town on debauched long weekends are hanging long in their memories.

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.

A couple of Darlinghurst stories made it into Hyde Park’s annual public photography show, Sydney Life, this year.

Roslyn Sharp took thousands of photos of local icon Theresa Kompara (otherwise known as Mrs Christmas) in front of her Victoria Street home (itself otherwise known as ‘the dollhouse’).

Theresa’s the most fascinating mix of eccentricity and sweetness you can imagine – I interviewed her a month ago for a profile, but so far noone has bitten for the feature so I may write it up here.

Another local, Diego Ibanez, has been haunting the streets lately, snapping people walking through the neighbourhood – including us – but it’s this picture that made it into Sydney Life.

Neither photograph won the Sydney Life Prize, though all 22 finalists are in the running for the people’s choice award – it’s open and on show in the Central Walkway of Hyde Park North, Sydney, until October 25, 2009.

Walking past the Naval base at Woolloomooloo, we often pass the huge Fleet Base car park.

In a neat inversion of the Situationist slogan (“Beneath the paving stones, the beach!”), hidden above the cars is a native rooftop garden.

Embarkation Park (or as Malcolm Turnbull’s dog apparently calls it, Bark Park) has been around for a few decades, and the garden extends from small shrubs to larger native trees. It’s an ‘intensive’ type green roof, built on a layered system, according to this report for the council. It’s an off-leash park and it’s open between sunrise and sunset.

According to this Navy newsletter, it’s a “known shooting gallery.” It’s also a hotspot for gay cruising. But with a spectacular view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the rest of the city skyline, it’s also one of the best vantage points for New Year’s Eve fireworks and other harbourside celebrations.

So honours for the first Woolloomooloo green rooftop may actually go to the top of this Navy car park.

Spotted on McLachlan Ave, Rushcutter’s Bay, underneath the railway line is this addition.

Someone, crack the code!

UPDATE (28/8/09):

This one on the left is fading, it’s on Liverpool Street between Womerah Avenue and Victoria Street in Darlinghurst – just across from the Green Park Hotel. The one on the right is newer, it’s on Liverpool Street, near Darlinghurst Road (thanks, Blake).

So now we have:

A is for “azimuth”
C is for “cephlapod”
E is for “entropy”
K is for “kibosh”
M is for “modulate”
N is for “nebulous”
T is for “thought bubble”
Y is for “yesterday”
Z is for “zipper”

Riddle or just randomly chalked letter clarifications?

Walking home last night, about 10.30pm, I caught ZAP in the act.

Nonchalantly, I walked through the car wash between Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road, silently cursing myself that I’d left the camera at home. All the while, 2 capped men plastered a “J” on the wall of the stencil gallery, adjacent to the rapping dinosaurs.

This morning, their handywork was up for all to see.

Strange message, Zap.

UPDATE: 21/8/09

Mystery solved. But like most solutions to mysteries, it’s a bit disappointing.