Capitol Square

Just a few minutes up the line from Paddy's Markets and still (according to wikipedia) in the Haymarket area of Sydney is my next light rail stop, Capitol Square.  I must admit I expected a square (or possibly a capitol) and looked around in some bewilderment at the square bereft collection of buildings that greeted me.

Which just goes to show how first appearances can be deceiving.  A ten second walk from where the light rail had spat me to the pavement is the site of where one of Sydney's first open air markets was established.  This was the Hay Market that gave the area its name.  The reason why I had difficulty finding it is that in the intervening time the place has been roofed over and thus from the outside looks like just another building.  Apparently some years ago the place was seriously run down.  Then some developers came along restored the heritage (ie somewhat older than everything else) buildings surrounding the site, put a glass roof over the top and created what its website claims is "a unique combination of business, retailing, hospitality, restaurant, recreation and special functions facilities" but which we would probably call a shopping mall.

The ground floor has the usual combination of restaurants and other similar things but the first floor proudly (and somewhat grandiloquently) proclaims itself to be Technocity.  Technocity is a collection of computer shops (and a nail salon for reasons which aren't entirely clear to me) plus a recreation area containing a whole bunch of Asian style computer games, booths and an endless array of those coin operated machines that allow you to use a claw in a futile attempt to grab a stuffed toy.  Said stuffed toys also have an Asian theme and hover somewhere on the border between cloyingly cute and deeply psychologically disturbing.

The whole area is lit by competing strips of multicoloured lights and suffused with the sound of dozens of video games all playing slightly different electronic music.  If you are an epileptic I would strongly recommend avoiding the first floor of Capitol Square.  If you do struggle through the square and out the other side you are rewarded (if that's the term to use) with the presence of a Starbucks coffee shop.  On reflection "rewarded" is definitely not the term to use.

Flanking Capitol Square on one side is the historic (ie "slightly older etc etc") Capitol Theatre a grand old building that suffered somewhat when I was there from the fact that it was a) closed and b) had bags of rubbish piled up on the pavement, presumably awaiting collection.  This is one of those heritage buildings that was restored, possibly it looks better inside.  One would hope so anyway.  On the other side is the Palace Hotel which is in an old building that actually looks like it has been restored.  At least it doesn't give the impression that bits are going to fall off it if you lean against the walls.

Handsome, or at least structurally sound, though the Palace Hotel might be I wasn't in the mood for eating, drinking or (in these COVID times) associating with other people any more than I had to so I gave it a miss and wandered up George Street.  This is technically Chinatown but apparently the Chinese are an inclusive bunch and this portion of it was crammed with Thai massage establishments. I might have been tempted but if I'm going to be rubbed down with sanitiser but somebody wearing a mask I already know an establishment that will cater to my needs.  Across the road was a Vietnamese restaurant called Pasteur's.  If I were running a restaurant I probably wouldn't name it after a specialist in bacteria.