Surry Hills is fast emerging as the home of the small bar in Sydney, I suspect. As I walked around Surry today I noticed a development application for another, right next to the refurbished Surry Hills library.

It’s what was the Indian restaurant which collapsed in November 2007, which provoked a lot of local attention, as well as media attention. I wrote this at the time.

“How long have you been here for?”, I said to a colleague who is coveing the story for television news. “Since 10 o’clock this morning”, he told me with a wry grin. All of the television stations (except SBS) seem to have crews there. We love a building collapse in Sydney, don’t we?

It’ll be interesting to see what they develop in the space, especially since that part of Surry Hills is now developing a bit of a small bar culture.

Meanwhile, as I waited at the bus stop I noticed a poster for something not terribly “Surry” at all. It’s wrong to generalise, of course, especially since “Surry” is quite a diverse neighbourhood. I just can’t see there being much of a market advertising in a bus shelter in Sydney for a “hits and memories” style of rock musical that’s advertised as “only in Melbourne”.