Concrete Playground

Arthur Wigram Allen was a photographic Pepys, chronicling his life and that of the city around him in the years before World War I. His collection — most of which is previously unpublished — is now on exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.

Joining Allen's memories are artworks from Rupert Bunny, Ethel Carrick Fox, Arthur Streeton and Grace Cossington Smith, as well as numerous examples of fashion and technical objects, all of which help to form a patchwork record of Edwardian Sydney.

It is hard to imagine a photographic archive of Sydney that doesn't include gangland murders, but here is proof that Sydney has seen gentler times. An avid lover of the theatre, boating and that new toy, the motor vehicle, Allen captures Sydneysiders living an exciting, joyous life upon the threshold of the 20th century.

Image by Arthur Wigram Allen