Olympia Milk Bar

Yesterday the bus I was on stopped in exactly the right spot, so that i could photograph this Sydney icon.

Obviously I've pushed the detail through the roof, but it makes it easier to see the old cardboard displays, the laminex table and the word 'Olympia' in the floor.

I've blipped this before, from a distance, and so lazy am I that I've done a cut and paste.

This milk bar has something of a cult status, and the internet's full of stories of people who were daring enough to enter.  The old fellow who owns the place is usually to be found hovering in the gloaming.  Even late at night the lights are off.  There is almost no stock, he doesn't do fancy cappuccinos, but will give you a cup of tea or a milkshake in a battered metal container.  He rarely speaks and will kick you out if you produce a camera.  There has been no attempt to maintain the shop, so that when a pane of glass has been broken it's covered with boards and tape.  
There was once an Olympia Hair Salon above the shop.  How dandy it would have been to get your nutri tonic perm there.

I lived around the corner over thirty years ago and even then it was a ghost shop, tho I did venture in, only once.

The weird thing about it is that tho it purports to be a shop which is open to the public, it really isn't.  It's more a testament to what would seem to be a sad life, and why he continues to open is anyone's guess.

All very twilight zone.


It has its own facebook page with over 2000 members, and there's a recent article here, if you're interested.