Meeting the archivist

A little while ago, Juliette and I paid a visit to the Marrickville Council Archives, currently housed at the Petersham Town Hall.

clearly, where it's at

While the atmosphere inside the council chambers was slightly forbidding and dense (the only word I can think to describe it), the archivists were kindly and helpful. We didn't really help them much - just asked for everything they had on the Majestic, and we got a file of news clippings and some building records for our trouble.

As well as providing a whole lot of background details about the building's ownership and use over the years, the articles offered us a great peek into the rollerskating and rollerblading crazes of the 70s, 80s and early 90s. There was one whole newspaper story about the debate over skates vs blades. As a kid I preferred rollerblades myself. I owned a couple of pairs, black; one with red trims, the other with electric purple snaps, with a brandname something like 'Malibu Blades'.

the author, age 10

Other articles chronicled the decline in business at the Roller Rink, and later attempts to redevelop the Majestic once it stopped trading as a Roller Rink.

We have copies of the articles now but as they're photocopies, we don't think we'll be able to put them up as is (as are?) on the web. It would have been great to get high-definition scans of the clippings and include them in the documentary as viewable content (readable in the browser as image files). We might still use the photocopies in a collage-type graphic and provide the articles as text-only content.

Shady lane, everybody wants one

I walked down to the Majestic late on Saturday night to take some photos. I even ventured down Balanaming Lane, which runs down the side of the roller rink. When I was in primary school a story went around that a kid was stabbed in Balanaming Lane, some kind of gang thing, and that's why people stopped going to the roller rink. For years it was whispered among the suburb's primary school population about the horrors that awaited any child who took the risk of wandering down Balanaming Lane. When the Majestic eventually shut down in 2003 I assumed that it had never recovered from the taint of the gang warfare on its doorstep. Since then I've found out that it was something much less dramatic to do with an injury compensation/public liability claim that cleaned the owners out, but I hope that little urban myth lives on to strike terror in the hearts of Petersham children for years to come.

the view from Balanaming Lane out onto New Canterbury Road.

I also discovered what the little men in overalls I saw on Tuesday afternoon were doing - erecting a big For Sale sign on the top of the Majestic. So, this is a very interesting development. I had heard that there were plans afoot to turn the building into apartments but it was stymied by either council or resident protest. I'm not sure whether the building is heritage listed or protected by any kind of preservation order (according to Cinema Tour, it was registered on the List of Important Buildings by the National Trust in 1989). Whatever happens, I think the possible redevelopment of the site makes it even more important that we do this documentary.

All I want is what you got

Bec Cartwright filmed the video clip for her rather terrible song "All Seats Taken" at the Majestic Roller Rink in 2002. To see the Majestic in its former...majesty, watch the video at YouTube.

Number one

Lame blog title, I know. But who can resist a good pun? (Evidently not me). Here begins the exhaustive documentation of the As-Yet Untitled Online Histor/y/ies of The Majestic Roller Rink.