The Sydney suburb of Alexandria was once an industrial area. With the demand for housing being what it is, and with greater awareness of environmental impacts, and with first world manufacturing having been effectively gutted by slave labour costs in Southeast Asia, most of the industry that was once in this area has of course closed down.

The areas that were once occupied by these industries have been rehabilitated and recycled as housing, though not housing that everyone can afford. In addition, some places have been reconstructed as boutique retail outlets.

That's what's being done with The Grounds, which consists of bars, eateries, a small petting zoo, a flower shop, a function centre, various retail outlets as well as a few white-collar service industry offices. It's actually not a bad place though I'm not sure that I would take the time to go there on a regular basis; certainly not from my neck of the woods.

In this image we see the sign at the entrance to The Potting Shed Cafe; a rather witty riff on the usual "please wait to be seated" sign. The Cafe also has a resident blue macaw that diners can interact with and even give a kiss to. Unfortunately I couldn't get it clear shot of it from outside and we didn't go into this particular Cafe since we plan to have lunch at another place at The Grounds shortly after this was taken.