This next pocket of the Inner West is an example of exactly why I wanted to do this blog. By most people's standards, this isn't a great place to live and doesn't have that much to see, and yet its biggest flaw is actually what makes it unique.
The suburban streets of Sydenham are super straight and super flat, giving you visibility of literally the entire length of the suburb in one go.
Most of the houses here are fairly unnotable - with a mix of small freestanding houses and terraces.
That being said, Sydenham seems to have a few houses from the Wild Wild West.
This here is what I imagine the house of a gun-totin', God-fearin' Arizonan would look like, animal skull, cactus and all.
Whereas these interesting corner buildings I can only suspect are the sheriff's office and ye olde general store. Seriously though, I couldn't tell if these were houses, business or what was going on with them. Regardless, they add an interesting character among the otherwise plain streets of Sydenham.
There's a real elephant in the room in Sydenham though.
Do you remember how I mentioned the planes flying over St Peters? Well take that, increase its frequency to one plane every minute or two, align the flight path directly over your head, and hope the pilot hasn't extended the landing gear yet lest you get hit.
This
suburb
is
noisy.
From these residential streets, I took a short walk to Sydenham Green, a park smack-bang in the middle of the suburb.
I actually really like this place (apart from this highly suspicious flock of pigeons).
I followed a path through the park and towards a strange structure ahead of me.
This park sure has some weird stuff.
Here's a giant couch (complete with a throw covered in pictures of planes)
and some sort of wall with news articles about plane noise on it.
I guess I'm not the only one who noticed the planes. I suspect the planes are the reason that Sydenham seemed to be a little bit more run down than some of the other suburbs I've visited on my adventure.
On a completely unrelated note, I've never seen a house built on narrower block of land - this is basically a pedestrian island with a house on it.
Apart from this, there isn't much else in this small suburb. I walked over to the train station which, somewhat ironically, is where this suburb finishes.
Just before I reached the station I caught a glimpse of a great little view of the city, instantly reminding me that if you can handle the noise, this is actually a very convenient part of Sydney (it's 7 minutes from Sydenham station to Central by train).
For what it's worth, I also quite like the tiled spelling out of the suburb name on the station walls.
Sydenham is definitely an interesting little suburb but it was now time to continue walking deeper into the Inner West and to my next suburb.
Sydenham:
Sydenham
Sydenham is a tiny (I'm talking 500 metres by 500 metres) Inner West suburb, immediately south-west of my previous suburb of St Peters. As you might expect, to get here I simply walked from my previous post, and turned off the Princes Highway into the residential streets.The suburban streets of Sydenham are super straight and super flat, giving you visibility of literally the entire length of the suburb in one go.
Most of the houses here are fairly unnotable - with a mix of small freestanding houses and terraces.
That being said, Sydenham seems to have a few houses from the Wild Wild West.
This here is what I imagine the house of a gun-totin', God-fearin' Arizonan would look like, animal skull, cactus and all.
Whereas these interesting corner buildings I can only suspect are the sheriff's office and ye olde general store. Seriously though, I couldn't tell if these were houses, business or what was going on with them. Regardless, they add an interesting character among the otherwise plain streets of Sydenham.
There's a real elephant in the room in Sydenham though.
Do you remember how I mentioned the planes flying over St Peters? Well take that, increase its frequency to one plane every minute or two, align the flight path directly over your head, and hope the pilot hasn't extended the landing gear yet lest you get hit.
From these residential streets, I took a short walk to Sydenham Green, a park smack-bang in the middle of the suburb.
I actually really like this place (apart from this highly suspicious flock of pigeons).
I followed a path through the park and towards a strange structure ahead of me.
This park sure has some weird stuff.
Here's a giant couch (complete with a throw covered in pictures of planes)
I guess I'm not the only one who noticed the planes. I suspect the planes are the reason that Sydenham seemed to be a little bit more run down than some of the other suburbs I've visited on my adventure.
On a completely unrelated note, I've never seen a house built on narrower block of land - this is basically a pedestrian island with a house on it.
Apart from this, there isn't much else in this small suburb. I walked over to the train station which, somewhat ironically, is where this suburb finishes.
Just before I reached the station I caught a glimpse of a great little view of the city, instantly reminding me that if you can handle the noise, this is actually a very convenient part of Sydney (it's 7 minutes from Sydenham station to Central by train).
For what it's worth, I also quite like the tiled spelling out of the suburb name on the station walls.
Sydenham is definitely an interesting little suburb but it was now time to continue walking deeper into the Inner West and to my next suburb.
Sydenham:
I grew up in Sydenham. That park with the couch with the aeroplanes? There used to be a block of houses there that were bought by the government because it was deemed unsafe to live directly under the flight path like that.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I had friends come to my house and as someone who lived there, I didn't understand why they covered their ears whenever a plane flew overhead.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing your story. It's super interesting to hear your first-hand account of living in this slightly bizarre suburb!
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