Passing Through: Canterbury

Merry Christmas (eve)! 

This next suburb is interesting for being both in the Inner West as well as the Southwest, straddling both sides of the Cooks River. 

Canterbury

My entry into Canterbury began right where Ashbury ended.

Cheekily, the first thing I saw over the border was Ashbury Bowling club. Some people have no respect for suburban boundaries. 

Across the road from the bowling club is what I could only describe as a big, flat piece of land,

with a tall fence and official looking buildings. 

I continued to get a better look, 

crossing a suburban sports field with panoramic views of Australian suburbia on the way. 

Crossing the road revealed that the large piece of land is Canterbury race course, where horses canter (and if they happen to fall over, get buried). 

I was on the other side of the wire fence though, so I didn't have much else to say about the place,

apart from it being a quarantine area, apparently. Google tells me that this has nothing to do with Covid, and is apparently where horses from overseas come to get quarantined (Horsevid?). Interesting.

From here, my walk took me through residential Canterbury and towards the town centre. 

On gum-tree lined streets, 

residential Canterbury hits those nostalgic vibes, with smaller, older houses,

the likes of which we've seen before,

but I had to stop for this weatherboard number which reminded me of growing up in Western Sydney in the 90s. My neighbours use to drive me to school in a Falcon wagon just like this one. This being before the era of everyone buying Toyota Landcruisers with three rows of seats the moment they get pregnant, the neighbours had four kids of their own, so we all used to cram into the back seat. Good times.

Moving on,

past more houses of the yesteryear, 

I soon got hints that I was near to the CBD, with a new block of apartments in the horizon,

and a handful of local services along the road. 

Made it. 

As Canterbury is quite a well known suburb, I was expecting a little bit more from its commercial centre. 

Instead, I found a few shops on the main road, 

some new apartments,

which were pleasant enough to walk around,

and the train station. 

Entry to the station is via this rusty bicycle statue. 

From here, I took the train home. Arriving at Central, I realised I forgot my scooter on the platform (I've recently taken to suburbsing with a kick-scooter like a small child), after which I came back by train to find that the friendly station staff had found the scooter and kept it in the station office for safe keeping. Cheers Cityrail employee.

Canterbury: A little bit underwhelming.