Glebe, New South Wales

Glebe Sydney, New South Wales
St Scholastica's College, formerly Toxteth Park
Population:	10,872 (2001 census)
Postcode:	2037
Area:	1.8 km² (0.7 sq mi)
Location:	3 km (2 mi) west of Sydney CBD
LGA:	City of Sydney
State electorate:	Balmain
Federal Division:	Sydney
Suburbs around Glebe: Annandale Blackwattle Bay Pyrmont Forest Lodge Glebe Ultimo Camperdown Broadway Chippendale

Glebe is an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Glebe is located 3 km south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney, in the Inner West region.

Glebe is surrounded by Blackwattle Bay and Rozelle Bay, inlets of Sydney Harbour, in the north. The suburb of Ultimo lies to the east and the suburbs of Annandale and Forest Lodge lie to the west. The southern boundary is formed by Parramatta Road and Broadway. Broadway is a locality around the road of the same name, which is located on the border of Glebe, Chippendale and Ultimo.

History

Glebe's name derives from the fact that the land on which it was developed was a glebe, originally owned by the Anglican Church. 'The Glebe' was a land grant of 400 acres (1.6 km²) given by Governor Arthur Phillip to Reverend Richard Johnson, Chaplain of the First Fleet, in 1790.

Wentworth Park greyhound racing track

In the 19th century, Glebe was home to architect, Edmund Blacket, who had migrated from England. Blacket built his family home, Bidura, on Glebe Point Road in 1858, designing it along conventional Victorian Regency lines. He also designed St John's Church, on the corner of Glebe Point Road and St Johns Road. The church was built from 1868 to 1870.

The Rozelle Tram Depot, located in The Crescent, Glebe, opened for service on the 17th April 1904. The depot served the inner western suburbs tram routes to Leichhardt, Balmain, Birchgrove, Abbotsford, and Lilyfield. During its peak of operations the depot was a major place of employment, employing up to 650 staff and was one of few workplaces of significant size in the Glebe area during its period. The depot ceased operations on 22 November 1958.

The suburb of Glebe was home to a first grade football team in the New South Wales Rugby League, now the National Rugby League. The Glebe Dirty Reds were formed in 1908 and played in the first seasons of rugby league in Australia, with home games at Wentworth Park. The foundation club did not win a premiership, and was excluded from the competition in 1930.

In the 1970s, feminist activists took over an abandoned terrace house and set up Australia's first women's shelter, the Elsie Refuge.

Commercial areas

Glebe Point Road is the main road through the suburb, featuring a shopping strip, known for its specialty shops, restaurants and cafés. The Broadway Shopping Centre was built on the landmark site of the former Grace Brothers department store. The shopping centre includes a food court and cinema complex, and completed a renovation in July 2007 which added a fourth floor.

Landmarks

• Sze Yup Temple (Chinese: 四邑廟) is located in Edward Street and was originally built in 1898 by Chinese immigrants from Sze Yup, Guangdong province, China. It provided a focal point for the early Chinese market gardeners in the area. It is still in use today. The present building, which replaced one destroyed by fire, dates from 1955. Arsonists caused another fire in January 2008, damaging the roof and all its contents. Racism and anti-Chinese sentiments just prior to Chinese New Year in February were suspected as motives, but police refused to confirm or deny this. While refusing to agree to community suspicions that the fire was racially-motivated, in January 2009 the local council allowed reconstruction work as a sign of goodwill.
• Bellevue located in Blackwattle Park was built in 1896 by Ambrose Thornley for prominent Glebe resident William Jarrett.
• Bidura, situated on Glebe Point Road, was the home built by the architect Edmund Blacket for his family. Built in 1857, the house may have been influenced by the design of the nearby Toxteth Park.
• Toxteth Park - George Allen who established a legal firm and became Lord Mayor of Sydney in 1844, built Toxteth Park. St Scholastica's College moved to this site from Pitt Street in the centre of Sydney, in 1901.
• Lyndhurst - This gracious mansion was built between 1833 and 1837 for Dr James Bowman who was the principal surgeon of the nearby Sydney Hospital.
• Coroner's Court of New South Wales. It is prominently located on Parramatta Road and often in the news due to inquests being conducted there.

Bidura, home of Edmund Blacket

• Johnstons Creek rises in Stanmore and flows in a generally northward direction towards Rozelle Bay. The creek passes beneath the stands of the former Harold Park Paceway prior to emptying into Rozelle Bay at Bicentennial Park, Glebe.

The following buildings are listed under the NSW Heritage Act

• Reussdale (formerly Presbyterian Church Manse), Bridge Road
• Lyndhurst, Darghan Street
• Tranby, Mansfield Street
• Bellevue, Leichhardt Street
• Railway Viaduct
• Hereford House, Hereford Street
• Monteith, Glebe Point Road
• Pyrmont & Glebe Railway Tunnels
• Rothwell Lodge & Factory, Ferry Road
• Sze Yup Temple, Edward Street
• University Hall & Cottages, Broadway

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  Sze Yup Chinese Temple

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  Toxteth Lodge

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  Record Reign Hall, St Johns Road

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  Glebe Town Hall

Churches

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  St John's Church, designed by Edmund Blacket

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  Tower of St John's

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  St James Catholic Church

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  St James Catholic School

Education

Schools in the suburb include Glebe Public School (on Glebe Point Road), St James Catholic School (on Woolley Street), Forest Lodge Public School (Pyrmont Bridge Rd) and St Scholastica's College (on Avenue Road). The Blackwattle Bay Campus of Sydney Secondary College sits on the site of the old Glebe High School.

Tranby Aboriginal College is located in a heritage-listed building on Mansfield St.

Culture

Glebe markets

Bicentennial Park on Rozelle Bay

The Nag's Head, a pub on St Johns Road

Glebe markets

Glebe has a popular market which is held on Saturdays in the grounds of Glebe Primary School. Arts, crafts, clothing and edibles are sold. They are known as the alternative markets for the alternative lifestyle goods that are offered. New and second-hand goods are sold here.

Restaurants

Glebe is well known for its variety of ethnic restaurants, possibly the most diverse in Sydney, which are located along Glebe Point Road. As well as the usual Indian, Thai, Italian etc. can be found Nepalese, Dutch-Indonesian, and other minority ethnic tastes.

Sport and recreation

Wentworth Park, which features a greyhound racing track, is on the border with Ultimo.

Glebe mini skateboarding ramp is located in Bicentennial Park off Chapman road, in between Glebe and Annandale. The mini was originally 3.5-foot (1.1 m) tall with a hump in the middle. Circa 2005 the original mini was removed and replaced with a traditional 4-foot (1.2 m) ramp, sans hump.

Houses

19th century housing stock is largely intact, having undergone restoration as a result of gentrification. It is popular with city-workers and students due to its proximity to the Central Business District as well as University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Notre Dame Australia. Glebe is popular with backpackers due to the bars and cafes of Glebe Point Road and the aforementioned proximity to the City.

At its south-eastern end is the Glebe Estate, an area of Housing Commission properties purchased by the government of Gough Whitlam as a massive urban renewal project to provide public housing for the needy. This area today has the third highest Aboriginal population in Sydney.

Transport

Glebe's nearest railway station is Central, which is around a twenty minute walk away. The Metro Light Rail line has two stations in the suburb, Glebe and Jubilee Park, with the journey from Glebe to Central taking just under twenty minutes. The 431 and 433 buses run regularly from Millers Point via George Street, Broadway and Glebe Point Road, terminating at Glebe Point and Balmain respectively. The journey time from Glebe Point Road to Town Hall on either of these services is typically between ten and twenty minutes. Glebe Point Road is also serviced by the 370 bus, which runs from Leichhardt to Coogee via Newtown, Alexandria and UNSW.

Original vegetation

The original vegetation was the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest. A veteran Ironbark still grows at the grounds of St John's Anglican Church, at Glebe Point Road.

Notable residents

• Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia
• David Musgrave, an award winning poet
• Reg Mombassa (the pseudonym of Chris O'Doherty), artist and musician
• Leo Sayer, a well-known singer/songwriter of the 1970s

External links

• The Glebe Society
• City of Sydney: Glebe, Forest Lodge and Broadway
• Tranby Aboriginal College