Wealthy sisters

Margaret, Myrna, Ada, Marion, Strathfield on Sunday, 19 July 2020

Many of the residential streets in Strathfield have big mansion-style houses. Some must have been built at a time when the area was rural and the houses were surrounded by large properties. Other architectural styles followed. By the end of the 19th century, this suburb was known as one of the highest-status areas in Sydney, along with Double Bay and Darling Point. In comparison, the churches around here are rather modest. 

In Myrna Road new white palaces are dominant. An arch window theme of different sizes and executions seems to be en vogue. The burned-out rooftop of a simple brick house tells me that the fire gods deemed it to be unworthy of its neighbours.

I learn that Meredith Street is not derived from the female name but refers to Frederick Meredith. He was a free settler who had been given land in the area in 1793, the land which belonged to the traditional custodians, the Wangal people. 

There are several schools in Margaret Street, or rather several buildings of the Meriden School, Junior and Senior. It’s an Anglican school for girls. The Santa Maria del Monte Santa Sabina College is at the corner of The Boulevarde with several huge mansions on the campus. This one is a Catholic school.

The apartment blocks around here are less impressive, even though one of them is called “Place Vendôme”. Another has a comfortable chair with a blanket draped over it out on the front lawn. Someone must have been sitting there, enjoying the sunshine.

It’s funny how the eye and the mind see different things than the camera because later I notice that it wasn’t a blanket but the chair was used to dry the bed sheets which didn’t fit on the rack.

Marcia

Marcia Street and Lane, Hurlstone Park on Saturday, 18 July 2020

I think I have never been to Hurlstone Park. To the south, it is bounded by the Cooks River. Wikipedia says: “Some of the suburb is an oasis of heritage, with a village atmosphere valued by the residents. It is potentially threatened by changes to zoning and increased high-rise development.” Marcia Street looks like such an oasis. It has mostly Federation family homes, tall trees and a park at the end. Not everything looks entirely idyllic. I am warned that a guard dog is on duty and a fading Australian flag is draped over the dusty, cluttered windows of a brick bungalow.

Marcia Lane makes me happy. It’s that type of lane I love to discover. First, turning right from Marcia Street, there is a row of closed-down grocery shops in Duntroon Street, one has a ‘For Lease’ sign. From another, I hear the voices of adults, children and television. People live here. 

Around the corner, there is a low brick house that has a white wooden cross near the entrance door. Chinese music, interrupted by drilling and hammering noises, comes from a place opposite. The lane slopes downhill and curves to the right. 

In the corner I find a cat sitting next to stacked chairs. On the other side is a family home with barren grapevine branches covering the roof of a terrace in the backyard. Next door an orange tree, bearing fruit, has extended its branches around a palm tree. The lane ends at the park and the backside of the small block of flats from where I started. It has a unit for lease. I could consider it. The light is beautiful, breaking strongly through dark clouds.