Sunday walk in Paddington
Paddington street with city view
Walking your neighbourhood for fresh air, fitness and house-spotting is a common pastime, more common since the intervention of COVID. On Sunday we went for a different type of walk. Malcolm Middleton was test running the Paddington architecture walk. Heritage expert, Fiona Gardiner and I joined him as the clouds parted after the drenching rain of the previous day had left gardens and timber houses feeling thoroughly re-hydrated.
We began the walk at Trammies Corner, a well trafficked spot for locals, opposite the old Plaza Theatre, now a busy place housing antiques businesses. Here is some info about the theatre. It’s interesting to see how influential Hutchinson’s Builders has been in building cultural venues.
Moving on to begin, we headed further up Latrobe, extending our legs as we climbed up to Garfield Park and took in the skyline from there. It’s a fabulous place to put Paddington, Red Hill and Petrie Terrace, and the city into context. Walking on, with the down hill momentum, Malcolm showed and told us about several excellent contemporary architectural projects, and pointed out the styles specific to the designers. After the rain, it was good to see the gardens of these very special homes looking verdant. One of the houses was The Left-Over-Space House by Cox Rayner, demure facade and exceptional design. Without thinking much about how far we were walking, in no time, we were up on Enoggerra Terrace, taking in more details of the amazing hilltop houses there.
From there, we headed through the back streets, seeing the smaller cottages, some still untouched, some renovated and others significantly altered. Views down and through the undulating suburb presented row upon row of verandas and tin roofs, detailed wooden fascias and treed gardens.
We came out at the giant fig trees near the Ithaca School and play ground (now 102 years old), across from Lang Park.
It was a good walk, just under 90 minutes, about 5000 steps, as Malcolm had been tracking it for us. Fiona and I thoroughly enjoyed Malcolm’s commentary.
To participate, check out the dates and tours available.