Tuesday 18 April 2006

Where's Arncliffe?

Arncliffe is an inner southern suburb of Sydney in the - part of the St George district. It is situated about 10 km south of central Sydney. It's been my home for the last 22 years, and I love it, even if it has absolutely no glamour and you are never likely to find it on a list of desirable Sydney suburbs!

Arncliffe's name comes from a small village in North Yorkshire, England.


Me at Arncliffe, North Yorkshire

Ron Rathbone, a local historian, in his book "A Village Called Arncliffe" says that an early land speculator, William Hirst, created a subdivision in 1840. It was named The Village of Arncliffe Estate. William Hirst was born in Settle, Yorkshire. Settle is a market town serving a cluster of villages, of which Arncliffe is reputed to be the prettiest. Rathbone says it is likely that Hirst gave Arncliffe its name, although it was more than two decades before it received official recognition.

The street I live in runs into Hirst Street, obviously named after William Hirst.

5 comments:

Jim said...

Brilliant website on Arncliffe. Some great photos. I've been compiling some information on Arncliffe too in wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arncliffe%2C_New_South_Wales

Anonymous said...

Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ateday

Anonymous said...

This is very detailed! What a huge amount of effort you must have ,ade to put this together!!!

We are thinking about moving to Arncliffe with our baby who is 12 months old. Would you reccommend Arncliffe as a place for a young family to live?

Sally said...

Thanks for your comments. Well, we've lived here for >23 years now, and aren't moving in a hurry. My son is 14 and lived here (obviously) all his life.

The great things about the area:
* The child care centre at Turrella: Turrella Children's Centre. My son went there for 4 years from age 12 months. They were wonderful people.
* Corner shops everywhere, including one at the end of my street. They thrive, unlike other parts of Sydney. Great for last minute purcases on Sunday noght, all the staples of life, and some unexpected lovely surprises
* My nighbours are all wonderfully friendly and the kids play together. Despite a reputation of the Arncliffe Boyz, those kind of gangs are found everywhere. My experience that the Lebanese and macedonian kids come from pretty conservative families and smoking and alcohol are less of a concern going into teenager hood than some more Anglo areas!
* The wonderful wonderful women at Athelstane pharmacy. And before them the previous chemist, Jay Murkhajee.
* The proximity to the city....and being equidistant from two stations on teo separate lines (Illwarra and East Hills)
* Proximity to the airport, but barely hearing any plans, cos Arnclife is in a wege between the north-south and east-wst runways
* Afternoon sea breezes reach Arncliffe, which cool the suburb on hot summer days.

What I wish there were:
* Accessible bike paths to the city - a real way...but the man traffic arteries - Princes Hwy and West Botany St/Airport Drive are traffic choked
* More diversity of cafes and restaurants. Why aren't there any standout Lebanese restaurants, for example - not takeaways, but proper local restaurants? This area of Sydeny is a desert for dining out compared to the inner west, eastern subs and lower north shore - all the places the same distance from the city.
* That there is no direct link to Newtown. The bus leaves from Tempe, and for the train you have to change at Sydenham.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your great info on the new arncliffe. I was looking for some old pictures of where I grew up, 50 years ago. Back then it was a blue collar working class area, and a great place to grow up. We could even leave our houses unlocked then and we knew all our neighbours from Kelsey st to athelstane school. It was like a country town in the suburbs of sydney. My parents left in the eighties as the suburb lost its charm and friendliness probably the same for most of the inner city these days.
Again, well done on your blog