What am I? I am very heavy, made of sandstone, look like a very big button, hundreds of locals pass by me every day and don’t even notice me yet I am over180 years old.
I am also a four-letter word.

I am a well.

In Orwell Street’s Springfield Gardens, Potts Point there is a metal sculpture sitting on what is probably a large sandstone well cap.

It sits on the site of the former Springfield Lodge estate. The grand Springfield Lodge once stood where the Harris Farm supermarket, the Llankelly Place shops and the famous Art Deco Minerva Theatre now stand. The land was originally granted to Alexander Baxter of “Woolloomooloo Hill”, as Potts Point was once known, in the 1830s.

Archival documents reveal Springfield Lodge was probably named after the natural spring on the site which was owned by the Springfield Lodge owner from the 1830s.

The spring was shared by locals.

Fresh, clean running water was not fully established in Sydney homes until well into the late 19th century due to technical difficulties and the need to build large dams.

Springfield Mall, Springfield Gardens, Springfield Avenue and Springfield Towers apartments all take their names from the original Springfield Lodge site.

Springfield Lodge itself was later demolished in 1934. The well remained where it was.

Wells are a rich source of archaeological material as they were often used to dump things into. Nobody knows what is within this Springfield Gardens well.

Early maps show the Potts Point ridge with a number of rivulets running off it to the harbour below. Water often streams onto Challis Avenue from the St. Vincent’s College site, for example.

And a recent historical survey of Bayswater Road shows a former well on the site of heritage terraces.

Potts Point is our first separate suburb from the CBD and a great source of Sydney’s history and heritage.

by Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions