Sydney Council has recently named this pocket park St Neots Reserve. It sits on the corner of St Neots Avenue and Macleay Street, Potts Point, opposite a pedestrian crossing and HMAS Kuttabul.

Pocket parks are important as part of people’s backyards and are an attractive feature in dense urban areas.

They provide breathing space from the hum and thrum of our high-octane living and also act as the city’s lungs and air purifier.

Overseas studies show these parks add value and amenity to an area.

Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay enjoy Embarkation Park, Lawrence Hargrave Reserve, Fitzroy Gardens, John Armstrong Reserve, Macleay Reserve,  McElhone Reserve and the famous harbour-side Rushcutters Bay Park.

The indigenous name for the area in which St Neots Reserve stands is Bujari Gamarruwa.

St Neots Reserve takes its name from the street adjacent to it, St Neots Avenue.

It provides a lawned area of about 180 square metres with Art Deco seats and is a shady nook created by an overhanging London Plane tree and the semi-translucent leaves of a Robinia. It is bordered by hedge rows, and Agapanthas and incorporates a water bubbler with its own a built-in dog bowl.

The site was purchased by the surveyor and pastoralist, Henry Dangar in the 1850s. He built a large sandstone home in 1852 near the site of today’s park. He named his home Grantham. Dangar was born at St Neot, Cornwall, England, a link to the name of the Reserve while Grantham apartments in St Neots Avenue is a reminder of his home.

Grantham  was demolished in 1937 to make way for apartment blocks and St Neots Avenue.

By Andrew Woodhouse

Heritage Solutions