Gladesville

Gladesville is a suburb in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, and is located only 10 kilometres north-west of the Sydney Central Business District. The suburb prides itself on riverside views and bush settings along the Parramatta River, and is home to the Gladesville Bridge, a Sydney landmark that links the North Shore to the Inner West. Gladesville boasts a frequent ferry service that takes in some of Sydney’s exquisite waterways, while a number of bus services run along Victoria Road, between the Sydney CBD and Parramatta, and along Pittwater Road to Chatswood and Woolwich. Gladesville was first known as Doody’s Bay, named after the convict artist John Doody, who was granted 30 acres of land there in 1795. By 1836, former convict John Glade, who had lived in the area, was issued with the deeds to Doody’s property, and the waterfront area on which the farm stood became known as Glade’s Bay. After John Glade’s death in 1848, the land was sold, subdivided and renamed Gladesville. In 1838, The Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum was established on the banks of the Parramatta River. It was the first purpose-built mental asylum in NSW. In 1869 it became the Gladesville Hospital for the Insane and in 1915 the Gladesville Mental Hospital. In 1993, it was combined with Macquarie Hospital to form the Gladesville Macquarie Hospital and in 1997 inpatient services were consolidated at Macquarie Hospital at North Ryde. Another historical landmark is Rockend Cottage, where the poet Banjo Patterson lived in the 1870s and 1880s. It was built around 1850 and is still preserved and open to the public in Banjo Patterson Park, Punt Road. The popularity of the area experienced a significant boom in the 1840s when a wharf and a road were constructed, and then again in 1964 when the Gladesville Bridge was completed. Gladesville’s commercial district is centred around Victoria Road, the suburb’s main thoroughfare. There is also a small shopping centre (Gladesville Shopping Village) located off Cowell Street. The commercial areas of Gladesville offer a number of restaurants and cafes, supermarkets, delis and fashion stores. Most of Gladesville is a combination of solid brick houses dating from the early 20th century, apartment buildings from the 1960s through to the present day, and some light industrial development on the northern fringe. There are two primary schools (Gladesville Public School and Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School), and the exclusive private schools of St Josephs and Riverview are also nearby.