St Peters

St Peters is part of Sydney’s Inner West, and is located 7 kilometres south of the CBD, in the local area of Marrickville Council. In 1838 an impressive church with a tall steeple was built and called St Peters Anglican Church. The village developed around it and the suburb was later named after the church. St Peters is the third oldest Anglican church in Sydney and has been claimed to be the first church built in Australia using non-convict labour. St Peters was described in the 1840s as one of the most fashionable and aristocratic suburbs of Sydney. In the 1870s, deposits of clay were found and St Peters soon became the brick-making heart of Sydney, with a large brickworks on the site now known as Sydney Park. The brickworks closed after WWII and for most of the 60s and 70s the site was used as a rubbish tip, and the huge clay pits eventually filled with domestic and commercial waste. The tip closed in the 1980s and the area was covered, landscaped and revegetated so that several large artificial hills were created with sweeping views south to Botany Bay and north to the City. Four large chimneys from the brick kilns remain today and have been incorporated into the Sydney Park site along with some of the kilns and various pieces of large brickworks machinery. During the time of the brickworks, the area around it rapidly developed with a mix of industrial and residential. St Peters kept its strong industrial focus until the last decades of the 20th century, when many of its old sites were redeveloped. Today, St Peters is still a mix of residential and industrial. The housing style is predominantly semi-detached cottages dating from the early 20th Century, many of which have since been renovated. The main shopping strip is located along the Princes Highway, leading into King Street, Newtown. Nearby Marrickville or Newtown provide an endless variety of shops, restaurants, cafes and clothes boutiques, as well as swimming pools and gymnasiums. Tempe offers squash and tennis, Sydney Park is popular for a run or long walk around the hills. The Princes Highway, which starts in St Peters, is a major arterial road through southern Sydney. City Rail and Sydney Buses service St Peters and the city is approximately 7 minutes away by train. There are plenty of state operated schools and church schools within the local area, while private Schools like Trinity and Newington are only a short drive away.