Hyde Park, Heart of the City (1)

If Hyde Park is the heart of this City, then the pulse of HP is the Archibald Fountain, seen here belting out a solo with St Mary's Cathedral performing back-up. This park is very much what is known as "built environment" with no unstructured areas as occur in Hyde Park in London or Central Park In New York. It is more like the Tuileries - I hasten to add though that I would never be so gauche as to make that direct comparison! Suffice to say, there are no unkempt areas; it is all manicured. For unkempt, we need to visit either Centennial or Bicentennial Parks.

St Mary's is located on College Street which runs along the eastern edge of the Park. It is the focus of Roman Catholicism in this city.

Here is an aerial photograph of the northern section of Hyde Park in 1929. It is quite ravaged-looking having just been gouged to enable the underground railway to "grow" a station beneath it: St James, which is very close to the Top LHS of the park fronting onto Elizbeth Street. St Mary's can be seen on the RHS of the photograph. In the background can be seen the abutments of a growing harbour bridge. Sydneysiders will gleefully locate Circular Quay, Government House and the Tramways on Point Bennelong. The Archibald Fountain is located in the middle of the bullseye formed by the intersecting walkways.