City Living with Country Spirit

After 25 years of living and working at Young NSW, Joe and his wife, Kathy, were looking for a seachange. They had both grown up in Sydney's inner west and liked the area. They wanted to be within walking distance of work (something they could do in Young) and somewhere near the water.

They also wanted to be close to restaurants, theatres and city life. Joe wrote in The Glebe Society's Bulletin that Glebe seemed perfect:

"Soon after arriving we came across a street stall manned by members of The Glebe Society

"We were impressed with the Bulletin, joined, and went along to the AGM for what we thought was a meeting but found was also a social gathering. We were even greeted with a glass of wine at the door – it seemed like we were back at Young.

"Next was Glebe Week. At the pubcrawl over two weekends and led by a local identity, we met other locals including five new friends who all lived within metres of us.

"Glebe Week was busy and we took advantage of what was on offer at Villains & Magistrates at the Court House, the Almost Foreshores Walk and Glebe Sporting Heroes at the Toxteth Hotel. Since then… a public meeting on the planning for Blackwattle and Rozelle Bays, wine and cheese at Benledi, and even a tour of Rookwood Cemetery!

"One of the highlights on our social calendar was an evening at Margaretta Cottage for the Glebe Music Festival. We even made it to St. Scholastica's for Mozart's Coronation Mass. A week later jazz fans paid $100 to listen to James Morrison at Centennial Park – we heard him in St. John's Road free of charge!
 

"The year's end saw us at Christmas Twilight Drinks at Historic Lyndhurst with an address by radical activist, Jack Mundey.   "It all sounds very busy, but flicking through The Glebe Society Bulletins it seems we missed more functions than we attended. "We thought we were trading the close community spirit of our country town for the restaurants, theatres and attractions of city living. We were wrong – we got both. At Glebe we have found all the benefits of the close-knit community spirit of a country town with the high life of one of the best cities in the world."

Even though Marianne von Knobelsdorff was born in Germany, her heart is in Glebe. During the 29 years since she arrived here, she has been an indefatigable worker for The Glebe Society and has participated in most of the major campaigns that have been waged to preserve and improve our suburb. As most members know, Marianne is returning to Germany to care for her sick mother, but has retained her flat in Leichhardt Street in the hope that she may return one day. In the busy days while she has been packing she found time to record her memories of Glebe. Extracts have been published in Bulletin 3/2003, and further extracts will appear in later Bulletins. We have published the full text here for those who are interested in the details of Marianne's remarkable career in Glebe.

Marianne in campaign mode outside Bellevue

A singular view: The Glebe Society 1975 – 2003

I arrived in Sydney on 11 April, 1974 after 2 years individual overland travel from Berlin/Germany with one friend through Israel, Cypress, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore. It was a miracle that I did not die of some disease, was not killed and did not end up in a harem, as it was already arranged.

Read the rest of this entry » »

Stories from Members

Q. Do you know what "glebe" actually means?

A. Originally from Latin glaeba, it meant soil and land. Glebe land is that bequeathed to a specified parish or benefice so that its rental or crops may augment the income of their incumbent minister.

Did you know that in the middle of Foley Park, at the corner of Bridge and Glebe Point Roads, there still stands a brick "radio shack" where residents once regularly gathered to listen to the radio!

The Butcher, the Baker, et al …..

Butcher's and baker's shops were generally located along the suburb's main arteries. In 1901 each of the 16 Glebe butchers serviced an average of 1200 residents (in contrast to the lone butcher now at Glebe Point and Glenmore Meats in Wentworth Park Road); and the 7 bakers served about 2750 people each.

Many were family businesses operating in Glebe for decades — bakers John Heil, William Hammett, Berthold Stehr, Thomas Martin, John Purves, Martin Wengert, August Heinrich, Charles Vass, Joseph Wrobel and Christian Raith were local identities. They worked an 80-hour week but, with increasing mechanisation, Purves Bakery, established in 1871 at 93 St.John's Road (now producing muffins etc.at the rear of those premises on the corner of Purves and Reuss Streets) and Raith's Bishopthorpe Bakery at 62 Glebe Road emerged as the suburb's largest.

Forest Lodge people bought their meat from William Alleyn (176 St. Johns Road) and William Tumeth (271 Bridge Rd). Other well-known Glebe butchers were:

Andrew Knox, 56 Cowper Street
Edward Miller, 36 Bay Street
James Cochran, 176 St. John's Road
Albert Goose, 116 Bridge Road
Richard Briant, 123 Glebe Road
Henry McMahon, 142 Glebe Road
J.R. Wood, 329 Glebe Road and, in more recent years,
Stan Hayes at 329 Glebe Road.

Just as Germans were prominent as bakers, from 1894, Italians began operating as fruiterers in Glebe – the Arena family (Sebastian, Nicola, Stephen, Pasquale and Vincenzo), Antoni Caleo, Filippo Cascio, Giovanni Cincotta, Giacomo Costa, Frank Dalbora, Giovanni Divola, Joseph Licciardi, Antoni Piconi and Tauro and Ristuccia.

–Max Solling

Today F. Galluzzo & Sons are most prominent as greengrocers and fruiterers at 191 Glebe Point Road and have recently celebrated 70 years in business at the same site.

– Ed.

How times have changed in a century!

Is this for Real?
– a cat's tale!

This real-life adventure story becomes even more curious as it progresses. A member's family feline has had some adventures in his life, right from kittenhood. These adventures range from retrieval by the Police Rescue Squad from a lofty palm tree in Foley Park in the middle of the night (when else?), to going AWOL for a number of days to join a film crew on location in St. James Park. Physical relocation had to be applied!

The smug feline

For about two years now, he has sorely tested the curiosity of his owners by appearing before 6am, every couple of weeks, with a large piece of prime steak, fresh and cold from the refrigerator, firmly clutched in his mouth (of course he must wake his owners to show them his prize!). At first his family felt guilt that their cat had stolen someone's next meal, but the regularity of this event has led them to believe that "theft" is unlikely. But where does this juicy steak come from? The owners have asked nearby restaurants if they use such meat, to no avail. If the meat comes from other restaurants, then this requires the cat to cross either Bridge, St. Johns or Glebe Point Roads, an unpalatable thought for his owners, but worth the risk to the cat! It must be pointed out that the cat is totally exhausted for a whole day after the consumption of such a large piece of meat.

Can anyone shed light on this curious behaviour pattern?

This same cat is a regular recipient of emails, cat stories and jokes from the US, Canada and within Australia! His popularity never ceases to amaze his family! At the end of June 2001, circumstances forced his family to seek international veterinary advice from a US-based professor (a Glebe Society member) and his colleague, both of whose expertise is valued world-wide. The cat must have been a celebrity in another life!
 

 Did you know that there are still horses stabled in Glebe?

	Above: A trotter in its stall in the back garden of a house in Victoria Street. Right: racing sulky ready to head for Harold Park. Left: and we still have a horse trough in St John's Road, although horses would find it difficult to slake their thirst.

 Queries, tales or info? email: webmaster@glebesociety.org.au