It's a community!

We moved to Paddington from Waverton, using the Sydney Harbour Bridge to cross not only water, but what Sydneysiders seem to think of as a huge cultural divide. I grew up in Canberra and even before moving to Sydney in my early teens I had heard of the Shire, the north shore, the eastern suburbs and westies. Somehow, back then, I got the impression that those geographic divides were almost impermeable. My whole Sydney life I had lived on the north shore - Castlecrag, Roseville, Lindfield, Pymble, then Waverton. I even went to university at Macquarie and worked for two years at Frenchs Forest. Not surprisingly, I came to think of myself as a "north shore girl". To emphasise the impermeability of the geographic divide, one of my north shore girl friends actually brings her Passport when she now comes to visit.

Not only did I think of myself as a north shore girl, but I'd always thought of the eastern suburbs as somewhere trendy, for which I was perhaps too staid and conservative. Indeed, I once dated someone who lived in Bondi who told me I was too "middle class, north shore mum, suburban" for the east. (He didn't get many more dates!) Then, having become empty nesters at the ripe old age of 37, my husband and I did start to spend more time over east - especially at our favourite restaurant or driving across for a weekend breakfast or chartering a yacht from Rushcutters Bay. However, it still didn't occur to me that we could live here because I was a north shore, not an eastern suburbs girl. These doubts were actually strengthened by a condescending attitude of some of the real estate agents I met while looking at eastern suburbs terraces. Ironically, the one with the most condescending attitude actually pointed me in the direction of the fabulous terrace we ultimately bought. She was here on the auction day and her condescension miraculously disappeared at about the time the auctioneer's hammer fell and our deposit cheque was signed.

But having bought the terrace and committed to making the cultural shift across the bridge, would we fit in? Or had we just made a huge, expensive mistake?

So far, the answer to "do we fit in" is a resounding "yes". The Paddington locals I have met are not at all condescending, but extremely welcoming, delighted to find people who want to share in the great things about living in their suburb. (I rather suspect that the condescending real estate agent actually doesn't live here.)

Not only are the locals welcoming, but they're friendly. At Waverton we lived in an apartment building with some 60 or so apartments spread over 6 floors. Despite such a plethora of neighbours literally living under the same roof, people rarely spoke to one another, often not even a greeting or acknowledgment in the lift. I recalled my Canberra childhood where we played with the other kids in the street, went freely in and out of each others' houses, and my parents chatted to our neighbours over the back fence. I had come to assume that that sort of community feel had disappeared along with black and white TVs and men in tight polyester shirts, never to return. (I certainly hope so in the case of tight, shiny polyester shirted men!)

How wrong I was! On our first day in Paddington, as we were moving in, our neighbour welcomed us from across the back fence. Later, his wife brought a home made cake to our housewarming. The couple who own the coffee shop up the road have introduced us to other neighbours. And so it has gone on. I am now on smiling, waving, stopping to chat in the street terms with more people in my local community than I have been since I was about 10. It's not intrusive; I don't have to talk to people if I don't want to and they don't have to know all my business. But it feels nice and homey.

So, one of the first things I learnt about Paddington? It's not just a trendy suburb, it's a community!

Paddington's boundaries

Before moving to Paddington I knew, of course, that it is one of Sydney's inner eastern suburbs, about 3kms from the Sydney CBD. However, while I had a vague idea about the extent of Paddington, I wasn't sure. So, the first thing I wanted to find out about Paddington was its boundaries - exactly which parts of my local area are "Paddington" and which aren't. Surprisingly, this proved to be a little more difficult than I'd anticipated. I tried the Woollahra Council website, the Department of Lands and some other government sources, hoping for a definitive map of suburb boundaries, all to no avail. Perhaps one is out there, but I couldn't find it.

Ultimately, I had to revert to my hard copy Sydway street directory (does anyone actually use these in their cars anymore?). Sydway tells me that Paddington is the area enclosed by Neild Avenue, Boundary Street and South Dowling Street (making the border with Darlinghurst to the west), Moore Park Road (bordering, of course, Moore Park to the south), Jersey Road (to the east, bordering Woollahra) and Trumper Park and the White City tennis centre (making the border with Edgecliff and Rushcutters Bay to the north).

With Paddington's geographic limits in mind, I can start my explorations.