Sydenham, New South Wales



Sydenham is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sydenham is located 8 kilometres south of Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Inner West Council. Sydenham is surrounded by the suburbs of Marrickville, St Peters and Tempe.

History
Sydenham developed after the Illawarra railway line came through the area to Hurstville in the late 1800s. It was named after Sydenham, a suburb of London, for their similarities in their close proximity to the city and a railway junction. The station was originally known as Marrickville when it opened on 15 October 1884. It was changed to Sydenham on 19 March 1895 when a new line was being built to Bankstown and the first station was to be called Marrickville. The post office opened in April 1899 as Tempe Park and was only renamed Sydenham in 1964.

Marrickville Council proposed the Sydenham Creative Hub—a commercial area of bars, cafes and galleries—near Sydenham Station sometime after 2011. On 12 December 2017, the Inner West Council voted to shrink the proposed precinct to an area immediately adjacent to the Station only.

Sydenham has a number of heritage-listed sites, including Sydenham railway station.

Population
In the 2016 Census, there were 1,145 people in Sydenham. 51.9% of people were born in Australia and 51.0% of people only spoke English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion, 35.6%, Catholic 20.1%, Buddhism 11.9%, Not stated 9.3% and Eastern Orthodox 6.7%.

Transport
Sydenham railway station is a junction for three lines on the Sydney Trains network: the Illawarra, Airport & South and Bankstown lines, and contains a Sydney Metro line under construction as of 2023.

Former tram/light rail service
A cross country line connected the Cooks River Line and the Dulwich Hill line via Sydenham, operating along Railway Road and Sydenham Road in Sydenham.

Features
Sydenham is a small suburb extending southeast from the railway station to the Princes Highway. It has a mixture of residential and industrial developments. A small group of shops is located around the intersection of Unwins Bridge Road and Railway Road, close to Sydenham railway station. In the adjacent suburb of Marrickville, commercial developments are also located along Sydenham and Marrickville Roads close to the border with Sydenham. Marrickville Metro Shopping Centre is also very close to Sydenham.

Sydenham Green
Sydenham is directly under the flight path of Sydney Airport. To deal with noise complaints from residential properties between Unwins Bridge Road and the Princes Highway, the government compulsory acquired these properties and converted them into a recreational park. The park occupies a large portion of the small suburb. Sydenham Green is located on either side of Railway Road, named after the park of the same name in Sydenham, London. Two heritage buildings along Railway Road were retained, a sandstone terrace house and St Marys Church (which was later controversially demolished after a suspicious fire. ) In the park, a series of oversized 'living room' sculptures – lamp, chairs and fireplace pays homage to the residential houses that formerly occupied the site.

Schools and Churches
Schools close to Sydenham are St Pius Catholic School, Enmore Road - Near Marrickville Metro, Tempe High School (Sydney) and Tempe Public School. St Mary's Church was the first Coptic Church outside of Egypt, but was demolished in 2017.