Sydenham

Sydenham, a suburb of the Marrickville local government area, is located six kilometres south west of Sydney. The traditional owners of the land were Cadigal of the Eora nation.Sydenham was named after the London suburb of Sydenham, part of the inner London borough of Lewisham. Sydenham is only two kilometres from Kingsford-Smith Airport and lies directly under the flight path of the third runway, constructed 1992–94. A large segment of Sydenham no longer exists as it was deemed uninhabitable because of aircraft noise. One hundred and fifty two homes, covering an area of 4.5 hectares, were acquired and demolished by the Commonwealth Government. Demolition began on 27 September 1995 amid large protests which prevented the work from proceeding for several days. Significant heritage buildings were retained. The resulting vacant land was named Sydenham Green. It is replete with symbols of the loss of this old residential area.The history of Sydenham is tightly interwoven with the neighbouring suburbs of St Peters and Tempe. These triplet suburbs share common characteristics of development, which are not easily unravelled.