Blandville

This public housing block on Victoria Road at Gladesville is quite famous for its name! The sign got stolen some time ago: read here. There was a 2007 award winning  documentary about its residents which you can view here.  This article explains how it got its name (named after the first private doctor in the colony, ex-convict Dr William Bland)

Gladesville Hospital

Historic Gladesville hospital, an early Sydney "lunatic asylum" (1838), was a hospital for the mentally ill until 1997 when all services were transferred elsewhere.

In 1869, the Lunatic Asylum was renamed Gladesville Hospital for the Insane. By the mid-1960s, the institution was known simply as Gladesville Hospital.

Banjo Paterson

Sculpture of Australian poet Andrew 'Banjo' Paterson (1864-1941), outside Rock End Cottage at Gladesville. Now a restaurant, the cottage was built in the 1830s as an inn. From 1866 to 1909, Emily Jane Barton, grandmother of Banjo Paterson lived here.

Paterson's most famous poems include The Man From Snowy River:
"There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around
That the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound,
So all the cracks had gathered to the fray."

Clancy of the Overflow:
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan years ago;
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just on spec, addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow."

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar);
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

and the words of Waltzing Matilda (1887), later set to music.

Bedlam Bay 05

The cricket pitch at Gladesville Hospital, still used for matches, sits prettily on Bedlam Bay.

Bedlam Bay - a series 02

Looking across Bedlam Bay and west along the Parramatta River, towards the boatshed shown yesterday. This is taken from the site of Henley Baths, which a sign says are closed for renovation.

Bedlam Bay - a series 01

The bay was named after the mental hospital (known then as a 'lunatic asylum') built near it in 1835, which was named after the English asylum Bethlehem, corrupted to Bedlam.

We'll have a closer look around over the next few days.