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In central Sydney’s northern portion of Hyde Park, a bit off the main path where walkers tend to conglomerate and stroll, you’ll find a quiet little nook of a garden hidden away in a corner. Sandringham Garden* is dedicated to the memory of two royal Georges of Anglo-German ancestry, George V and his dutiful son George VI…the reigns of the two Georges on the British throne converged in the year 1936, separated only by the brief interregnum of a renegade and always unmentioned Edward.
The small circular garden with a shallow central fountain was intended actually to celebrate the royal visit of George VI in 1952 until the sudden and inconvenient death of the reigning monarch during that year. As it was, when completed and opened in 1954 it was as a memorial to both father and son.
The garden is the result of the joint contributions of sculptor Lyndon Dadswell and the architect Henry Epstein (the latter had designed the distinctive Modernist style Chaim Hillman House in Roseville in the late 1940s).
Raised up above the garden is a set of bronze patterned memorial gates comprising the ‘official’ entrance. The gates—decorated with crests and heraldic motifs of flora and fauna—are flanked at either end by segments of stone walls, inscribed on which are the two kings’ names and reigning dates.
The garden’s multi-coloured flower beds get a regular overhauling, Wisteria pruning was the go on the day I visited Sandringham Garden.
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* named after the English country retreat of the incumbent British monarch
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