Belmore Park
in Haymarket, AustraliaCategory: Attraction
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193 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000, Australia Print route »
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Belmore Park is a public park at the southern end of the Sydney central business district in the Australian state of New South Wales. Adjacent to the Central railway station it is bounded by Hay Street, Eddy Avenue, Elizabeth Street and Pitt Street. The area was previously known as Police Paddock and was part of a section of Crown land which included the Police Barracks, Devonshire Street Cemetery, Female Refuge of the Good Samaritan, Benevolent Asylum and a common. The area was landscaped and in 1868 it opened as a park dedicated to Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore the then Governor of New South Wales. In 1901 the whole area was resumed for the construction of Sydney’s Central Railway Station with the majority of excavated earth placed on the common, burying the original layout. During the 1908–09 Royal Commission for the Improvement of the City of Sydney and Its Suburbs major landscaping works for the area were proposed by commissioner Norman Selfe.Due to its proximity to the city, and especially to Central station, the park has long been a place for groups to gather—for protests, markets, events or performances. For example, in 1878 in front of a large crowd, Henri L'Estrange unsuccessfully tried twice to launch himself in a gas balloon, while during the 2000 Summer Olympics the park became one of five "live sites" where the games were publicly broadcast. In the late 1860s "Belmore Produce Markets" and Paddy's Markets were built in the area opposite the current park—now known as Haymarket.
The park is a key public transport hub. The final section of above-ground railway track forms the eastern edge of the park before going underground as the City Circle. State Transit buses in the direction of the Eastern Suburbs including express buses to the University of New South Wales depart from Eddy Avenue along which the CBD and South East Light Rail is under construction. The western edge of the park is defined by a roadway ramp to the concourse level of the railway station. The terminus loop of the Dulwich Hill Line forms a ring around the entire park using ramps on both eastern and western edges to access the train station concourse.
