HJ Foley Park upgrade works

What we’re doing

Foley Park, at the corner of Glebe Point Road and Bridge Road in Glebe, is named after John ‘Doc’ Foley, a Glebe medical practitioner and local politician in the 1930s. It features a World War 1 memorial and historic brick shelter where residents once gathered to listen to the radio.

In 2009, the we completed the first stage to revitalise Foley Park in time to celebrate Glebe’s sesquicentenary. 

The improvement works maximised the green open space with the baby health centre and toilet block being removed from the centre of the park. They also included the restoration of the Wireless House, a new playground, paths and lighting.

Since then further improvements to the park have been completed including a new accessible amenities block with baby-change facilities near the Bridge Road entrance, new sandstone retaining walls at the Glebe Point Road entrance and improved access around the War Memorial.

The War Memorial has been restored and interpretive signs and a new pergola have been installed at the site of the former Hereford House to celebrate the park’s rich history.

The Wireless House

The Wireless House sonic art installation by Nigel Helyer celebrates the history of this small but unique building which in the 1930s once housed a free radio.

Nigel reactivated the building so that once again people can gather to listen to its ‘broadcasts’, which now feature local stories and oral histories.

The building has been adorned with a unique stainless steel perforated screen in the shape of a radiation pattern – a graphical representation of the relative field strength transmitted from or received by a radio antenna.