The Paddington connection

Photo: Jessica Nash

Recently some close friends announced they were moving out of Paddington. We met back in 2019 through the usual neighbourhood networks and during the past five years have shared everything from casual barbecues to pandemic lockdowns, which as it turned out, was something of a local friendship accelerator.

Although living in different postcodes won’t change the relationship we have, it’s made me realise how many friendships I owe to Paddington. I had no idea when I moved here 10 years ago the impact this one location would have on my life.

We tend to think about making friends as something that’s reserved for our early adult years: as if by the age of 35, all our friendship slots are taken. But moving to Paddington changed that for me.

Suddenly I found myself making friends with other mums in the park as we waited for our kids to go down the slide. One of my most cherished friendships blossomed from turning up to the same yoga class at Flow Athletic, another from preschool pick-ups at Peter Pan.

This suburb has gifted me an incredible support network, one that extends beyond close friends. Ask any local what they love about Paddington, most will tell you it’s their connection to the community.

In reality, Paddington exists because of an invisible line drawn around a collection of streets lined with shop fronts and terraces. It’s not the town planner’s map that contains the magic, but the people who live and work here.

If Paddington is a story, then we are the current chapter. Whether we realise it or not, we belong to each other. Simply by virtue of sharing this suburb at this exact moment in time, we’ve entered into an unspoken contract that binds us to care.

It’s a contract that can change the course of our day with one friendly encounter and equally break our heart, such as in recent events, when the lives of two young people, who we may never have met, were tragically cut short.

On the surface, Paddington will look the same when our friends move away, but there will be a definite shift. With every family that leaves, every business that closes its doors, the suburb quietly rearranges itself. Although I like to imagine that for every person who has called Paddington home, an imprint remains. And maybe, just maybe, this is where the real magic lies.