Maddern Square

Maddern Square is our favorite haunt on the way from Cheaper by Miles to the Footscray Market. The square is perfectly designed to catch all of the free flowing litter and collect a fine assortment of broken glass and wine cask bladders from a Thursday night to Sunday arvo. Since the closure of the Rotunda in the Railway Gardens, Maddern Square has become the defacto home of late night parties out of the spotlight of the world class Mall that it funnels into and a hot spot to take the kids to see what drugs can do. Maddern Square is full of potential, don’t get me wrong. It’s a (well known) secret car park if you’re going to the market and a great place to rinse a syringe or two before urinating behind the old Godfreys Cleaning store. Sure, it has real grass instead of asto turf, trees that have been pollarded by aspiring gardeners and concrete seating to whittle the time away reading the walled wisdoms, but what it needs is a bottle shop, public toilet and an army of large garbage bins with basketball hoops for incentive. So if you want to see a mall without the shops, but with all of the charm of the Nicholson St showcase (whilst having cars drive at you), Maddern Square is your heaven.