Curtin Square

Curtain Square is a fantastic park nestled right in the heart of Rathdowne Village. Surrounding it along either side of Rathdowne St are so many cafés, delis, grocery stores and bakeries that you could come here completely unprepared and still manage to make yourself a mighty fine picnic lunch with little effort. There’s even a library across the road so that you can have something to read while you’re here too.
The park is quite large, with spacious lawns and lots of big shady trees. The playground is set off to one side so that it doesn’t look like it takes over the park (and also means that a lot of the kids gravitate away from the biggest, most shady tree of all). There are public toilets here too and a basketball court up the back. There is probably more here that I’ve yet to discover, but those big shady trees just don’t let me get past them to explore what lies beyond.

Bounded by a library, a pub and lots of lovely cafés, Curtain Square in Rathdowne Village is a well placed park to sun yourself in on a day out.
On weekends there are squillions of cute little kids running around the playground or playing sports with their parents, adding to the Village’s family friendly vibe. Given the number of cricket balls and footballs flying around, it’s not the best spot for a picnic as it’s pretty easy to get hit in the head by accident. Mid-​week the park is much quieter, and it’s easy to snare a shady spot to read and relax with a coffee.
Amendments include a clean-​ish public toilet and a water fountain.

Right in the middle of Rathdowne Village, Curtain Square park pretty much has everything on offer.
The playground is well shaded so the little ones can rumble around and not go pink. There’s quite a good percentage of the park dedicated to grass meaning there’s room for a game of Frisbee or just a lie down in the sun with a book borrowed from the Carlton Library across the road.
Most of all I love that there’s a basketball court here. There’s not a lot in the area so it’s fun to go grab a ball and some friends. During school holidays it’s usually busy with the kids, but when they’re back it’s generally free for the taking.
There’s a bubbler at the top end which is in good working order, but it seems that we’re all a bit hesitant to use it… are all those urban legends about strangers relieving themselves on public bubblers true?