Prospero Place is named after a character in Shakespeares play "The Tempest" and has always been a bit of a focal point for the town of Stratford, including the Prospero Market (held last Saturday of each month), large Christmas tree in the area at Christmas time and a place for communal gatherings including a tribute to the March 15th victims of Christchurch.
The area is currently framed by BNZ, Sargent Peppers Cafe,The Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford i-site, an art store and the Stratford library, so already there is something for everyone!
In the 1950's, the Stratford Borough council purchased the land from ANZ (ironically the ANZ Building was the last building to be demolished on the Broadway frontage as part of this development) with the plan being to make in into a shopping mall but this never eventuated, however pedestrians began using it as a walkway between Miranda Streets and Broadway.
The Prospero Precinct as it is being called, is currently part of the changing face of Stratford with the 5 buildings that fronted Broadway being purchased by local Developers in early 2019 and demolition work beginning later that year. Interestingly, the buildings demolished by the developers came down quickly and loudly - it was almost as if the got the go ahead and wanted to get it down yesterday, however the site of the old ANZ bank (owned by the Council) which was adjacent to the current BNZ came down much more slowly and quietly and unless you were paying it attention, you almost wouldn't know it was happening.
Development of the Prospero Precinct (which also includes the buildings that have been removed from Broadway) is currently halted due to structural issues discovered with the one remaining building at the back of Paper Plus. However, there are great plans for the area and already I can see (being local) just how much more open the space is and how much potential there is.
Originally there was a gully with a stream running through Prospero Place and I personally would love it if that was to happen again. While the street frontage is currently just bare land, the remaining area of Prospero Place is a delightful place to sit and unwind. One of my favourite spots is actually just behind the i-site where the big palm trees are - this is the site of the first travel shop in Stratford and when I walk through here, I like to pretend I am somewhere tropical...
Logging requirements
Go to the three provided waypoints and answer one question at each waypoint (hopefully these waypoints are safe from future development). Take a photo showing some of the progress in Prospero Place so we can see where it has come from, the photo can be taken from anywhere within the provided waypoints and can extend out to the streets that border Prospero Place. Send your answers through to me and upload your photo with your log.
Waypoint 1 - what year was the photograph taken (Not the Glockenspiel photo, look elsewhere)
Waypoint 2 - what is the name of the sculptor(theres only one outside sculpture)
Waypoint 3 - on the library window - what does it say and who said it?
You do not have to wait for me to answer before logging your find, but I will delete logs that don't answer the question or are not form the area. I will also delete with no questions asked any logs which question my placement of this virtual or comments about ambigious information needed to be found - Im happy to update the co-ordinates of any of the waypoints from a friendly message received but I do think they are fairly accurate and obvious with generous hints, and just remember there are real people behind the geocaching names!
BEWARE - I do frequent this area, sometimes upto several times per day. So if you see someone grinning at you, it may just be me and if I notice what you are doing, I am going to come say hi:)
Finally, I just want to acknowledge 2Bulbars whose own virtual reward was the inspiration behind this cache and who was happy or for me to do something similar in my on town
Update September 2025 - thanks to a previous finder, I was alerted to the fact that the plaque in the garden was missing, were they finally upgrading the area??? No just a general tidy up. I have amended the information required for the garden, co-ordinates are still the same.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.