Strathfield South Shops, 1937

Image right: Looking towards Enfield from near the corner of Liverpool and Homebush Roads, 14 July 1937. Courtesy State Library of NSW and NSW State Archives & Records.

This photo taken on 14 July 1937 shows the shopping precinct of Strathfield South, looking towards Enfield, along Liverpool Road. It has been taken from opposite the Crossways Hotel, just past the intersection with Homebush Road. The hotel is just recognisable on the far right 84 years later, as are the three shops beyond it with the Bushells sign on the wall. Although the verandas of the upper storey have now been enclosed, the distinctive shape is the same. These shops and residences were built in 1923-24 by Algie Bros [1] at a cost of £3000 [2]. By 1937 this building was owned by commission agent, Nicholas Mutton and leased to various shopkeepers, including one by the name of Clark. Above the Bushells sign are the words: ‘J. Clark Ham and Beef Provisions.’

470-480 Liverpool Road Strathfield South, 2 December 2021. Courtesy Strathfield Local Studies

The Crossways Hotel was built c.1930. By 1937 the licensee was Elizabeth Collier. In November 1936 she had been charged with permitting betting on licensed premises and was on a three-year good behaviour bond [3]. She does not appear to have stayed very long at the Crossways Hotel. On Saturday 10 December 1938 gale force winds lifted the galvanised roofs from three local shops and threw them on to the roof of the hotel before they crashed on to the roadway below [4]. A number of people narrowly missed severe injury. Joseph Sawle from Strathfield had just left his car a moment before it was crushed and a dozen people at the bus stop had boarded a bus only a minute or two earlier. Across Sydney many buildings were destroyed.

The Sun 11 December 1938 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231136191

The shops on the left of the photo are no longer standing. The single-storey, slightly grubby, shop in the foreground advertises wedding and birthday cakes. This was E.S. Percival Ltd., bakers, although Edmund Samuel Percival himself had died in 1932, leaving an estate valued at more than £20,000 [5]. E.S. Percival Ltd, however, had opened ‘one of the largest modern baking establishments’ in 1936 on Parramatta Road at Concord [6]. The business went into liquidation in 1960 [7].

The presumably brightly-painted sign beyond the bakers is for Kinkara tea and coffee, on the wall of what was possibly still E.R. White and Sons, grocers. A 1935 advertisement in The Sun promoted Kinkara with the words of a Dr William Brady: ‘A cup of good tea is an excellent ‘life saver’ for anyone who has spells of fainting.’ [8] This corner was known as ‘White’s Corner’ for many years. [9]

The Sun 5 May 1935 p.24 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230254534

Beyond the intersection with Homebush Road is the chemist of Owen James Gregan, a young pharmacist who practised here for a few years after qualifying in 1934. He married Patricia Slattery locally during April 1937. They moved to Summer Hill during the 1940s where he continued his pharmacy career.

The young boy on his bike seems to have the road entirely to himself at the time this photo was taken. Today’s six lanes of traffic on Liverpool Road tell a very different story.

by J.J. MacRitchie

Local Studies Advisor

References

[1] Sydney Morning Herald 24 October 1923 p.22 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16101313

[2] Strathfield Council building application registers

[3] Daily Telegraph 17 November 1936 p.7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/246975224

[4] The Sun 10 December 1938 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/231124446

[5] The Sun 6 April 1932 p.9 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229893836

[6] Catholic Freeman’s Journal 23 July 1936 p.36 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/146390888

[7] Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales 8 April 1960 p.1065 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/219904702

[8] The Sun 5 May 1935 p.24 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230254534

[9] Jones, Cathy ‘White’s Corner, Strathfield South’ https://strathfieldheritage.com/2017/08/09/whites-corner-strathfield-south/