Row of Shops

Statement of Significance

The retail strip at 318-330 Bulwer Street are a neighbourhood group of strip shops of the Federation Retail style, that complement the Hyde Park Hotel. Their tenancy history demonstrates the changing demography, needs and multiculturalism of the area.

Physical Description

The row of single storey shops comprises five identical shops with simple rendered parapets with pilasters each side, and one extensive shop front on the east end that features a higher parapet with moulded cornice line and a central semi circular pediment. The shop frontage of the larger shop is symmetrical about a central arched doorway flanked by rendered piers and extensive shopfronts each side. The other five shops have various shopfront configurations with some evidencing original fabric. A suspended boxed canopy extends along the entire street length of the shops and around the truncated corner shop. These shops are situated opposite the Hyde Park Hotel. Minimal

History

These shops are situated diagonally opposite the Hyde Park Hotel, on Lot Y281. They are not shown on the 1900 PWD sewerage plans but are listed in 1910 Post Office Directory. Three occupations - bootmaker, greengrocer and butcher - are given in that year. In 1915, the shops were occupied by two drapers, a hairdresser, greengrocer and supplier of dairy produce. One shop was vacant. J. McCusker was running the dairy produce shop in 1915. He later had a mixed business which was still operating at No 328 in 1930. There were three mixed businesses in the complex in the 1920s, indicative of times when people shopped at small local stores for their everyday grocery and general needs. In 1949 there were still two mixed businesses operating within the group. A mixed business operated in No. 318 for many years. It was run by Awcock & Klopper in 1930 and then by Walter C. Hille from at least 1938 - 1949. In 1939 Miss B. Wedgewood, a dressmaker is listed at No. 320 and Ray Peterson a bootmaker at No. 320a. In 1949 it was just No. 320 and it was Albert R. Nelson's boot repairs. Samuel Rappaport had the hairdresser and tobacconist shop at No. 322 in 1938. By 1947 he had moved across Fitzgerald Street to occupy larger premises on the next corner at Nos. 332 - 334 and in 1949 No. 322 was a ladies' hairdresser's run by G.T Rosekelly and at No. 332a there was Mrs Ivy Hogan. The appearance of Max Papalazaros' Fish Shop (later the Greek Fish Shop) at No 326 in 1925 illustrated the changing demography of the place due to migration between the wars. According to the Post Office Directory for 1949, this shop was vacant at the time. No. 328 was occupied by Leonard Brown, a green grocer in 1938 and he was still there in 1949. The shop on the corner, No. 330, was a butcher's shop for many years. In 1938 it was occupied by George D. Butcher, which must have caused some amusement to his customers. By 1949 it was occupied by by C.T Armstrong, a chemist and there was still a pharmacy operating there until 2007. In 2007 Nos. 318 - 322 were occupied by Frank Torre gourmet butcher (Nos. 318 - 322), Amore. The Mens's Room, Lotus Deli, and Trinh's Pharmacy. The latter shop with its name on the exterior of the building in English and Vietnamese and Frank Torre, famous for his Italian meats, reflect the multicultural demography of the area.

Integrity/Authenticity

High degree

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