Corner Coogee Bay Road & Arden Street, c. 1985
The pharmacy is where Jack Horner cafe is now. The Legion Club has yet to build external balconies over the footpaths.
HISTORY | STORIES | BEYOND BLOG & CREATE PEOPLE |
We have tried to rebuild the history of Coogee Bay Road's shopping strip that runs from Arden Street to just beyond Brook Street. We want to delve into memories and the archives, our own and those of our readers, to try and recover some of this history before it is lost. It is a big job, but will give it a shot!
Village Style Shopping Replaced by Tourist Attractions
There was a time, it probably ended in the 1970s or 1980s, when you could fulfil all your shopping needs on the Coogee Bay Road strip. Clothing, furniture,
hardware, groceries, fruit and vegetables, butcher, car repairs, banks, pharmacy, electrical, dry cleaning, jeweller, locksmith : all these services and more were
available. Saturday mornings on Coogee Bay Road was a bit like a rural village where everyone "came into town" to do their weekly shopping.
During the 1980s and beyond, authorities threw a lot of resources at "developing" and "modernising" the area around Coogee beachfront. Parklands and facilities were spruced-up and hotel accommodation added. Coogee became an attractive destination for tourists and day-trippers, just at the time international tourism and the back-packer phenomenon was taking off. Why would a back-packer from Europe be interested in buying a packet of nails or hiring a diner suite? They wanted somewhere to eat, drink and listen to music after a day at the beach. The market followed.
Now Dominated by Cafes & Bars
Coogee Bay Road now is really an "eat street", dominated by cafes, bars, boutiques and small shops catering to beach-goers. You can still buy everyday essentials
on the Coogee Bay Road strip, but if you want to do some serious shopping, you need to travel further afield.
Legion Club and Jack Horner
Starting on the northern corner of Coogee Bay Road and Arden Street is the popular bar and restaurant Jack Horner. (You can read more about its namesake
Jack Horner and his family, the first known European drowning fatalities from 1860, here). Jack Horner's has been on this
site for about the last decade, but before that, it was occupied by the Beach Plaza Pharmacy. This was a large pharmacy and chemist that had been
operating on this site since at least the 1970s. Because it was the nearest "shop" to the beach, it also stocked a huge array of everything you needed for a
good day at the beach, i.e, swim wear and hat, beach toys, drinks, snacks, ice creams, photographic needs, and so on.
A late 1920s photograph of the same corner shows "P. P. Blumenthal M.P.S. Chemist" on the same site.
Above Jack Horner's is the Coogee Legion Club, a private social club originally set up in about 1954. Its membership was originally aimed at former military service personnel, but now is more broadly available to Coogee locals. Until about 1992, the entrance to the Club was via a signed stairway in Coogee Bay Road (not the current Arden Street entrance) next to the Beach Plaza Pharmacy. You can still see this old entrance, now the Club's emergency fire exit.
During the 1990s, a large open-air balcony that sits above the footpath was added to the Club, along with a second floor addition to create a function room. The entrance to the club was then moved around the corner in Arden Street and includes a wider staircase and lift.
Prior to the Legion Club taking over the building in 1954, it had housed a very different sort of "club", called the Coogee Bay Pastimes Club, the main pastimes of its patrons seems to have been illegal gambling. In 1942 it was declared by legal authorities as a “common gaming house”. Press reports of the time regularly talk of police raids.
Next to the old Legion Club entrance is a narrow, hole in the wall shop at no. 268 that from memory has always served various types of fast food. A 1990 photograph shows it as being "Tasty Tucker" advertising Coca Cola, and no doubt selling the obligatory hamburgers. It is now the Xcel Vietnamese fast food eatery, famous for its Vietnamese pork and salad rolls. At lunchtimes, local workers and others form a long queue on the footpath to buy one of their delicious rolls.
1980s Fire - Arcade
Up until the 1980s, numbers 264 to about 258 housed shopfonts with a narrow entrance to a large enclosed area behind that housed a motor repair business.
They were badly destroyed by a fire, and later some parts of the area were demolished because of damage and public safety. Among the businesses that
were in this area was a photo-finishing business - those were the days of film cameras. I remember the owners covering their equipment with tarps, but cannot remember
whether they ever opened again after the site was rebuilt. The pediment now carries the name MFK Arcade
Soon after that at no. 264 Erciyes -2 Turkish Pizza (which has since expanded into the shop next door) opened, becoming a popular fast-food mainstay for locals and visitors.
Next to that at about number 260, there was the entrance to the motor repair business. When the fire destroyed this business, it was replaced by an open courtyard, the Coogee Courtyard, home to two popular cafes, Coogee Courtyard Cafe and the Beach Burrito Co. Coogee and a pathology service.
"Joyce's Chinese" Restaurant At no. 254 was the incomparable Eastern Sea Restaurant, a Chinese restaurant run by Joyce and her family for decades until about 2010. It was there before Coogee Bay Road was populated by other trendy eateries, and all Coogee residents at one time or another enjoyed the Chinese cuisine at "Joyce's".
Somewhere around no. 250 was the clothing store operated for many decades by the Shalhoub family. Over the years it sold most types of clothing, and at one stage operated a "music department" selling the latest pop records. By the 1980s, then operated by the son of its founder, Abe Shalhoub, it was specialising in men's wear and shoes and the hire of formal wear before the business moved to the Stockland Mall at nearby Maroubra.
No 250 houses the La Spiaggia Italian restuarant, established in 1992 according to its advertising sign. During the early 1950s it used to be a shop selling radio equipment, in a time when broadcast radio was the major form of public communication.
In 1989, No. 242 housed a Chicken Shop
In 1989, No. 240 housed a butcher shop called Bega Valley Meats, phone 665 5462
Four about four decades, the Flavour of North India Indian restaurant has operated at number 234, another go-to reasonably priced eatery and take-out food outlet, especially liked by locals.
230 Coogee Bay Road is an impressive 1920s style three-storied commercial building with attractive decorative features. It is now the home of the Sushigo Japanese restaurant, but in the past seems to have always been a bank building, starting with the State Savings Bank of New South Wales in the 1920s. When that institution went under during the Depression, it was replaced by the oddly named Rural Bank of New South Wales. In 1981 it was rebranded as the State Bank, and when that institution was acquired by the Commonwealth Bank, the State Bank branch in Coogee Bay Road closed in about the year 2000.
There was a time when Coogee had a number of Bank branches, most recently the State Bank, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and branches from smaller organisations such as Royal Bank and Advance Bank as well as representatives from building societies. There was plenty of choice. Now the only full service banking available in Coogee Bay Road is the Commonwealth Bank.
Then comes the Douglass Building at number 218 to 222, a group of three double storied shops. They were, as the wording on the pediment says, built in 1914 by William Douglass. He and his family owned the shops until 1960 when they were sold to three individual businesses.
No. 224 houses the Coogee Wine Cellars an independant bottle shop (liquor store). It has been here since at least the early 1980s, and is noted for its wide range of wine brands and styles.
No. 222 is now occupied by the Coogee Wine Room, a restaurant and bar. For many decades it used to house Metry Bros. Shoe Repairs, an old fashioned bootmaker, cobbler, and leather ware store run by a local Lebanese Australian family which still has links to the local area.
Benny, the "Mayor" of Coogee Bay Road
No. 220 is now occupied by clothing retailer San Sebastian but for many decades it was the home of Coogee Hardware owned and operated by the well known
local identity Benny Knoll, (1941-2016) a true Coogee character. Benny would often sit on a stool outside his shop and chat amiably with any passer-by
willing to talk. He seemed to have an opinion and a bit of knowledge about everything.
Even if today some of those opinions may have not been politically correct, his presence was a bright spot on the street. You could buy almost anything in his
hardware store. Unlike modern hardware superstores, if you wanted just one bolt, or half a metre of timber, or an obscure spare part for a piece of obsolete equipment, Benny would find it.
The shelves were groaning with stock, and downstairs there was an Aladdin's cave of arcane odds and ends every handy-man needed.
No. 218 was occupied until recently the Laser Procedure Day Procedure Centre, which was on this site as early as 1994 but it is now empty and offered for lease. In the 1970s, it was a furniture store.
Maloney's grocer is a large double fronted shop at No. 214 and opened here about 2005. It is an independent outlet and has a reputation of providing quality gourmet fresh food and groceries.
From numbers 212 to the corner with Brook Street comes:
From the 1970s, number 200 was home to a "continental" delicatessen, but by 1994 housed the Books and Brains bookshop, and is now part of the much expanded pharmacy that started out at no 206 and now occupied 200 to 206 and branded as Blooms pharmacy.
In 1987 a furniture retailer called Randwick Furniture Company (operated by Ken and Cathy Shapiro) moved from the nearby Spot to 214 Coogee Bay Road, noting in particular in its publicity, its huge range of mattresses. Maybe they took over premises from another furniture retailer. I remember in the early 1970s, buying a bed, mattress, wardrobe and an oriental rug from a shop here when I first moved out of home. The furniture was pretty low quality and didn't last a couple of flat moves, but the rug I realised later was a genuine Turkish rug, and lasted decades until being lost in another house move.
Somewhere near the corner of Brook Street was also a Flemings branded supermarket, which for decades was the main grocery outlet for Coogee. Flemings was a large supermarket chain of 100 or so stores that had been bought out by Woolworths in 1960 from the Fleming family, but remained separately branded until gradually with refilts, they were all eventually rebranded as Woolworths stores. When the Coogee Village centre was completed during the 1980s, the Coogee Flemings branch moved into that centre, and was eventually rebranded as a Woolworths Metro store. The old Flemings was a throwback to early days of retailing with narrow isles cluttered with unopened boxes waiting for stock to be stacked on shelves. It had "check-out" chics who had to manually key the price of each purchased item into the cash register. One staff member was a local identity who walked around the shop with a tame pet cockatoo on her shoulder.
Coogee Village Centre Opens 1984
Across the Brook Street intersection, until about 1980 was a paved municipal car park and next to that was a large, barn-like building with a tall, white painted, false stucco facade that was used
as a car repair workshop operated by a firm called Purchase Brothers. The two sites were redeveloped by Randwick Council into what is now the Coogee Village, a mixed comal
and residential centre. When it was opened in September 1984, it had 14 shops, 15 residential apartments and 123 public car spaces. Coogee's only main chain supermarket, Flemings at the
time but now rebranded as Woolworths Metro, moved down the road from the other side of Brook Street. The Village Centre was not quite big enough to be called a "mall", and did not overly shift the focus of
Coogee Bay Road.
Across the Other Side of the Road
The Corban International Motel at 183 Coogee Bay Road was a 40 room hotel/motel with swimming pool from c1965 to c1993, a site now occupied by the Adina Apartments. During the early 1970s, when
American servicemen were on "R & R" from the Vietnam conflict, this was where many stayed during their Sydney sojourn.
Coogee Branch of The Commonwealth Bank has stood on the south-western corner of Coogee Bay Road and Brooks Streets for many decades. Up until the late 1950s, it was housed in a white weather board building but was replaced by the current modernist designed, architecturally interesting, building (enlarged during the 1990s). Many locals suspect that the relief sculpture on the Coogee Bay Road side of the building is by noted Australian artist Gerald Lewers. You can read more about this here.
On the southern corner of Coogee Bay Road and Brook Street stands an impressive red-brick art deco style building known as the Riviera Flats which were constructed in 1937 which included 20 apartments and three shops facing Coogee Bay Road.
For many decades a man sold fruit and vegetables from a wheeled barrow that was parked on the Coogee Bay Road and Brook Street corner. In the afternoons, he packed his stock away and wheeled the barrow into Brook Street entrance of the parking garage of the Riviera Flats flats.
The first shop front no. 201 houses a Medical Centre. I have tended to think of this as being one of the "new" arrivals on the street, but when consulting our database, was surprised to find that it has been there since around the year 2000. For a long time up until the 1980s and perhaps beyond, it was the home of Ray Lodge Menswear.
A 2004 photograph of no. 203 shows the business called Coogee Fish Shop, which still operates there. Before that there was a women's wear shop called Glad Rags which opened in 1978 and continued there until into the 1980s.
In 2004, no. 205 had a cafe called The Globe but it is now the Little "L" : chicken and burgers.
No. 205 was the quaintly named Coogee Regal Fruit Palace , a green grocer and fruit store run by another Lebanese Australian family , the Lahoods. I think they used to work on that old retailer's stratagem of "let your stock be your advertising', with what seemed like geometrically shaped mountains of neatly stacked fruit and vegetables inviting you into the shop.
From 2000, we have a photograph of an eatery at no. 205 called "BBB" which stood for "Benny's Better Burgers – Benny's Catering for all your Needs".
No. 207 is a double fronted shop that hosts the Tropicana cafe, a favourite hang out for locals that has been there for as long as I can remember. Jane, who grew up in Coogee, says that Tropicana has been on this site for decades, and even as a child in the 1950s it was a similar type of establishment. Back in the day, it was what Australians called "Milk Bars" - sure, they used to sell milk, but also much more: light meals, ice-cream sodas, hamburgers, sweets, etc. They tended to be a place where teenagers hung out, the Australian equivalent of the American "drug store".
In the 1990s and early 2000s, no. 207 housed theShinko Chinese and Asian Food restaurant, a competitor to Joyce's restaurant at no. 254. Serving the Australian style, Asian food that locals liked, "Let's go to Shinko's" was a common refrain for those wanting a feed before a night out at a local drinking hole. Now it hosts the Burger Barrel cafe.
No. 221 is now a modern recently completed three storey mixed residential and retail development , with the large Priceline pharmacy. It used to be the site of the Coogee Branch of the Westpac Bank (Bank of New South Wales before it was renamed). It also houses the new Coogee Post Office (read more about the Post Office here). It was a 1960s era red brick building which replaced an even earlier neo-classical 1920s era building. It had a traditional “banking chamber” with a large open hall divided by a long counter with tellers behind metal cages. It had a vacant block at the back and accessed via Vicar Street, which was supposed to be for bank customer parking, but most locals ignored that and used it as a general parking area - just had to be careful your car was not locked in after the bank closed and they locked the gates. It also had a narrow entry/exit and many cars bore the scratches from being driven too quickly on exit. Westpac moved up the road to No. 227 for a while.
No. 227 had a newsagent (newspapers, stationary etc.) from at least as early as 1969, when it was called Maxwell's Newsagency and into the 1990s, till at least 1994. For a few years recently it housed the Coogee Branch of Westpac bank (which had moved down the street not from number 225 when the bank sold its old premises. Wesptac Coogee’s branch has closed completely now, and the bank operates its legacy Coogee business from its Randwick branch. If you happen to have a Coogee Westpac Account, you will perhaps notice that your BSB number (032152) now points to the Randwick branch! The store currently has no tenants, and apparently is owned by the Coogee Bay Hotel which has a proposal to demolish it as part of its expansion along Coogee Bay Road to Vicar Street.
No. 229 had Cheryl's Hair Trends ladies hairdressing salon was operating here from as early as 1983 and until the 1990s. It now houses a nail care business called Nail Expressions
No. 231 had New Zealand Waffle Ice Cream Company store in the 1990s, and a previous occupant was a women's wear shop called Amber Lea Boutique which opened in 1973 and continued into the 1980s.
A 1989 photograph shows no. 233 with Hann's Lebanese Kitchen, sporting a green cedar of Lebanon motiff, "Coffee Lounge, Take Away, B.Y.O. Ph. 315 7283".
No. 235 Coogee Bay Road is a building constructed in 1914, and now stands next to the one of the bars of the Coogee Bay Hotel. According to our records during the 1980s, it housed a TAB betting shop
No. 237 had an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria during the 1980s. It now operates as a part of Bottle Shop (liquor store) owned by the Coogee Bay Hotel. The other half of this store has expanded into number 239, which used to be used as part of one of the Hotel's bars. The rest of Coogee Bay Road is occupied by the Coogee Bay Hotel (READ MORE here).
Career Centre
A number of people wrote to us to say that they or their relatives pretty much spent their working lives at Coogee Bay businesses, unlike today where employment tends to be casual jobs in cafes. They
may have, for instance, made a career of working in the clothing retail business - finding consecutive jobs in Glad Rags, and then Shalhoubs, and other retail business in the strip. You were more
likely to get to know long-term employees of business, than you would these days.
Did We Get it Right? - What Do You Think?
This project ended up being a much bigger task than we imagined when we began. Perhaps we went some way towards getting it right. There are many businesses, stories and characters we must have left out -
perhaps you know more about Coogee Bay Road - we would love to hear from you.
Reference
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