Past/Lives Flashback #10: Butchery No. 1 – Hurstville, NSW
As promised, here’s the first in a series of articles taking a look back at the top ten most popular Past/Lives posts of the last year. If I was smart, I would have picked the ten least popular posts so as to boost their views, but there’s a good reason the Belfield denture clinic never found its audience.
With that in mind, it’s to my complete amazement that I present the tenth most popular entry, Hurstville’s No. 1 Butchery.
Original article: Food Fair/ANZ Bank/The Base Store/No1 Butchery – Hurstville, NSW
First things first: there are no obvious changes. Given the building’s colourful history, it’s almost a surprise there’s been no activity over the last 12 months, but there you have it…NO changes whatsoever (perhaps with the exception of the chemist next door having become “Australia’s cheapest chemist”. Yeah, right). It’s as ugly a shopfront as ever, and that demonic pig in the logo is just as disturbing. I’d be willing to bet those people walking past are the same as last year, too.
What’s really interesting to me about this place is that just over the last few weeks, it’s exploded in terms of page views. Why? The whole point of this series was to show you how things have changed over a year, and to find something new to add, so this is a great start. What’s so special about this place? Then again, that’s probably what you were saying when I published the original article a year ago. Wait! Do you feel that? It’s moments like these that bring us closer, dear reader.
Don’t worry, they won’t all be like this.
Rozelle Theatre/Arch Stone & Residential – Rozelle, NSW
Whoa, deja vu! This incarnation of the Rozelle Theatre, constructed in 1927, was actually the second theatre to be built at this location. You can take one look at it and know it was a job by architect Charles Bohringer, who also brought us the Homebush Theatre. That Bohringer…it’s like he was tortured by this single vision in his head and could never quite exorcise it, no matter how many theatres he designed.
While we’re on the topic of torture, Zero Dark Thirty’s got nothing on Miss Louise Mack, who sadistically inflicted a series of lectures on children at the theatre during the late 1920s:
SMH, 26 November 1929
You won’t be surprised to learn that it was Hoyts who played the part of the executioner in the tragic tale of this theatre, which ceased projection in 1960 – and speaking of executions:
Wouldn’t have wanted to be that last fellow… Adelaide Advertiser, 12 June 1950
After an embarrassing stint as a function centre, the cinema today stands as an Arch Stone tile outlet topped with an apartment block. It’d be a damn spooky place to live, too…it’s said that on a dark and stormy night, you can still hear the yawns of Miss Mack’s students…
NSWFB Fire Station/Kiama Community Arts Centre – Kiama, NSW
Known locally as ‘the old fire station’, Kiama’s community arts centre is home to Daisy, the Decorated Dairy Cow. Since 1991, Daisy’s coat of paint has changed whenever a new exhibition is on at the centre, with the current design (above) being particularly clever.
SMH, Oct 2 1899
It’s a far cry from the Kiama of 1899, which was decimated by a great fire that destroyed 15 buildings due to lack of a fire brigade. Yep, that’ll do it. Let’s just hope no fires break out in Kiama now…it would be an udder tragedy (I’M SO SORRY).
Milk Bar/Campsie Spice Supermarket – Campsie, NSW
Surrounded by a seemingly inexhaustible army of mobile phone shops and money transfer stations, the late Campsie Spice Supermarket exists now only to remind us that if you can’t make it as a milk bar selling Streets ice creams and Shelleys drinks, you definitely ain’t making it as a spice supermarket. In your laziness you’re sending mixed signals, dudes! You weren’t selling Shelleys drinks!
SMH, 18 January 1934
Maybe the building’s cursed to bring bad luck to all who dwell within it, such as the unfortunately named Edward Raper, who in 1934 attempted to rent the dwelling as a ‘good dwelling’ to potential dwellers for only three pounds. I can’t help but wonder if his ad got any replies….probably. They were more innocent times.
SMH, 16 March 1949
If we flash forward to 1949 we can see that this place was home to W. Wall, a real estate agent selling property in streets (Ceres Street Padstow) that no longer exist. Coincidence? CURSED, I TELL YOU.
Commonwealth Banking Corporation/Commonwealth Bank – Enmore, NSW
In 1991, the Commonwealth Bank had a brainwave: “Everyone hates big business, so let’s sound less like one.” And so ended over 30 years of the Commonwealth Banking Corporation, which gave way to the kinder, warmer Commonwealth Bank we know today.
The reality is that in 1959, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia split into two entities; one good (Reserve Bank of Australia), and one pure evil (the Commonwealth Banking Corporation). And no, changing your name back hasn’t fooled anyone, CBA.
Past/Lives of the Near Future 