The Shopping Strip

During the first half of the 20th century, most Australians bought their daily needs from their local corner shop or high street. Both Mascot and Botany had busy shopping strips on Botany Road.

Mascot shops, looking north, 1938. The shops on the left hand side were demolished in the 1960s during the widening of Botany Rd.The majority on your right, including Mascot Corner, still exist today. 
Courtesy of State Library of NSW (Home and Away – 9931)

Botany shops, from the corner of Botany Road and Banksia Street c. 1930s
At night this area was lit up and known as the White Way.You can see the lamps clearly on the left hand side of this picture
City of Botany Bay Library & Museum

These two clusters of shops still exist today, however their atmosphere is quite different. Back then, people shopped more frequently because no one had cars or refrigerators. Instead of the takeaway shops that now serve workers from nearby business parks, these shopping strips contained a wide variety of shops that specialised in certain goods such as basic groceries, meat and clothes. 

Various newspapers adverts from the South Sydney Sentinel, 1932-34
City of Botany Bay Library & Museum

Relationships often formed between shopkeepers and their customers. In times of hardship, some owners even provided goods on credit. The layout of these shops were also very different to what we know today. Back then self service was an unknown concept.  

Grocery Store 
Everything at the grocer’s was stored on or behind the counter. Goods such as sugar, butter and even biscuits were stored in bulk. To purchase these goods you would tell the grocer how much you wanted and he would weigh and package your request. In this era, grocers were seen as skilled professionals and were always neatly dressed in pressed clothes and white aprons. 

F.J Sam’s Grocery Store of Mascot, c1938
City of Botany Bay Library & Museum

“Because the grocer at Lakin’s was the only one working in the store and because he often had to go a distance, he used to glide. He’d run along a little bit and then he would slide along the floor in his shoes to get to a pound of sugar or 1/2 pound of tea. He must have worn out an awful lot of shoes.” June Thornton

Butcher's Shop
In the 21st century we talk about eating meat two or three times a week. In the past it was more like two or three times a day. As a result there were many more butchers in the area. Meat was delivered to the shop in large cuts and was then sliced into smaller portions. Large worn-down chopping boards and floors covered in dust were a common feature in many butchers.

These newspaper clippings suggest during the Great Depression there was a lot of competition among local butchers.
Adverts from the South Sydney Sentinel, 1932-34. Article in Barrier Miner, Saturday 10 September 1932, page 1
Courtesy of Trove

Pharmacy

The pharmacy's original sign.
All objects courtesy of Dorothy & Michael Kavanagh

Today we buy pre-packaged medicines, however earlier pharmacists used to personally mix and compound prescriptions on site. In some cases, they even produced their own remedies, such as cough mixtures.

Kavanagh's Pharmacy in Banksmeadow has been trading for 68 years and the objects you can see below span the pharmacy's life. J.F McCarthy, a former alderman, opened and ran the pharmacy from 1930 until 1945 when John Kavanagh purchased the business. His son, Jim, later took over, followed by his grandson, Michael, who now runs the pharmacy. 

Prescription Book, 1931. Before the days of computers, all dispensed prescriptions were written down in books.

All the ingredients had to be recorded too.

John & Jim Kavanagh

“My father was what I would call a true apothecary. If you wanted to have a pill you actually used a pill machine. Nothing was made up, everything had to be made from scratch. You were ‘on the slab’ all the time. There were no restricted drugs and a lot of people didn’t bother going to the doctor unless they had a more serious condition. When they were crook they’d go see ‘Kav’ ” 
Jim Kavanagh

Base chemical storage bottles, mortar and pestle

Recipes for ear drops

Later pre-packaged medicines

5000 tablet Panadol tin. Blister packaging is now common, but before it became a cheap way to dispense tablets, Panadols were sold to chemists in large tins. Like old fashioned grocers, the pharmacist would count and divide the product into smaller bottles. During this period, bottles were reused and pharmacy staff spent a lot of time washing.  

Pharmacies are one of the last shops that still exist on most old fashioned shopping strips. Their existence however is being greatly affected by large discount pharmacy chains. Will local pharmacies soon become rare like grocers and butchers? Only time will tell.
  

Dorothy Kavanagh beside the pharmacy's range of lipsticks, c.1960s

Next: Memory Lane