Swan Street, Richmond, C.1967
Richmond is a near city suburb of Melbourne, about 3 kms east of the city.
Swan Street is one of two major east/west roads running through the suburb, the other being Bridge Road.
This 58 year old shot looks east on Swan Street from under the 1885 built railway overpass.
The HR model Holden sedan is coming out of Stewart Street which runs adjacent to the railway line between Punt Road and Swan Street. To the left, out of shot on the corner is the Corner Hotel.
Directly ahead is the 1905 built Richmond South Post Office with its landmark turret and a bank of phone boxes out front.
This occupies a triangular piece of land which originally held a ground level railway signal box. This became redundant with the opening of the overpass.
To the left, the building with the tower is the Paterson’s Furniture Store. This business grew from here to become one of Melbourne’s largest furniture retailers.
On the other side of the power pole one can see the landmark ball-capped clock tower, a‘top Dimmeys retail business.
Joseph Britten established a small drapery business on this site in 1853. In 1898 this was acquired by a Maryborough (Vic) firm by the name of Dimelow and Gaylard. This gave birth to the nickname ‘Dimmey’s’.
The business was then bought by John Jeffery early in the new century, who retained the name Dimmeys.
It was he (Jeffrey) who built the iconic store seen here, built in stages between 1907 and 1918.