George Fincham Pipe Organ Builder, Stawell St Richmond

Entrance off Stawell Street Richmond

The sign is near Office Works Richmond car park and seen or unseen by hundreds of people every day. Its a sign of a firm that had been in existence from 1862-2006, a remarkable period of time. George Fincham the founder was a master pipe organ builder and his work has been in many famous Melbourne icons.  Stawell St sign below. Fincham started in Bridge Rd premises and at one time had adjacent buildings, including this one, that fronted Bridge Rd as well. 

Fincham is believed to have manufactured over 200 organs including those at the Exhibition Building; Freemason's Hall; St Kilda Town Hall and a number of prominent churches including Baptist Church, Collins Street; Independent Church, Collins Street; Scots Church, Collins Street; Wesley Church; St Francis' Church, Elizabeth Street; St Peter's Church, Albert Street, East Melbourne; and St Patrick's Cathedral, Albert Street, East Melbourne.

Source: Victoria Heritage Building Database

Mc Nivens Ice Cream Cones and Drinking Straws

I started with a faded sign in Highett St Richmond near the Gleadell Fresh Food market. I have photographed it a number of times over a 7-8 year period and it has been hard to see for a while as a newish building is up close and partially covering it. The big news is that the web contains a huge amount of info on this product which seems to have been a much loved product originating from NZ, presumably made under licence in Australia. 

Reference is the web site McNiven Cones| longwhitekid at https://longwhitekid.wordpress.com/category/mcniven-cones/

Richmond sign below

Signs of --Bakeries of Prahran, Armadale, South Yarra

I have recently discovered that  around 50 years from1930 until 1980, these suburbs had a wealth of major bakeries - bread, biscuits and crumpets in a relatively small area. The companies involved were Table Talk Biscuits, Golden Crumpets, Gawiths Bread, Sutherlands Bakers and Capitol Bakery. Signs for Table Talk have been captured and a Capitol Bakery raised cement sign was seen at corner Toorak and Chapel street a short time ago.

Table Talk factory around 2009 from Prahran Station
Now a new warehouse living development

The Golden Crust Bread Company began in Armadale, in 1915. In 1927 it opened a self-raising flour and macaroni factory in Oxford Street, South Yarra. In my memory, crumpets became their best seller.

The Stockdale family had a long association with baking and began operations in Punt Road Prahran in 1860. The Gawith Bros came to Australia in 1927 and entered the baking industry themselves after the failure of their father's business, also in that field. In the 1930s they purchased premises and steadily built the company up, in competition with Stockdales. By 1955 they had developed bulk manufacture of sliced bread and the whole industry gained a big boost. The firm was eventually sold to Sunnicrust.

Reference: Based on A History of Prahran, Vol 2, 1925-1980 by Sally Wilde