Friday, February 01, 2008

Mann Street

(Gosford walkies #28)

It's yonks since I walked in Gosford, September 2006 in fact. Must get more organised.


Booth's Garage WWII Mann Street Gosford

Booth's Motors opened on the 1st of September 1939. 2 days later Australia joined the war and Booth's couldn't get any new cars to sell for 6 years. They survived though, flogging all the spare parts they could lay their hands on, servicing cars already in town and selling petrol.


Booth's Motors Mann Street Gosford

Booth's is still in the family, which is always good to hear. Over the years they've sold Humbers, Hillmans, Sunbeams and Singers. Singer I know is the sewing machine crowd and there's a crowd called Sunbeam who sell electric kettles. After those they sold Chryslers then Mitsubishis.

Lots of Singer pictures
Association of Singer Owners, more pictures
Rootes Group Car Club, Humbers, Hillmans, Singers, Sunbeams, Commers, Karriers


Gosford Hall 1911 Mann Street Gosford

Gosford Hall was on the cutting edge in the early 20th century. Good dance floor, sliding stage, dressing rooms, supper room and acetylene gas lighting. And later it was one of the first places in Gosford to have the electricity. It was a hotspot for entertainment for decades, dances, stageshows, flower shows and a market.

It housed the Gosford Municipal Council (City Hall) for a bit then C.H. Brown's Furniture Store and a few other business until it was knocked down in 1994 for extensions on the Gateway arcade. The Gateway arcade is that one with the footbridge across to the railway station and it's now half empty. So much for progress.

The Hall was opened in 1911 by a mill owner called Parsons. That's believed to be him on the left and the builder on the right.


Western Sydney cops it again, Woy Woy unscathed

That's what, half a dozen massive storm fronts that've ripped up western Sydney this summer? Poor bastards have barely got the tiles back on their roofs when the next lot comes through. Roofs back off, streets flooded, trees uprooted again, trains cut off in peak hour.

We got a lovely light show about 10PM and a nice southerly breeze. The light's flickered a bit a couple of times but that was it and it was lovely and cool this morning.

Sydney storms

"Mystery surrounds the shooting of an off-duty [male] police officer in Centennial Park early this morning." He was attacked next to the loo apparently.

Centennial Park is a large park wedged between Anzac Parade and Oxford Street, just down the road from the old army barracks. Of a morning it's popular with joggers, dog walkers and those seeking a little pre-breakfast companionship. The mystery is was it the same bloke who shot him that had a go at him last November outside his place? Poor bastard.

First stabbed now shot

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember those shops that were there before the gateway centre was built the old RSL club was also on that site but it burnt down in 1973 I dont remember CH Brown but I remember there was a Winns discount store there for a while and then there was some sort of discount toy and book store
When the Gateway Center first opened it had a Franklins Supermarket and some little shops in there as well I recall seeing a sign saying they were going to put in more shops and escaltors down to a lower level but that never happened (this was before they built the other extension)

Spike said...

After the fire did they move the RSL to where it is now beside the stadium?

The Gateway is weird. It's a gateway to nowhere really except the dole office.

Anonymous said...

your thinking of the leagues club and the bowling club thats next to the stadium spike, the RSL was the one that is now at West Gosford I cant remember if it went there straight away after the fire I only remember the building thats there now on the present site opening several years after the fire
The Gateway is full of employment agencies and the office of fair trading these days nothing at all in the way of retail except a little take away food shop and a newsagent type thing but i think thats only there for the workers anyway

Spike said...

D'oh! I am too. Eighties-looking job the West Gosf RSL if I remember right. The older bits you can see under all the new bits anyways.

Maybe the tides of commerce will wash back that way one day and the rents will go up and someone will clean the mould off the walkway. I like Kibble Park as the centre of Gossie though. Every town oughta have a park at its centre.

Anonymous said...

well kibble park wasnt always a park before that it was a ugly, ugly car park

Spike said...

I glad I never saw it like that.

Way before it was a carpark (I'm presuming it was way before) it was Kibble's farm or backyard.

Anonymous said...

i have seen pictures of some houses on that site so it would have been someones backyard at one stage

Anonymous said...

I found this in a book called "Gosford from shire to city" - " 1973 - A fire quickly swept through the Gosford RSL club in Mann Street on 22 January 1973. The Building was gutted within minutes and was beyond restoration. Less than 30 days after the fire, members of the club endorsed the board's purchase of the galaxy motel at West Gosford at a cost of approximately $1 million as the site upon which to re-establish the club. On 18 July 1973 the club relocated to the new premises at West Gosford"

so that basically explains what happened to the RSL club

Spike said...

Buggeration. I read that book yonks ago and forgot about it. That's how come there's those motel units in the grounds of the RSL.