1922 Fitzroy Warehouse, exterior section

ID: 21119
Photographer: William Sadler, 214 Russell Street, Melbourne
Copyright: library owns image (image on public access)
Org ID: CL PIC 751

Description: Foy and Gibson emporium on the Fitzroy side of Smith Street. This is a photo in an album prepared for the firm in 1921 or 1922. On the cover is embossed in gold lettering: Foy & Gibson Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. Gibsonia Woollen Mills, exterior views. Handwritten inside the cover is 'James Wood, March 1922'. After commencing in 1883 with a shop in Smith Street, the first of the Foy & Gibson warehouse/manufactories in Oxford Street was built by 1895, to the design of William Pitt, architect and Collingwood councillor. From this time until the 1920s, the entire block bounded by Smith, Wellington, Peel and Stanley Streets, previously occupied by houses, small factories and hotels, was to undergo a transformation into an industrial landscape of woollen mills, clothing manufacture, hosiery, bedding, metal goods and cabinet manufacture on a scale unprecedented in Melbourne at the time. The shops contributed to the popularity of Smith Street as a pre-eminent suburban shopping street. James Wood was the firm's accountant.
Subject: manufacturing industry

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