1922 [Foy & Gibson vans ready for the Toy Fair]

ID: 21158
Photographer: Sadler, William, 214 Russell Street, Melbourne
Copyright: library owns image (image on public access)
Org ID: CL 778

Description: Shows part of the Foy & Gibson manufacturing complex in Collingwood. Vans and flat tray trucks are lined up, each with a man standing by it. Most of the men wear three-piece suits and hats, while some are dressed in more workmanlike attire and are probably the drivers. This is one of 30 photos in an album prepared for the firm in late 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. James Wood was the firm's accountant.
Subject: toys

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