Gilray Stores Ivanhoe

Posted on Friday, 10th July 2020 by Janine Rizzetti

Here’s a familiar sight- the shop on the corner of Upper Heidelberg Road and Seddon Street in the Ivanhoe Shopping Centre. But look carefully, and you’ll see that the street sign identifies ‘Station Street’, the earlier name for what we now know as Seddon Street.

Gilray Stores were early occupiers of these shops, which were constructed in 1937-1938 at a cost of 2735 pounds. Gilrays sold drapery, and in 1950 Coles stores purchased their Balwyn, Fairfield and Ivanhoe shops.

Although the State Library of Victoria dates the photo as 1940-1950, it is probably later than that. Juanita Gift Salon opened in 1952 and was still there in 1960. All those prams suggest a baby boom, and Station Street was renamed Seddon Street between 1955 and 1960. So, this photo probably dates to some time between those five years.

In the Heidelberg Conservation Study of 1985 Graeme Butler describes the building as being of “Neo-Tudor” design, and notes that “Gables, with glazed soldier coursed brickwork trimming the outline, Marseilles-pattern tiles (clinker), cream painted textured stucco and an oriel in the corner, are important elements”. Unfortunately the diamond paned glass in the oriel seems to have disappeared.

For many years the shop was a menswear store and now it is a rather magical toy shop, which seems particularly fitting for a shop that has a little balcony and oriel upstairs!

Image source: State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/365418