61-65 Church Street, Gloucester

In December 1936, the finishing touches were being made to Mr Robert Kendall’s new business block. Designed and built by Mr E Patmore, the building was a two-storey brick building with a semi-glazed red tile roof. It consisted of two shops on the ground floor and two offices upstairs. The upstairs portion had been finished with bevel-faced bricks, red-toned to match the roof. The latest in plate glass show windows and maple and glass doors had been fitted, along with a cantilever awning with a Wunderlich ceiling. The occupiers of the downstairs shops were Mr W A Dan, draper and Mrs E Young’s ‘Golden Gate Café’ which was fitted with a large dining room, kitchen and two store rooms. Upstairs was occupied by Mr R Wilson an accountant and Mr David H J Hill, a dentist.¹

Mr Robert Kendall was a tinsmith and plumber who in the early 1900s installed acetylene lighting in many Gloucester buildings including the School of Arts.² In 1927, Kendall bought the property Section 2 Pt lot 3 in Church Street, on which was situated old wooden buildings.³ The buildings were demolished to make way for the new building finished in time for Christmas trading in 1936. In 1932 Kendall sold his well-established tinsmith business to Mr Eagleton and was, for a time, Director of the Electric Supply Company which gradually supplied electricity to all of the Gloucester region.⁴ Kendall sold his building in Church Street to the Gloucester Radio & Television Centre Pty Ltd in June 1960.⁵ Kendall died 7 years later aged 81 years.⁶ The Gloucester Radio & Television Centre Pty Ltd sold the building to Noel and Edith Sansom in April 1968.⁷

Author: Janine Roberts