London Stores, Bourke Street, 1925, Tompkins & Tompkins

7 November 2018:

I do like this one, though it’s rather massive in an otherwise low scale area around the GPO.

London Stores 1925 by the prolific Tompkins brothers #tompkinsandtompkins (who also did Myers Bourke Street opposite 10 years later). Excellent example of #CommercialPalazzo, an idea straight from US really, sometimes called #beauxarts, the ‘base tall middle and big cornice’ formula developed by #louissullivan in the 1890s.

Behind the facades it’s actually U shaped, 3rd pic is from Myers. The Big Green Building as someone said on the tram the other day. Been green as long as I can remember- just found image from 1973, yep green.

Great name, from when it was built by the eponymous menswear #departmentstore, who occupied the lower levels. Found some adds in 1924 for #rebuilding sale – ‘a british tweed suit for 22’6’. And another from 1922.

When I first posted this in 2014, Roger David was still there carrying on the menswear tradition, but no grand store interiors sadly. In 2018 Roger David went bust and replaced here by Optus and Vodaphone.

May 2014

January 2026

The great huge London Stores on the corner of Bourke & Elizabeth is being repainted (thanks @tristan_davies for the current pics). It’s been all patchy for a while and there were some test colours on the side, off white and a deepish cream, which seems to be the chosen one (my pics Oct last year). It’ll look vastly different I think.

It’s been green since 1973, and there’s another pic dated just before in 1972 (City of Sydney archives) showing it two shades of purply grey, interesting choices. They may have been the original colours, though the next one from c1933 indicates one colour, possibly just render grey.

The design was illustrated in August 1925, when the lower floors for the store itself was nearly ready, and had changed a little from the March 1924 design, with smaller corner windows. There’s a great light well you can see from Myers windows (my pic is from 2019), don’t know if that’s being painted too. Pics 8,9 are mine from 2018.