15 April 2021

Coles Book Arcade in Bourke Street must have been a magical place – and impressive ! EW Cole opened this emporium of books in 1883, with new publications on the ground floor, second hand on the first floor (and soon added ornaments on the top floor!). He provided chairs for people to sit and read with no need to buy, an impressive innovation for the 1880s. Later he provided an aviary, monkeys, an orchestra, and extended further and further eventually to Collins Street, selling music, stationary, wholesale books, children’s books, with a fernery, a cafe and an art gallery. Some of the images here are from a Coles family album held by the @library_vic, most undated, but appear to be 1880s-1920s, others in their general collection.

Coles Book Arcade in Bourke Street was decorated with a giant rainbow 🌈 isnt that nice? It looks like it was sculpted on, and then painted – judging from a hand coloured postcard I think it had the 7 (8?) colours of the traditional rainbow, as seen on the covers of his #ColesFunnyPictureBook, but with the darkest colours on the outside. E W Cole was not only a bookseller but promoted many utopian ideas, which the rainbow represented, such as World Federation, all religions having the same ideals, aircraft are coming (he was right!), if everyone treated others as they like to be treated, there would be no more war. All this is outlined in an excellent book published 2020, “Under the Rainbow, Life and Times of EW Cole”, miegunyahpress.

The arcade was here from 1883 until 1928, when it was replaced by Coles Store No 1 (no relation), later DJs menswear, about to be something else. Images 1. @library_vic, 2. Internet, 3. Internet, but originally @boroondaralibraryservice, looks to be him in his 40s, about the time he opened his first arcade up the street in 1873.

Cole started selling books a bit by accident it seems, moving on from the pies he was selling from a barrow at the Eastern Market, to a stall, to a bigger stall, and then to his first ‘arcade’ in 1873 a few doors down Bourke Street. It was a big double level space, he was always thinking bigger once he saw success, and its possible he named his shop ‘arcade’ after the rather new 1872 Eastern Arcade, which was next to the market.

12 April 2021

Is your #whatnot needing a new ornament ? Then head up to the top floor of #ColesBookArcade, in Bourke Street in 1886, and speak to Mrs Eliza Cole. Yes she married the eccentric proprietor #EWCole after answering his ad in the newspapers seeking a wife, and they’re both very happy. After that, you should check out the Crinkled and Fancy Paper department, and then maybe rest up in the Fernery, where you might see the whole family in about 1900 lounging around, since they all live above the popular establishment. Then perhaps you need some pictures, or stationary ? Or even a book ?

13 August 2017

Repost 2017: The ‘littlemen’ from #ColesBookArcade – I always thought they were rather #creepy. The faces are so badly made and they don’t look happy, and why sailors ?? They crank a handle to turn flip cards with ads and positive exhortations – they’ve been on display at the #MelbouneMuseum possibly since the arcade closed in 1928, and I remember them being on display as a kid in the 70s when it was still in some of the huge cavernous rooms now occupied by the State Library; press a button and they started up. The displays back then hadn’t changed for decades ! The Cole’s Finny Picture Book was first published in 1879 (!) and reprinted so much that half a million were sold, including editions in the 1950s and new versions up to 1991 (book no 4). This one is Book No 2, first published 1909. As a kid I thought the naughty boy whipping machine wasnt funny at all ! Pics of sailors, Museums Victoria, others, the internet.

14 August 2017

Thanks to followers for pointing out that this beautiful glass roof was part of #ColesBookArcade ! Or rather, it was a roof over Howey Place, a public laneway that ran next to an 1857 building that he leased in 1906, adding to the ever growing store in 1906. He opened out the side wall into a long series of windows, and added the roof in 1907. It connected through the rear of a shop facing Collins Street that he also leased, extending the original famous 1883 arcade facing Bourke Street through a whole city block. The energetic and eccentric E W Cole sold not only books (new and used) but china, toys, and loads of other stuff, which finally closed in 1928. You can see that bits of the #artnouveau #wroughtiron were maybe gilded, and there’s the #signboard that I remember was still there in the 90s, but it just said Howey Place then. Pic 4 is the Collins Street frontage in c1910. Pic 5 is the sign in maybe the 70s via an FB follower. (2024 update : in April the city of melb with the EW Cole foundation put up a sign based on one that was within the store, amazing that a place that closed so long ago is still remembered. However, they’ve used ‘Victorian’ typeface when the original was sans serif. Just saying…)

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