Shopping in Island Bay in the early 1940s 

Shopping in the bay

In January 1951, when I arrived in New Zealand, I stayed briefly in Auckland while my husband, John, himself a New Zealander, came to Wellington to start work and to find somewhere for us to live. The flat that he found was in Island Bay, on The Esplanade. 'Island Bay' he wrote, 'is an Italian fishing village.' At first I was bitterly disappointed – no Italian restaurants, no shops selling Italian produce. But before long, like everyone else in the Bay, I appreciated and was a regular customer at the fish and chip shop at the Terminus. People came from other suburbs, from as far away as Karori, for Fifi's famous fish and chips. No Italian restaurants, but I could look at Fifi's photographs of Italy while I waited for my fish and chips; and it certainly was, and is, a village.

There were, of course, several shops at the Terminus. We had a grocer – where we could buy spaghetti and macaroni, though made in New Zealand. There were a butcher and a greengrocer on the same side of The Parade. Across the road was the dairy, where Mr McEwan knew us all, including the children who would pick up the ordered bread on their way home from school. Just a step away from the dairy was Mr and Mrs Sinclair's Stationery and Bookshop, where people could drop in for their Dominion before taking the tram to work. I understand that just before the buses replaced the trams their shop was gutted by a fire.

I have asked many people whether they recall the shoe repairer at the Terminus in 1951, but no one seems to remember him. He was tall and well built, a Maori, who walked slowly, aided by a stick.

The greengrocer's on the corner, where Michael McCormack now has his art gallery, was the largest of this group of shops. The owners changed several times, but at one stage two young men and their mother kept the shop. If I remember rightly – though I may not do so - their name was Greco, but they were Italian. One brother was an accomplished guitarist. He gave me a recipe for a spinach and potato dish which I still make, and which is appreciated by family and friends. Later Raymond and Cindy Ching kept the shop, and were the last greengrocers there. Raymond used to deliver my vegetables early on a Saturday morning, One week I had bought – I thought – a 20 pound case of apricots for bottling. When I went out to the washhouse to check that they had been delivered, I found the case was only half full. I rang Raymond and reproached him. The cases I had seen in the shop had been full, tightly packed. Raymond assured me he had delivered a full case. Later I found pieces of apricot scattered on the garden and path outside. It looked as if an opossum, or maybe two, had found the window open and helped themselves to the fruit. I apologised, Raymond bore no grudge, and continued to deliver my orders.

I remember Colin and Janet Boyce in the grocer's shop, and they too delivered their goods. Colin used to cut the large cheese into portions with a wire cutter when you had decided exactly how much you wanted. No ready-packed pieces of cheese in those days. There seemed to be dairies on every corner, as there are now, just as hard a life then as now – perhaps more so. They were a great blessing on Saturdays and Sundays when all the other shops were closed. In the 1950s there were strict regulations about what could and could not be sold. One weekend we had been 'up the coast' and had picked a large quantity of blackberries, enough for me to make jam. But I did not have the amount of sugar I needed. So I went to the nearest dairy and begged for a bag – perhaps 2 pounds – of sugar. It was wrapped up in several layers of newspaper and I was warned not to tell anyone where I had bought it, otherwise the dairy owner could have been given a heavy fine.

Before long I ventured to the shops further along The Parade. There was a group of shops near the Empire Theatre. The one I frequented for many years was Miss Marshall's cake shop. It was not 'done' to buy cakes in those days, but Miss Marshall was not short of customers. My usual purchase was her excellent fruit square. When I was very busy I would serve this with custard for pudding, and there were never any complaints. My family appreciated it, as did people from other suburbs who came to Island Bay especially for Miss Marshall's cakes. When, for some reason, importers stopped bring in first-grade dried fruit, Miss Marshall decided this was the end of her fruit squares – she was not prepared to make them with second or third-grade fruit.

The cinema itself was always popular, particularly with the children, most of all with the boys, on Saturday afternoons. I was never strong enough to brave the rowdy events, but my sons were regular patrons. The hardware shop, sadly missed now by the locals, was established after the cinema closed, as was Ian Logan's gallery on the first floor. The re-opened cinema has proved to be a successful venture, attracting filmgoers from other suburbs. Across the road from the cinema was a large 'drapery and haberdashery' shop, later run by Pam Cromie, where I bought several attractive dresses. So much easier than going in to town – and cheaper! Of course there were dairies – two – in that area, also a butcher, Doug Timms, I remember. In those days we had everything we needed – as well as some choice – within walking distance of the Terminus.

If we were a little more energetic, or prepared to take the tram or bus for one section to the main shopping area, there was an even wider choice for the keen shopper. Of course the one place where most of us would need to go at some time, even if not very frequently, was the Post Office. It really seemed indispensable. There were always queues there, for banking as well as our postal needs. Its closure seemed a tragedy. How could we manage without it, we wondered. It seemed to be assumed that everyone had a car, and that it was hardly any further to go to Newtown or Kilbirnie than to the Island Bay Post Office. However the video shop supplies most of our postal requirements – as well as some of our entertainment. Also, thanks to the friendly and helpful attitudes, it adds to the general Island Bay feeling of neighbourliness.

On the same side of the Parade as the Post Office there was, in the 1950s, a Self Help grocery, always advertised as the cheapest place to shop. For the young, it should be said that Self Help' was not the equivalent to Pak N Sav, nor was it a free-for-all. However, the owners of the chain still seem to have the charitable organisation they established, although their grocery chain probably no longer exists. Although always advertised as the cheapest, it did not seem to be as popular as another grocery, Jansen's. Perhaps this was because the owner was a well known Island Bay identity who lived in a large house just behind the shop. I remember his giving broken biscuits to my eldest son, who was in a pushchair at the time. Most of the grocers at that time would have had broken biscuits for sale very cheaply. They had the biscuits delivered in bulk, in large square tins. These were prized possessions for many people who had bread delivered to them from the bakery into the biscuits tins which they kept at their gates.

'Old' Mr Jansen's son, Bruce, took over the shop later. It was he who embarked on the establishment of a supermarket in the Bay. This is in Medway Street, although it can still be approached on foot from the site of Jansen's Grocery on the Parade. It seemed to me at the time a very rash enterprise. Where would all the people – the customers – come from? Kingston was not yet an established suburb, and Island Bay seemed a very small place. A friend in the United States, ex-Island Bay, had written to tell me of the wonders of American supermarkets. But that was not Wellington. Yet I have lived to be thankful for our excellent supermarket.

Bruce, however, soon moved to 'fresh fields', and Peter Shaw, whom many people still remember, took over. And, sadly, the supermarket did spell the end for some local shops. One of the first to go was the greengrocery on the other side of the road, run by the Wong family. I am told that one of the sons is a doctor who lives in the Island Bay area. It's hard to leave the Bay! On the opposite side of the road, the Far family kept their greengrocery going for some time after the supermarket was established. Bill and Fay are still valued members of the Island Bay community, proprietors of the Stationery and Book Shop on the Parade. Fay is well known outside the Bay for her expertise in children's books.

In the 1950s and 60s we even had a shoe shop in the main shopping area. I used to buy the boys' school shoes there – another excuse not to go into town. There was also Hansen's Drapery on the corner by the footpath leading to Clyde Street. At one stage there were two chemists, or pharmacists as we would call them now: Mr Easson nearer the library, and in the centre of the group of shops, Peter Bacon, in the same place where we still have a pharmacy. The butcher, too, once Howard and Tilyard, had customers from all over Wellington, and further afield, for his meat and prize-winning smallgoods.

We are certainly very fortunate in the variety of choices we have for our shopping in Island Bay, and in our friendly and helpful shopkeepers. Also, to think about all the changes over the last 50 years is a study in social history. If we have lived through that time we may take the changes for granted, yet they have been very great – in our food and our drink, and also in the way we eat and drink and in our entertainment. Our suburb is revitalised now, a good place to live – and to shop. There must be a great deal I have forgotten, and many shops I have not mentioned, but I hope I have stimulated some memories of people who have added immeasurably to our lives in the Bay. I thank them all.