Drummond Watchmaker, the last Victorian era shop in canyon of North Sydney skyscrapers, is facing its final hour

THE A Drummond Watchmaker and Jeweller in North Sydney was more than just a shop. It was a place people came for a chat and was also a reminder of the suburb’s past in a sea of high rise towers.

Ray Drummond outside his historic North Sydney watchmaking shop, soon to be no more. Picture: Jenny Evans

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WATCHMAKER Ray Drummond often asked for just a smile in lieu of payment.

Customers left the historic clock shop in the heart of North Sydney happy and he and his family provided a service regulars counted on for decades.

But the A Drummond Watchmaker and Jeweller was more than just a shop.

Ray Drummond with his mum Margaret in the North Sydney shop.

It was a place that people came for a chat and was also a reminder of the suburb’s past in a sea of high rise towers and office blocks.

Now the building is waiting demolition to make way for a new Sydney Metro station after the site was bought by the State Government last year.

It was the last remaining Victorian shopfront in the vicinity and was heritage listed.

And it’s a sad moment for Mr Drummond.

Alexander and Margaret Drummond opened the store in 1950.

The store is being demolished to make way for a new Sydney Metro station.

“They’ve got to keep some of these old things. A little history is nice,” he said.

“It would be nice to see the facade stay.”

Mr Drummond was born in North Sydney and he remembers trams bustling through the streets. His parents, Alexander and Margaret, opened the store in 1950 and the family lived upstairs.

As a schoolboy he ran errands for his parents into the city and he started working there full time in 1969 after taking a course in watchmaking.

Ray Drummond says the family-owned business was much more than just a shop.

He stayed until the doors closed in 2013.

“It was the old fashioned kind of service you don’t get anymore,” he said.

THE $1.3 MILLION WATCH

Mr Drummond made lifelong friends in the shop and his happiest memories are all the people. He says there was a beauty about the old place and all the people they met.

“The pleasure has been to serve and look after the people of North Sydney,” he said.

“Thank you for being great customers.”