Canterbury shopping village is a time capsule

MALING Rd, Canterbury, could easily be renamed Memory Lane as the shopping village offers an insight into how retail has changed in the past century.

Seventh-generation butcher Leanne Bennet (front) with her staff. Picture Janine Eastgate

MALING Rd, Canterbury, could easily be renamed Memory Lane.

The remarkably well-preserved shopping village in the eastern suburbs offers an insight into how retail has changed in the past century.

Most of the shops in Maling Rd date to the early 1900s and the heritage draws thousands of visitors a year.

Singing pop sisters Kylie and Dannii Minogue’s parents once owned property there as part of a family portfolio.

Leslie Kent, 84, lived behind his father’s Maling Rd grocery shop with his seven brothers and three sisters in the 1930s.

“It was a lot like it is today, but not so many cafes and what have you now,” he said.

“There were three grocers, three butchers, two barbers, and there was the old picture theatre and a big dispensary.”

While the original streetscape is pretty much intact, the mix of shops has certainly changed, as revealed in the Canterbury History Group book Visions of a Village.

Authors Don Gibb and Stuart Warmington researched old building registers and rate books to record businesses that rarely exist today such as the milliner, boot maker and mercer.

The former post office, built about 1910, is now a cafe.

The original hall became a cinema, then a plastics factory and today is an antiques store.

Maling Rd’s oldest shops are in The Block, built in 1907.

There, Margaret Browning runs her stationery and gifts business, B Inspired, in what was originally a laundry.

“The whole village has a magical feel to it; it’s a bit like stepping back in time,” Ms Browning said.

“It’s got a gorgeous vintage feel about it. It’s a very special place.”

History group secretary Frances Barrett said local activists had saved the shopping strip from being demolished in the 1970s.

“There was a proposal to build a super-duper supermarket there with no character,” Ms Barrett said.

“The detail in the shops is just beautiful. That’s why we’re lucky it wasn’t spoiled.

“Imagine if they had put in the supermarket?”

Mr Kent has fond childhood memories of visiting the butcher and cake shop.

“Everybody knew everybody. You go into a shop and they’d call you by your Christian name,” he said.

“It’s still got that friendly attitude. People still speak to you even though you don’t know them by name — it’s a nice friendly atmosphere.”

Visions of a Village is available to buy from Tim’s Bookshop, at 143 Maling Rd.

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THE OLD AND THE NEW

No. 80: Was laundry, now B Inspired stationery and gifts

No. 82: Was dressmaker, now Bennet’s Quality Meats

N0.84: Was sweet shop, now Brambles Cafe

No. 86: Was fruit shop, still is — Maling Rd Classic Fruits

No. 88: Was grocer, now Cafe 88

No. 90: Was stationer, now Nina Leon’s Shoe Boutique

No. 92: Was chemist, now Buckley’s IGA supermarket