Selling newspapers on the corner of Blyth Street and Sydney Road, Brunswick, post 1880

Newspaper seller known as 'The General', Blyth Street. Lantern Slide no. 400. Courtesy Moreland Libraries.

It's a great image, isn't it? 

I wonder how many of you noticed the bluestone pavers at the Blyth Street and Sydney Road intersection. Or the bluestone gutters running down the east side of Sydney Road (and presumably on the other side of the road, too). Part of our area's iconic bluestone heritage. 

My eye was drawn, too, to the young man boarding the cable tram. He's wearing a boater, so it's likely to be summer, or at least warmer weather. Another vote for it being summer is that the boys on the left looking at the photographer are shading their eyes from the sun.

Then I wondered whether there were clues in the photo that might give a more accurate year for the photograph. Moreland Libraries has dated it post-1880. (Presumably they were working from the introduction of cable trams along Sydney Road but that wasn't until 1887).

I think it is likely to have been taken in the 1890s. I worked from the name on the shopfront just behind the tram - J. Rough. And on the side of the building I could just make out the words 'Estate Agent'. 

Sands and MacDougall Street Directories (every five years is online at the State Library of Victoria) reveal some of the answers.

In 1885 J. Rough is not listed, so it has to be later than that. He's also not listed in 1900. But he is listed in Sydney Road, Brunswick as an architect, in the 1890 Directory.

It was when I consulted the 1895 SMD (Sands and MacDougall Directory) that I came closest to having a date for the photograph. In that year, James Rough is listed as an estate agent at 505 Sydney Road, Brunswick. There probably wasn't much call for architects during the 1890s Depression. Whether Rough found working as an estate agent any easier is impossible to tell.  

 

All we know is that he was gone from that location by 1900.

So where does this leave the dating of the photo? 

Until lockdown is over and it is possible to look at hard copy versions of the SMDs (they were produced every year), I can only give a rough time period and my best guess is some time between 1891 and 1899. 

I'd be very interested in hearing from anyone else who can identify something else in this image that might date it more accurately.

And I'd love to know the story of the 'General'. I don't suppose that will ever happen, but you have to admit, the sight of an older man in a bowler hat and three piece suit, no matter how shabby, is intriguing...