High street fashion and fierce flames rose from The Regent

Once a high street fashion hub, The Regent Shopping Block has stayed at the forefront of the public’s eye in Goulburn for more than a century, under many guises.

The Paragon Cafe has stood on the site, opposite the post office, since the late 1980s, and before that, the Allen family ran their clothing store there from about 1958.

Goulburn’s acclaimed architect E.C. Manfred designed the building in 1886. Years later, a prominent builder, Arthur Thwaite, substantially renovated the block into a stylish arcade with a second entrance from Montague Street, behind the Rogers building.

Front shops with “daintily designed” front windows opened in 1930 while the remainder of the arcade was still under construction, then five years later the offices above were altered to make way for the city’s first cabaret club.

History enthusiasts Rod McInnes, Linda Cooper and Heather West have searched online newspaper records and old photos, and interviewed retailers, to track The Regent’s social and commercial contributions to the city from the early 1930s, up to the days when Trims Menswear and Allens drew Goulburn’s shoppers into the building.

In August 1931, two men started roughing one another up in The Regent’s Olivette salon, in a dispute that underlined the struggles of small retailers in the Depression. One gave his occupation as a jeweller. At one point, one demanded the other hand over his revolver, their argument had become so heated.

On 18 October 1932, following an explosion, a disastrous fire tore through the rear section of The Regent.

“The fact an explosion was heard sometime before the blaze was discovered lends some colour to the supposition that the fire started from an explosion of gas but it is obvious a leakage could have been caused by the fire,” the Goulburn Evening Penny Post reported.

Damage worth an estimated 10,000 pounds destroyed Lansdowne’s seeds office, Miss Kaye’s frock shop and a new shop.

Almost a year later, Arthur Thwaite applied to the council to build a new rear section, this time designed by Manfred & Son. Tenancies included ‘‘Riley’s Stocking Shop’’, Mr Golding’s workshop, Club Reading and Billiard Rooms and Billiard Saloon.

In July 1939, the alarm was raised early enough to prevent a more serious outbreak after flames took hold in a small wood box that had caught alight earlier in the night. It was put out with two hand extinguishers.

Goulburn Workers Club, with more than 150 members, began leasing upstairs in The Regent for its premises from October 1953. The club spent 500 pounds installing the main bar and was expecting to boost its membership with the move.

Bob Jones, a retail employee who later opened his own business with curtains, remembered the Workers Club upstairs when he worked at Trims Menswear on the ground level. In Heather West and Lyn Brown’s book Memories of Goulburn, Bob recalls Mrs Chin, who had market gardens near the Lansdowne Bridge, would come in with new Chinese workers to get them fitted out with a ‘’kangaroo coat’’ and gumboots.

The Allen family bought The Regent Shopping Block about 1958, according to Greg Allen in Memories of Goulburn. The new owners took down the internal divisions to make one large store.

“In the 1960s and ’70s, Allens had women’s wear on the right and menswear on the left as you came into the store,” Greg said. “Manchester and shoes were towards the back of the store. Stairs on the left, just inside the front door, led upstairs to the jeans and young fashions.”

From 1975, the shop was always full of people for Friday night shopping.

In the early evening of 25 November, 1980, an electrical fault ignited a fire in the shop’s upstairs storage area. This time the blaze took hold, sending black smoke billowing over central Goulburn.

“We were able to wheel the stands of clothes from the shop floor into Rogers [next door], who had opened their doors to help us,” Greg said. “Most of the stock had smoke and water damage.”

In the aftermath of the building’s third fire, Allens leased Lowes Garage further south in Auburn Street for a long-running fire sale of stock at discount prices to keep the cash-flow income. This enabled the store to keep its staff employed, and it continued to retain them for the next six months while searching for suitable premises in which to reopen.

In the late 1980s, the Paragon Cafe vacated its main street site opposite the Town Hall and moved into The Regent, where it has traded ever since. Big, family-owned department stores have been unable to find a place in today’s dynamic retail landscape.