The History of Hunter Street
Hunter Street,  Information Pages  (H2)
Lost Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW Au

About street numbering in Hunter St
As supplied by Bob Donaldson
  • Property numbering in Newcastle and its suburbs was almost never extensively advertised or recorded in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, making the exact location of older properties difficult to determine. Telephone directories and newspaper advertising commonly stated just Hunter Street or Hamilton, probably because of the lack of highly developed areas and the presumption that people would know where a particular property or person was located. To add to the difficulty of locating old properties, today's Hunter Street was originally made up of four distinct streets each having a separate name.
    The eastern end of today's Hunter Street did not exist until 1908 when, after some 21 years of lobbying, Hunter Street was extended from Watt Street to The Sandhills or todays Pacific Street.

    Not long after, it was extended further east to Telford Street, only to be cut off again at Pacific Street in recent times when Pacific Park subsumed the eastern extension and adjoining Hunter Street buildings. Today's Scott Street has also undergone a number of changes to numbering as buildings have been subsumed and demolished to make way for new parkland or future redevelopment.
    With the removal of the AA Company's rail bridge over Hunter Street in 1921, the western end of Newcastle began to develop quickly and what was originally known as Blane Street, in 1889, became part of the long main street where Hunter Street finally extended from Pacific Street in the east to Selma Street in the west. This extension also included the original Charlton Street, which ran from Cottage Creek, now adjoining Market Town Shopping Centre, to Selma Street in the west.

    The part of Hunter Street, running from Tudor Street to Selma Street in the west, is now known as Maitland Road! As part of this amalgamation, street numbers regularly changed and, over time, property numbers on Hunter Street have commenced at Pacific Street, then from Telford Street, and now, again from Pacific Street, where they run continuously, to the west, without a numbering break. When using the original 19th Century numbering, add 64 (works sometimes) to locate places using todays street numbering.

    HENRY ENDERSBY AT 123 HUNTER STREET, The Writers Grandfather was Henry Endersby, sometimes also own as Henry Sykes He was born in Perth, Western Australia to a large family that had immigrated to Perth, Western Australia from Cambridgeshire, in the early 1800s. By way of family disunity and separations, Henry, his sister and mother came to live at Pit Street in Newcastle, in 1874. As a teenager, Henry performed acrobatics at the Crystal Palace Gardens at Mayfield and at the Victoria Theatre. He also performed a variety of music events whilst learning his trade as a bootmaker and shoe salesman on Hunter Street. Later, he opened his third shoe and boot shop on Hunter Street following successful business in Lambton and Wallsend. Henry Endersb's Boot Store, located at 123 Hunter Street, in 1905, was on the site of today's 187 (approximately) Hunter Street, preceding the Scotts/David Jones complex.

    The exact location is now obscured by later development but is recorded in historic material, maps and images. Henry Endersby owned his boot and shoe store at 123 Hunter Street Newcastle from August 1905 until September 1910. He purchased the business from W Shirlow, Boot and Shoe Store in August 1905 and subsequently sold it to the Nobby Shoe Company of Sydney (later the Commonwealth Shoe Company) in September 1910. The manager of the Nobby Shoe Company/Commonwealth Shoe Company was David Leslie Sharp, who became Henry's son-in-law. David Sharp had married Henry's daughter, Florence Hannah Endersby, in December 1906 and they went on to establish Sharps Shoe Store in 1929 at 205 Hunter Street. David Sharp was 26 when he married Florence and was 30 when he was the manager of the Nobby Shoe Company, following its acquisition from Henry Endersby in 1910.

    Henry Endersby's HUNTER STREET Neighbours 121 Hunter Street On Hunter Street, the nearby site of Rouse's Hotel, later Pearson's Furniture shop, at 121 Hunter Street, was redeveloped in about 1905 to offer William Scott additional space for his expanding business. The early building developed by William Scott remains today. The extant building at Scotts Corner was not completed until after 1913 so there were at least 3 years between when Henry sold his Hunter Street shoe business and the time when that shop, and others, were demolished to make way for a major building development as William Scott further developed his premises towards the west and onto the Perkin Street corner. 125 HUNTER STREET George Wielands property was clearly one of Henry Endersby neighbours on Hunter Street. Wieland's Butcher Shop was located at 125 Hunter Street, therefore immediately to the west of Endersby's Boot and Shoe StoreEven though the name of his butchery on the canned meat can shows The Strand Butchery, the address is clearly 125 Hunter Street and is noted as being (almost) opposite the (Victoria) Theatre. The name Strand was commonly used on business premises in the Nineteenth Century. The Strand Theatre, further east on Hunter Street, came much later in 1914 when it occupied the site of the original Newcastle Borough Markets, at or near today's 123 Hunter Street. The name of the Strand Theatre and today's 123 Hunter Street have no connection with the property of either Endersby or Wieland. 
    The other interesting connection is that the brand of the canned meat is shown as Nobby Brand, the same name that Henry's shoe store later assumed after he sold it in 1910 to the Nobby Shoe Company. Coincidental ? These images of 2.1.1899 were extracted from the Facebook site Lost Newcastle. They can also be found on a Trove search about George Wieland. The Wieland shop front can also be seen in the pre-1908 image below, immediately to the right or west of Henry Endersbys store with the large white name panel where the horse and cart are standing. In that later image, the decorative column brackets have gone but the wide span and arched opening between the columns, in that image, are just obvious. 127 HUNTER STREET, at Scott's Corner This pre-1908 image shows what would later become Scotts Corner, at the corner of Hunter and Perkin Street, Newcastle. It is likely that Henrys store, at 123 (now 187) Hunter Street, was located in the building with the covered bullnose verandah to the left of the photograph, possibly the shop with the large white panel. In this particular image, the signs are not readable. Compare this with the adjacent image, showing Henry's store at 123 Hunter Street with the large white business name panel above. That panel can be seen in both images above and below. Scott's Corner, About 1908, at the convergence of Hunter and Scott Streets, Newcastle.

    This is a famous Ralph Snowball image, looking south-west, showing the corner of Hunter and Wolfe Streets, Newcastle in August 1910. To the very right of the image, to the right of Scotts Ltd first building, can be seen a part of the building that Henry Endersby occupied on Hunter Street before Scotts Corner was established. Just visible are the bullnose upper verandah, white fabric sun blinds and long slender verandah posts. The original image also shows stock and marketing panels being displayed at footpath level along the shop frontage. Compare this detail with the shop front image below. The same group of buildings today with the earlier Scotts building remaining to the east. Google Earth image. All about to change again.

    Sharps Shoe Store From 1929 to 1973, Sharps Shoe Store was located at 205-207 Hunter Street Newcastle. The building at 205 Hunter Street is now the Newcastle Family Practice building, providing GP services. There is no record of a shoe store at this address before 1929. Old images initially suggested that the building may previously have been a produce store as the street awning shows the word LUCERNE. However, there are no horses or hay bales to be seen in any image! Further investigation of more recent images shows a series of shops to the west of the Crown and Anchor Hotel. These included G Caldwell, Jeweller, Newcastle Bag Store and Lucerne, now identified as a butcher shop, adjoining Sharps Shoe Shop. The butcher shop later became Australian Sea Foods, then McGavins Butcher Shop, Newcastle Bag Store later became Smarts Bag Store and G Caldwell Jeweller subsequently moved a block to the east and re-established on the south-western corner of Hunter and Wolfe Street. It seems unlikely that, in the midst of a row of quality stores, there would be a farm produce store showing Lucerne

    Lucerne was one of a number by that name that had traded in Newcastle and inner suburbs since well before World War 1. The Hunter Street butcher shop was closed on 29.7.1943 due to the shortage of manpower at the height of World War 2. Their remaining two stores at 133 Scott Street and Hamilton Road (now Denison street), Hamilton remained open during the war. The butcher shop was soon taken over by others and the premises were occupied by a number of butchers until the end of the McGavin era. In fact, McGavins took over a number of Lucernes butcher shops in later years including the stores on Hunter Street and at 133 Scott Street. They eventually had more than 20 butcher shops in the region. Ref: Newcastle Sun, Lucerne Meat Market advertisements 31.8.1918 and 29.7.1943. Sharps Shoe Store was therefore located immediately to the west of the long-term butcher shop, with Winns Department Store, immediately to the west. There it remained until the shoe store was taken over by the Wyatt family, following the death of Florence Sharp in 1976.

    277 HUNTER STREET NOVAK CAMERA COMPANY
    Jaroslav and Clare Novak took over the photographic business of C T Lorenz in the late 1950s, having arrived from South Africa and the worked for that business in the early 1950s. The business was located on the street level at 277 Hunter Street, in the Corona Building, originally built in 1935 by the Australian Agricultural Company. The shop was mid-way between Crown and Darby streets in what became known as the Crown-Darby block. It was a small shop with a high ceiling and above the main sales floor was a mezzanine which served as the shop's office where Claire Novak kept the business in order. The shop had a side window that looked on to the foyer entrance of the Corona Building. The shop therefore had good passing trade exposure and the Hunter Street window was always filled with amazing and new photographic equipment.

    The above information was supplied by our contributor Bob Donaldson
A few more notes Hunter Street numbering in Newcastle
  • NOTES ON NUMBERING SYSTEM, by Pam Marley
    CHARLTON ST - from cottage creek bridge to western boundary of Newcastle, renamed Hunter St West 9th Jan, 1905
    BLANE ST - from AA company bridge, to  Cottage creek bridge (64 chains, 80 links) renamed Hunter St West gazeted 13 April 1889.
    LANGFORD  - renamed to Gibson in 1920s, although part becomes King st.
NUMBERING SYSTEM (B) Todays Hunter Street was originally made up of four distinct streets each having a separate name & number
  • By the year 1930, the numbers are close to todays property numbers. During 1909 to about 1950 the Blue numbers have also been used, shown here in BLUE shown as eg (122-124 Hunter St / 42In 1850s or so,
  • HUNTER ST, started at Watt St and ran to Crown Street, using the original numbering system.
  • Later HUNTER ST ran from Pacific St, To Crown St, Then in 1908 from Telford St to Crown St with three different numbering systems, some are shown here, in Green eg (01 Hunter St ) are from pre 1909 Hunter St was then extended up to the west from Crown St to Cottage Creek (next to the Bellevue Hotel) 
  • After Cottage Creek you were entering into no mans landexcept for a small track running to Maitland. This section of Hunter St was known as BLANE ST, numbers are shown here in Orange after 1909 eg (355 Blane St.
  • HUNTER ST also became CHARLTON ST, (also known as Carlton St) from The Bank Corner (Cottage Creek) to the Islington bridge, eg, (23 Charlton St Wickham) Hunter St / 86 Hunter St Newcastle, 1909 Palings,) most times the color of the number will reflect the year numbering syste



The History of Hunter Street
Hunter Street,  Information Pages  (H2)
Lost Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW Au