Gowings
IndustryRetail
Founded1868 (1868)
FounderJohn Gowing
Defunct2005 (2005)
Area served
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
ProductsMenswear

Gowings was a department store chain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, established in 1868. Set on several floors, it specialized in men's casual clothing, camping gear and novelty items. It had a men's barber and a dining restaurant.

Company history

In 1863, John Gowing opened a drapery business in Crown Street, East Sydney, New South Wales. He entered into partnership on 4 November 1868 with his brother Preston Robert Gowing, who had been working as a storekeeper in Victoria. They set up the Mercery and Glove Depot, at 318 George Street, which John managed for £200 per annum plus half the profits of the business. This store was located on the corner of Market Street and George Street and the site was redeveloped in 1929 by John's son, Preston Lanchester Gowing, both as an investment and prime retail location. It became one of the most prominent and famous department stores in Sydney. In recent years Gowings embarked on an ambitious expansion plan, opening four more Gowings stores in other locations in Sydney.

Gowings department store, Sydney, in the 1930s

In 2001, Gowings divested the stores to an independent listed company, Gowings Retail (later G Retail), to enable them to concentrate on their investment and property interests. Although successful in the City, their locations in suburban areas failed to attract customers.

Acquisition

In November 2005, after three years of successive losses, G Retail Ltd entered administration. Attempts to sell the business were unsuccessful and the last remaining Gowings store was the one in George Street, Sydney, which closed its doors at 5:23pm on 29 January 2006.[1][2] The building was then taken over by Supré. After 5 years, the building opened its doors to the public as Sydney's first ever Topshop store in 2011.[3]

The department store was featured in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.

The origin of the now old-fashioned Australian colloquial phrase, 'gone to Gowings', is associated with the store.[4][5]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ "End of an era as Gowings finally gone". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 January 2006. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  2. ↑ Evans, Michael (17 December 2005). "Gowings clearing out for good after 137 years". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 January 2021. An era in Sydney retailing is over after the administrator of the Gowings menswear business told staff on Friday the 137-year-old retailer will close at the end of January.
  3. ↑ "Topshop Confirms Sydney Location". Archived from the original on 3 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Tréguer, Pascal (26 July 2020). "'gone to Gowings': meaning and origin of this Australian phrase". word histories. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  5. ↑ "Gone to Gowings". Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
Sources


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