The Shopping Centre!

[Michael Alexander]

I only arrived here in '72, and the Shopping Centre was in full swing, as most of you know I now work in that building, I was looking at the structure inside and noticed the rafters formed a garage/workshop effect...... Now what I wnated to know from you 50's and 60's people... was this building used for something else before it became the shopping centre or was it built from the ground up as a shopping centre?

???

[SandyB]

Mike .. from  what I  understand  built for the purpose ..   I  suppose  it  was  built  that  way   in  the  style  of  many  departmental  stores  of  the  time  , maybe  had " lofty"  ides  of  going  to  two  floors ...    pretty  much as  the  Office  section  was  built in  the  middle ..

[Clive Symes]

Mike if you can get the Engineering drawing office to pull the drawing for you, you should see the there was the original store and the warehousing was done in the yard and in areas like the section you speak of. Later when the Bulkwarehouse was built, I beleive these areas were opened up or expanded to create a more open plan envirement ( I am subject to correction as I must admit I didnt keep track of the changes - but as I say Have the EDO pull copys of the Drawings)

[Ann Gander (nee Greenway)]

My recollection was that this was built from scratch.  However, it was never called anything as exotic as "a shopping centre" - it was The Store.  And anything you needed could be bought there!  I always remember with excitement of the new deliveries of singles (vinyl 45's) arriving in the 60's.  We used to pour over them.  Of course, in those days, they were about 9 months behind the actual music scene though!

[Donald Duck]

Clive is correct, although his spelling is dreadful.  :o

The Spar building complex consisted of quite a few different work units.
The original drawings show that clearly.

When the Spar first took over the original shopping centre, we were asked to retrieve all of the original drawings so that Namdeb could work out how much to charge the new owners.
This we did and and the information was handed over to the responsible person.

In those days of course, a "Spar" file containing all the drawings and other relevant information was duly captured on the database and filed. It should be there.........

It's a brown box file with "SPAR" in big, blue letters, written vertically.

[Michael Alexander]

 ;D Kenny ... Spar!

As a kid I remeber the old shopping centre in the 70's, but not where the current SPAR is today.... when CDM bought the Spar franchise, the new sectio appeared, I was too young to remember, was it always there? I fyou look at the structure today, it looks like the inside of a workshop!......

???

[Donald Duck]

Michael, sorry but I'm not allowed to mention "the other store" 'cos I could maybe hold shares.  :o

Anyway bullsh*t aside, I remember having a quick look at the drawings of the whole shopping center complex and agree with you that it was more than probably not originally designed as a shopping center - But, so many buildings in Oranjemund came from a similar situation.

Example: The De Beers hangar at the airport was originally from Affruken (go on Clive, hit me with your rhythm stick for my spelling.) It was at that time a helicopter hangar.
It was then moved into town and situated where East Gate now stands and was used by Township as their furniture store. We at Projects in about 1993/1994, then stripped the whole thing down- yet again - and moved the whole bloody thing out to the airport - and turned it back into a helicopter hangar.

Working in the Engineering Drawing office for many years, we used to get lots of requests for drawings of certain buildings. I could never find the bloody things until I asked Clive who would then point me in the right direction - albiet he knew that that the building in question used to be a welding shed. By the way, the G.M.'s house used to be a guest house, and if he removes the false ceiling in his lounge he will find a lovely pine ceiling

[Clive Symes]

Kenny, Dick Man also knows I cant spell, so youve gon & told the hole wirld.

Now tell me where the spell check is on this thing

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

Just a few names of the old stalwarts that worked in the shopping centre when I worked there in 1975.They were there long before me and remained long after,so they should be recognisable to most of you   
Upstairs Office... Ruth Dankworth,Mrs Stenson,Nora ?
Ladies.....Betty Bell, Mrs Manthee
Shoes.......Elsie Boehme
Confectionery.......Ingrid Barnes
Fancy Goods..........Flora Fry, Mrs Buchannan
Stationery.........Mrs Huntley, Suna
Gents........Henry Symington,Mrs Bardenhorst
Hardware.........Corrie van der Nest
Groceries..........Inge Ruf
The Manager at the time was Mr Travaris.


The lady in the cash office upstairs.........???????    Sandy Help

I remember the shopping centre being a hive of activity on the OFF-SATURDAYS. Must have been the great outing of the month.

[Cheryl Quantrill (van Greunen)]

In the early days you could still get all your Sat  shopping delivered if you were done by 10am!

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

Yes I remember that,sorting the deliveries in the bulk store.
Oops I forgot Dear Rene Esterhuizen (Biccard's) from list 

[Michael Alexander]

Every Off Saturday, our parents dragged us off to the shop and we got to chose a toy, our Off Saturday toy....

[SandyB]

Dianna  one  of  the  names  .. Nora  .........  (Mrs Annetts  sister )  I  remember  the  Heeris   sisters  alsio worked  in  the cash  ofice  at  one stage .. also  a  bit rusty .. I  got  so  many  faces  in my  head  as  I  would    regularly  see  the  parade  of  women  leaving  work  in the evening  while  I  waited  for  my Mom  and she was  always  among  the  last  few ..  .. as  they  hit  the  doorway  the  ciggy  would be  lit   ..and jabber  jabber chatting  away ...  either walking  home  alone , cadging  a  lift .. or  climbing into  the  waiting  car with Hubby and kids ..   I  remember  long  before  I  got  my  licence  ..  my  dad  would  send me  down  to pick  Mom  up   from  work ..

[barb (Fry)]

Nora and Danny (still oiling the brain cells to remember)

I remember all the cars parked outside the back, lined up, Saturdays we would go down and listen to Springbok radio there was a funny show (goons etc) while we waited. 

Kotie Kruger was in the sweet dept - skatjie, my mother always mispronounced this and said skaatjie which would cause laughter.

[Diana Rudd (Boehme)]

I think Nora's husbands name was Dannie (if that helps).
I also remember rushing home to listen to some serial on the radio during our lunch hour.
How technology has developed,Nora used to sit at a hugh typewritter type machine and load all the dockets onto the various accounts.I mean this thing was ginormous,took up the whole room.It clank and clunk away you couldn't hear youself speak.Still raking my brain for the name of the lady that sent the money down those tubes to the different dept.(I'm going way back now.)