By Jude Paul, Bulletin 4/2023, June 2023

The shop dates from the late 19th century. It was originally a general store, then became a butcher shop and has been an Op Shop for 40 years (image: Jude Paul)

There have been past stories in the Bulletin about the Glebe Community Op Shop, but this is just a reminder for members that it’s still there and currently looking for donations of towels and blankets.

The exterior of 133 Glebe Street is wonderfully intact to this day. It may have started life as a general store, a classic Glebe corner shop, but for nearly 100 years it operated as a butcher shop. The occupant in 1888 is recorded as Patrick Shalvey, butcher, followed by butcher after butcher until its closure in the early 1980s. 

Patrick Joseph Shalvey’s ancestry was Irish, but he was born in Dundee Scotland in 1864 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1878. By 1888, he had married Bridget Galvin (in Yass), started his family and opened a butcher shop at 133 Glebe St. By 1913, Patrick had long left his Glebe butcher shop but established several other butchery businesses, had 11 children all of whom survived to adulthood, bought Strathmore (Ronald McDonald house) in Bridge Rd, Forest Lodge, and owned his own stockyards and slaughterhouse in the Blacktown district. 

Patrick was still working as a butcher in 1946 when he was fined (for the fourth time) for overcharging for dripping and shoulder mutton chops. He died aged 98 in 1962. The Sydney suburb of Shalvey is named after Patrick Shalvey.

133 Glebe Rd, Glebe, as a butcher shop in the 1970s (Source: Bernard & Kate Smith Collection, City of Sydney Archives)

But back to the Glebe Community Op Shop. For 40 years or so, this shop has played a very important role in our local community. Donations of all kinds are accepted,  except for large items of household furniture and electrical goods. As mentioned earlier, there is a current need for towels and blankets.

Address: 133 Glebe St Glebe (corner of Glebe St and Norton St).

Opening hours: Thursday–Saturday, 10 am–3 pm