By Jude Paul, Bulletin 10/2024, December
For the past 153 years, 49 Glebe Point Road, now occupied by Gleebooks, has been a recognisable landmark on Glebe’s high street. Nearby Glebe Primary School was already there, as was the Glebe Hotel (now Badde Manors), but there was little else except paddocks.
On Wednesday, 6 November, at the café at Gleebooks, Lyn Collingwood shared stories of the building’s diverse former occupants – grocers, cabinet makers, headquarters for the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Labor Club (a rival for the RSL), and the meeting place for a trans and homosexual social group called the Chameleons. An advertisement for staff from an early grocer read, ‘Boys wanted, to make themselves useful.’
David Gaunt, the co-owner of Gleebooks, recounted his days as a bookseller and welcomed the opportunities of his newly-renovated bookshop.
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