‘The Cream of the Coast’ in Forest Lodge

By Virginia Simpson-Young, Bulletin 2/2024, April

An old advertising sign was uncovered when a former Forest Lodge corner shop was stripped of its paint during a renovation late last year. The old shop, at 105 Hereford Street, is on the corner of Hereford Street and Upper Road. I took a photo of what remained of the sign before it was painted over.

Helen Randerson tells me that the advertisement is for Streets Ice Cream: “You have the words ‘Cream’ and ‘Coast’, as well as the red outline around the ice cream cone”. ‘Cream’ and ‘Coast’ are from Streets’ tagline used at the time, ‘The Cream of the Coast’.

The coast referred to is that of the Illawarra. It was at Corrimal that Edwin ‘Ted’ Street began making ice cream out the back of his small grocery store in the 1920s. Increasing demand for the product necessitated a move in 1934 to larger premises – an old Corrimal iceworks. This remained the home of Streets Ice Cream until production was moved north to Turrella in 1947. The Streets factory is now located in Minto.

I don’t know when the sign was painted onto the wall of the corner shop at 105 Hereford Street, but it must have been during or after 1939 when Streets began selling their ice creams in Sydney. 

105 Hereford Street was operating as a grocery store by 1911; in an advertisement for ‘Green Coupons’ that year, the corner shop is one of five ‘prominent traders’ of Green Coupons in Forest Lodge. Green Coupons, an early loyalty program, could be collected from such ‘prominent traders’, pasted into a special collection book, and later exchanged for items for sale through the Green Coupons showroom at 697 George Street, Haymarket. According to a 1922 newspaper advertisement for Green Coupons, ‘wise ladies’ would use their coupons to furnish their homes ‘free of cost with the goods obtained in exchange for Green Coupons’. Many other ladies, we’re told, preferred to ‘devote the coupons they collect to the benefit of the church, convent, or hospital in which they are interested”.¹

The corner shop at 105 Hereford Street was still operating in 1972 when an application was made to install an awning to the shop front. Like many Glebe and Forest Lodge corner shops, 105 Hereford Street is now a residence. Perhaps a reader may remember when the corner shop closed – if you do, please let us know via editor@glebesociety.org.au.

Note 1. Green Coupons. (1922, July 6). Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW: 1850 – 1932), p. 21.

Other sources: Trove (nla.gov.au); City of Sydney archives; streetsicecream.com.au; unilever.com.au; australianfoodtimeline.com.au; Corrimal’s ‘Cream of the Coast’ (Mick Roberts, 2016 – online).