Today we went out wandering the streets. Stopped at the little book exchange shop run by the Rotary Club of Edwardstown. I remember when they once had a shop near the traffic lights on Sturt Road opposite the Marion Shopping Centre.
Great time to go there today as they are having a half price off sale. Of course I couldn't resist buying a couple of books. Real books - not e ones
This shop is on the corner of Towers Terrace and Aberfeldy Ave and the building until a couple of years ago, was the Harcourt Gardens Kindergarten. The latter now is at the Forbes School (Thomas Street South Plympton). The Kindi was built in the late 1950s when the need for all schools was a high priority due to the 'baby boom' after WW2.
Run by kind and hospitable volunteers, this space is so nice. There is ample access for cars, is wheelchair and mobility scooter friendly, has loads of books of all kinds and there is free internet access. You can access the book exchange by bus as the 241 goes from city to Marion Shop Centre.
I love the mulberry tree in the front carpark. Takes me back to my school days when we all had our own silkworms.
The bookshop has vinyl records and sheet music - old books and newer books. Anatomy through to Zoology, fiction and non-fiction. Saw some small books - same books my cousin used to love - cowboy/westerns, and then saw the same type of books but war based stories. Wonder if they have any Biggles? Used to read them a long, long, long time ago.
Out the back is a huge tree under which we can sit and talk, or contemplate nature. On the side of a busy street it is a quiet place. We often stop there at the back on the wood steps leading up to the tree and have a drink of water, but if you want something more, the shop does have tea/coffee and soft drinks. For all, there are toilets, including a disabled one.
After chatting for quite some time with the volunteers and other people who came to book shop - it is very popular - cars and people coming and going all day. Shop opens most days 10am - not Tuesday and Sunday. They shut 4pm.
Towers Tce has Edwardstown on one side, and South Plympton on the other. It starts at Castle Street and goes down to the roundabout at Raglan Avenue.
We wandered up along Towers Tce, to the group of shops on the corner of Wright St. These are quite old and they have had many uses over the years. Doctors, chemists, grocers - and a Meat Wholesale place. Now there is a hairdresser, a Vietnamese deli, and a secondhand shop.
The last one is now open 5 from 9.30 to 2.30pm. Must check the times. If you want a bargain you may well find something there. I have been going in there for over 2 decades and met some really lovely volunteers. Two of these lovely ladies have been volunteering for decades and are so kind, warm hearted and friendly. The best kind of person. They make you feel so special and you just want to go back when they are there.
Next door is a more modern factory type building which has had different uses over the years. My favourite was the sweet making phase. Watching them actually making the sweets in the old fashioned way - with the pulling and twisting!
Shall continue to wander round this area, letting you see what there is and perhaps get you to come along for a walk of your own.
Wright Street is a lovely street which residents hoped could be kept as a character street, but council did not agree, but ignoring that, it is wide, tree-lined with mostly older style homes. On the right as we walk east towards the railway line, is a house which once was a shop. When I first moved here before that particular home/shop was renovated, there was a petrol pump adjacent to the gardens.
Walking further on we come to the junction of Stanton Street, and crossing them, Wright turns into Johnson Street which takes up up to Railway Tce.
Stanton Street was the home of a young lad who won the DFC in 1940, later a hero and dying in the Battle of Britain. He was born in England, and went back when WW2 broke out to join the Air Force. He was only 23. His parents and 4 sisters continued to live in the house until each of the girls married. William Millington Snr died in 1954 and his wife Elizabeth in 1962. A lovely family home for a family.
Many of the homes around this are are from the State Bank Era after WW1 and WW2. There after different styles, from the original Art Deco to the 1950s replica Art Deco. The many other styles in between. But all of them having a front yard, back yard, fence and more often than not - the garage for the car.
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