This building replaced William Park’s bookshop, which burnt down on 16 March 1928. Thorrold-Jaggard designed it in April 1928 for Mrs Emma Childs. Then of Lyall Bay, she was the widow of Tom Childs, former licencee of the nearby Commercial Hotel. Built by Mr H. Dickel at a cost of £2,656, it comprised of two shops and a separate workspace or office space upstairs that was accessed directly from the footpath.
For many years, one of the shops – and perhaps the workspace upstairs – was occupied by a succession of men’s tailoring shops, including Coopers Ltd. (1930s-1940s) and Manly Outfitters (c1950), with Puddleducks and the Ocakbasi Turkish Kebab shop sharing it by the early 1990s. The Lone Star Café & Bar now occupies it.
The building’s design has some classical elements, for example, the use of wreaths to decorate the side columns of the façade. It also draws on the Art Deco style due to the geometric motif on the upper façade.
