Anthony Hordern & Sons Heritage Highlight

The mind-boggling array of goods available for sale at the Anthony Hordern pavilion during the 1907 Easter Show had to be seen to be believed. Prominently placed near the entrance gates to the Moore Park showground since its opening in 1899, the impressive pavilion provided an instant shoppers paradise for town and country folk alike.

Furniture, saddlery and leather goods; bed steads, mantlepieces and marble work; ‘Wizard’ ploughs, harrows and poultry incubators; bicycles, batteries and ceiling molds; washing machines, sewing machines and carpets; x-ray coils, fluorescent screens and wireless telegraphy receivers; electric cookers, irons and ice skates – there was virtually nothing that could not be had at Horderns.

The Anthony Hordern shopping empire had begun as a humble bonnet and drapery shop in King St, Sydney in the 1820s and by the 1890s was a flourishing family business operating in multiple locations. Realising the significant promotional power of the Royal Easter Show they originally established their presence on the Moore Park Showground in a large marquee, which they then converted to bricks and mortar in 1899.

In 1924, having outgrown their earlier structure on the Showground, Anthony Hordern & Sons unveiled a grand new flagship store of such size and presence that it was remarked in the press ‘the whole edifice exemplifying in a marked manner the dignity and enterprise of modern business.’

The Hordern family had been associated with the workings of the RAS from early times. In 1878 Anthony Hordern and his fellow retailer David Jones had been prominent in urging the Society to stage the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 which was ultimately taken on by the Government and provided a grand showcase for colonial products. A decade later Samuel Hordern became more closely involved with the Society, being elected to the RAS Council and so beginning a long line of Hordern family RAS office bearers and members of council.

When the fifth generation of the family, brothers Hunter and Ross Hordern, finally decided to shut up shop for the last time at their Windsor store in 1996, they brought the curtain down on a remarkable retail empire which had spanned more than 170 years. For generations of showgoers ‘Horderns’ had been known as the ‘universal providers’ and an annual visit to their showground emporium ensured no-one left empty handed.