THE iconic London Mart on Sydney Street is shutting down in the near future, with the business that has served residents with a ‘treasure trove’ ending after 50 years, ending a significant chapter in the history of the town.
London Mart’s Pauline Ryan said she had been trying to sell the business for over two years, saying it was time for a change, with the building leased last week.
“It’s been 40 years of working together with my mother. It’s been a wonderful career,” she said.
“We have tried selling the business for two years and two months. We’ve had three sales fall through. My mum is 86 and with the amount of work we do here, running six classes a week and being on the road until 10.30 at night, we need to change those things. After 50 years of work, working here since the day I left school, it’s time to hang up our sewing needles.
“We’ve often addressed the shop as a treasure trove, as people ask us what it is. We’ve tried having a little bit of everything for everyone. If we don’t have it when we go to Melbourne in the warehouses on a Friday, trying to bring home what we don’t have, keeping the general area with their needs.”
London Mart has been held together by the Cornfoot family for the entirety of the five decades in operation.
Marjorie Cornfoot says there’s been some great memories.
“There’s a lot of wonderful memories and great friends. A customer comes in, you serve them, they stay and they talk. You sort of know the family by the time they’ve been in a few times. It’s lovely,” she said.
“In the backroom, we’ve got eight machines, all different coloured cottons, and we go to the black one, or blue one, or whatever colour we have to repair.
“The support has been lovely. It’s been history-making.”
Like many businesses, COVID changed the trajectory of London Mart, according to Ms Cornfoot.
“It’s changed a lot since COVID. During COVID it was very quiet, and after it, a lot of things you can’t buy that you could buy before. You could buy milk, bread and butter every day, but the little things you want, like a hook, eye or button, there’s very little choice now, so it is different,” she said.
“People don’t want the hands-on jobs as much, they want to work on a computer or phone, and a lot of our business is curtain-making and blinds, as well as the repairs, as a lot of the young ones don’t know how to sew, so you do it for them.”
Ms Ryan said there were plenty of memories to look back on.
“We have our best memories from here, working with the community, working with the people that come into the stall daily, passing on our trade through the classes and everything we’ve done has been rewarding,” she said.
“We’ve brought our grandchildren up here and they learned to work. They all now have good careers. It taught them a lot of confidence, and we’ve done that with some of our customers’ children, let them work weekends so they can have more confidence when they go into the workforce during school holidays.
“We’ve worked with retirement villages to have fashion parades, clothing for them, setting them up with curtains and blinds when they move to a new home. The ladies have had day classes, night classes, people who were working were still able to come have a hobby and learn at the same time.
“Every day is a good day.”
However, the message is a succinct one as Kilmore loses another iconic shop, fresh off the recent closure of Pat Croke’s Furniture Store on Sydney Street.
“The dynamics of Kilmore are changing,” Ms Ryan said.
