J Kitchen & Sons – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Kitchen’s vs Swallow’s King’s Birthday Football Match

Port Melbourne HistoryJune 12, 2023

by David Thompson After so many years having a public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday, it felt a bit strange to have one for the King's Birthday in 2023. The public holiday honouring the monarch's official birthday, at least for football followers, means a blockbuster match between Melbourne and Collingwood at the MCG and the Neale Daniher-led Big Freeze event…

Guardian Family Health Soap

Collection, Port Melbourne HistoryJune 9, 2023

Guardian Family Health Soap. PMHPS Collection Cat No 3423.03. Among the PMHPS collection is an aged, chipped bar of unused Guardian Family Health Soap. And what's more, the Society also has the original box. Box, Guardian Family Health Soap (front). PMHPS Collection 3423.02. Guardian Family Health Soap was produced by J Kitchen & Sons Pty Ltd and the description on the rear…

What’s in a name? Quinn St, Quinn Ave, or Quinn Rd?

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryApril 4, 2019

As was the custom of the time, many streets in Port Melbourne were named after prominent citizens, including mayors and councillors. In this tradition you will discover a small roadway, Quinn Road, tucked away in a new housing development, 164 Ingles Street, at the northern boundary of the borough. Other names of roadways amongst this cluster of townhouses include; Velvet,…

Three Photos of Port Link Five Generations of my Family

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 13, 2017

Whilst converting a terrace house in Bay Street to a photography studio in the 1970s, one of my memories of Port was the delicious smell of baking biscuits from the Swallows factory, not one you’d associate with an industrial area. Lydia, my paternal grandmother, had worked there back in the early 1900s. Swallow & Ariell Sign (detail). I took this photo for…

Coles Stall – 10 December 2016

News and NoticesNovember 30, 2016

Look out for our stall at the Bay Street entrance to Coles on Saturday, 10 December from 10am until 4pm. We'll be selling our Historical Port Melbourne 2017 Calendar at $12 each and J Kitchen & Sons postcards, which you may have seen on The Block, at $5 for a set of six or $12 for a triple pack. Pick up the…

Kitchen’s Picnic

Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 3, 2016

Myrtle Mott and Bill Hegarty in the Thread Needle Race at Kitchen's Annual Picnic. My Father, Bill Hegarty, along with the Mott sisters, Myrtle, Ida and Alice who married Bill, were all employed by Kitchen & Sons. This picture was taken at one of Kitchen's annual outings, a picnic at Frankston. Here Bill is teamed with my Auntie Myrtle, dressed in their Sunday…

The Block and Fishermans Bend

Planning & PreservationSeptember 9, 2016

At a sneak preview of The Block apartments on 7 September, Port Phillip Mayor, Councillor Bernadene Voss, spoke of the Council's vision for Fishermans Bend. It was welcome to hear her comments on the importance of Port Melbourne's history and heritage to that vision. "Welcome to Port Phillip Council’s celebration of Fishermans Bend’s ‘new kid on the block’. The transformation of a boarded-up former…

Positive News For Heritage Building in Ingles St

Planning & PreservationApril 23, 2016

The fine 1925 administrative headquarters of J Kitchen & Sons in Ingles have been deteriorating over many years - boarded up and defaced with graffiti. distressed condition of the former J Kitchen & Son administrative headquarters in Ingles St A proposal for a primary school did not eventuate at this location. In good news for the building, on Tuesday 19 April the Port Phillip…

J. Kitchen & Sons, The Candle Kings

Collection, Port Melbourne HistoryJune 11, 2015

From the Collection - items from the J. Kitchen and Son collection Following the sale of Symex's Port Melbourne operation and their relocation to Shepparton, records and items from their museum were donated to PMHPS. The Society is delighted that a collection so important to the industrial history of Port Melbourne will be retained within the suburb where the company operated for…

Employment at Kitchens

CollectionJanuary 8, 2015

From the Collection A photograph from the J Kitchen and Sons collection In summer of 1854-5, John Kitchen, former grocer and candle-maker from Reading, England, arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, with three young sons and little money, to begin a new life. They were soon able to buy some cheap candle frames, and they commenced making tallow candles in a…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians