Nancy Phelan

Interviewed by [talk at Mosman Library] on 28 June 1990
Subject: Spit Junction

…but as I got a bit older I began to become a little restless and I began to realise there was another side to life in Mosman, another character of Mosman.

Now this is where I have to come clean and say that I went through a very definite period of loathing Mosman and the absolute epitome of everything I hated was the Spit Junction. I simply hated the Spit Junction. Nothing ever happened there, it was so dull, and there were all these ugly little buildings and these overhead wires. It was so boring and there were all these little shops, there was Bridgeman’s – I’m not knocking the shops but this is how a young teenager is feeling. There was Bridgeman’s the drapers, there was Kerslake’s sweet shop, they made wonderful chocolates and coconut-ice, I do remember, it was a cake shop. Noaks’s the butcher, you could smell the suet as you went past, and there was sawdust on the floor.

There was Whittle’s and Horsnall’s,‘Okay Boots & Shoes’, (laughter) two very jolly little men behind the counter. Of course there was nothing like a delicatessen, just the Ham & Beef shop. And there was Moran & Cato and McIllwaraiths.