Victoria Street in Cambridge

This is a view, you could say, indistinct from many New Zealand and Australian towns in the late 1800s/early 1900s. It is of course, Cambridge on a very warm day in the earlyish 1900s – a guess would be 1916. There is one solitary motor car at the end of the block with four horse drawn carts on the roadside. To the right of the photo is a trail of horse manure. A lady all in light colour dress is aiming her baby’s pram directly at it. It seems utterly awful to us in 2023 but I guess it was an absolute fact of daily life and nothing to be offended by in the 1910s. The large white shop is Geo Calvert & Co – Household drapers, Milliners, Outfitters. To the right is the Victoria Bakery boasting Machine-made bread, Tea & Dining rooms, and Pure Iced Fruit Drinks. Did they mean a slushy?

Most, if not all these buildings are long since gone and the peace and serenity has gone with them.

Contributed by Perry Rice, Heritage Librarian – Photographs, Hamilton Central Library. If you have any information you would like to pass on or would like to buy an electronic copy of the photo, please e-mail heritage@hcc.govt.nz quoting: HCL_11265a.