Bourke Street, Melbourne, looking east from the GPO
1874
Glass photonegative
This early morning view up Bourke Street, with its shuttered shops, is taken from Elizabeth Street, with the original General Post Office on the left. On the right is a coffee stall complete with cups and saucers, with a milk van beside it making a delivery. Coffee stalls were a popular part of Melbourne nightlife. They operated from 8 pm to 8 am until October 1874, when the mayor closed them from midnight to 4 am, as they were considered to be meeting places for criminals. For 6d, customers received a cup of coffee, saveloy, potato and buttered bread roll. Another coffee stall can be seen further up Bourke Street, on the corner of Swanston Street.
From Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers, 20 May 1873
A blaze of light and the hum of many voices from the market made me turn my steps in the direction of the light and sound, and suddenly I came upon an oasis in the midst of desolation. How delicious did that coffee stall appear to me ; for the moment it eclipsed all the luxuriant comfort of Lea Trois Freres, all the mirrored grandeur of Vefour's. The smell of the saveloys was more savory than the multifarious odors of the Reform Club kitchen, and the steaming coffee conjured up thoughts of genuine Mocha.... Behind the counter a motherly female, assisted by a younger female help, were kept busy attending to the wants of their customers, now cutting slices of bread and butter, now handing cups of steaming coffee, now frying sausages by means of a tire in a portable grate. Those sausages were my kismet. I could not resist the music as they danced in the pan, and the odor that assailed my nostrils. Adieu caution and economy, and edging in to the counter I exchanged my sixpence for a cup of coffee, bread and butter, and the pork dainty that had seduced me into extravagance. [Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers, 20 May 1873, p68]
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