An advertisement for the sale of a subdivision by Auction: of 16 Ideal Home Sites, East Kew, 1940. This significant sale of land between the Kew Golf Course and Willsmere Park led to the streets having a high degree of architectural uniformity.The subdivision in the second year of the war indicates that land sales for homes and speculation continued from the 1930s into the period of the Second World War. There is no indication on the plan that a war is occurring.Single page subdivision plan advertising the sale by Auction of 16 Ideal Home Sites, in East Kew, on 17 February 1940. Streets named in the plan include: Kilby Road, Belford Road, Elm Grove, Willow Grove. Willsmere Park is indicated but not named. The auction was conducted by Beauchamp Brothers. A number of lots are coloured pink on the plan indicating those lots for sale and/or those already sold.subdivision plans - kew east (vic)

Henry (Harry) William Tompkins was a renowned Melbourne architect, former City of Kew councillor and sometime Mayor of the municipality. He was president of the Melbourne Institute of Architects in 1914-15. In partnership with his brother, Frank Beauchamp Tompkins, he designed the Myer Stores in Bourke and Lonsdale Streets in 1933. Locally he was the architect of the Kew War Memorial (opened 1925). At the time that the gravure plate was made, the couple lived in 'Fenwick', a house on the corner of Stawell Street and Fenwick Street, Kew, which has since been demolished.Copper (on steel?) gravure printing plate made for Mr & Mrs Harold Tompkins, 'Fenwick', Fenwick Street, Kew. Engraved in reverse script. It is assumed that the acronym PPC may stand for 'Please Present Card'. "Mr & Mrs H.W. Tompkins, Fenwick, Fenwick Street, Studley Park / PPC 1st Friday"harry tompkins, gravure printing plates, business cards

The small building on the left is the Farmers Inn, and was built about 1849, when James Brown became the first licensee. In 1854 John Walwyn Taylor moved from the Sally Ann to take over, and remained there until 1857, when he moved to his new hotel The Star of the West built on the old Sally Ann site. John Wall then became the new licensee of the Farmers Inn. In 1876 his wife Bridget made an application for the license to be transferred to her as “her husband suffered from rheumatism, and there were certain other reasons why the license should be transferred to her hands”. The Bench wondered about creating a precedence of granting a license to a married woman, who was living with her husband, (licenses were only granted to the widows of licensees at that time), so the application was postponed for 14 days, but eventually Mrs Wall won her case. In 1882 Patrick Tennyson took over the lease of the Farmer’s Inn and applied to change the name to Tennyson’s Hotel. In 1885 he bought the freehold in the Great Land Sale for £780. 12s. 8d., and in December, carried out extensive renovations. The local press reported that “the rooms were quite tasteful, the Billiard room commodious and well ventilated, and that the old hotel had not looked so good for years”. The double storied part of the hotel was added in 1893. Patrick Tennyson had a colourful career. He was born in Charlemont, County Armagh in 1846. When he was 21, he served as a papal guard at the Vatican for 2 years and then entered the Marist Brothers novitiate in Beauchamps. In 1872 he was one of three brothers to accompany Brother Ludovic to Sydney; he was then aged 23. After 5 years he withdrew from the Congregation and moved to Victoria, where he took up teaching, first at Rosedale near Sale, then at Crossley, by which time he was married to Anne White. They had eight children, three dying in infancy. Eight months after he took over the Farmers’ Inn, he was elected to the Borough Council, and served as Mayor in 1897. His great interest was sport, was Secretary of the Race Club for 20 years and supported the local Football Club by donating a silver cup for local competitions. Patrick Tennyson died in 1904. The hotel continued under various licensees until it burned down in 1977 under the name of “The Fishermen’s Arms”. Well known main street hotel no longer exists Sepia photograph of 2 story building with tiled wainscoting male and 2 females in doorway and 2 females in window upstairshotel, building, sackville street, patrick tennyson, w.j.wright