Historical information

Mr Arthur Metzenthen, and his wife Elsie were the owners of the Confectionery Shop at 126 Union Road between Sunbury Crescent and Croydon Road. The 2 storey building was later occupied by a printing business and demolished to make way for Coles Local.

The family lived behind and above the actual shop. It had a large backyard where their children played cricket (1927-1942).

It is Arthur ‘Metz’, as he was always known by, behind the counter, icecream cone in hand ready to serve icecream. The certificates, behind the jars of sweets, were awarded to him when Empire Day was celebrated for his professionally-dressed window displays. There is an advertisement for Peters ‘Fuzz’. It was yellow in colour and had a slightly different texture from icecream. It was not one of Peters’ success stories. Arthur and Elsie made their own flavoured ice blocks until the event of the icypole. He carried a range of flavourings for his well-known spiders and malted milk drinks - these can be seen in front of the mirror. There is also a hot water urn for making tea and coffee, and an advertisement for Guests biscuits – a few tins on the shelf. These were served, using brown china crockery on glass topped tables (out of the picture on left side). Other items of interest are paper bags, peanuts, snowballs and large clocks of chocolate, scales and the cash register. A ‘halfpenny’ and ‘penny’ trays were kept in the glass display cabinet next to the refrigerator and were the children’s favourite way to spend their pocket money.

Physical description

A black and white photograph of a man standing behind the counter in a confectionary/food/sweet shop. He is wearing a white jacket. There are shelves of jars and tins behind him and a couple of big jars on the counter.

Inscriptions & markings

Arthur Metzenthen 1933 S. Hills