Demise of Anthony Hordern's City Store and Retailing
By the early 1960s Anthony Hordern and Sons began to accumulate yearly losses instead of profits. By 1965-66, this had become noticeable and restructuring was underway. Most notable were the losses from the Brickfield Hill Flagship store and the Anthony Hordern store in Wollongong. A number of the upper levels of the Brickfield Hill store were closed, as the management of Anthony Hordern's tried to restructure the business.
By mid-1969, the situation had not improved and the situation was dire. Things had come to a head and drastic action was needed. Waltons launched a bid for the retail operations of Anthony Hordern, whilst Stocks and Holdings Ltd, launched a bid for the massive Anthony Hordern city Brickfield Hill site.
Despite some counterbidding from Buckinghams Holdings Ltd, Waltons succeeded in gaining control of Anthony Hordern and Sons Ltd during late 1969. It's worth mentioning by this time Anthony Horderns had stopped retailing from their Brickfield Hill site. After the takeover of Anthony Horderns by Waltons, the Brickfield Hill site was then sold to Stocks and Holdings Ltd, for $8.5 million dollars. It turned out Stocks and Holdings Ltd were acting for their client, The State Superannuation Trust. It was then leased back by The Superanuation Trust, to Stocks and Holdings Ltd, for retail space. This was completed by Christmas Eve 1969, ending 64 years of retail pioneering and ownership of the building by Anthony Horderns Ltd.
The development of American-style suburban shopping malls during the later 1960s, coupled with fiercer competition in the city, is said to have sealed the fate of the store. Mysteriously, the tree on the Hordern family's estate at Camden, New South Wales, upon which idea of the crest was based, died soon afterwards. For many years it stood idle, and eventually part of it was made into a car park.
One remaining Horden's shop remained open in Windsor NSW until at least 1986 and included the old glass top display cabinets and a HCF (health Fund) agency in the back corner.
The Anthony Hordern Brickfield Hill site, Palace Emporium was subsequently used by the NSW Institute of Technology (now UTS) for some years. It (and surrounding buildings) was controversially demolished in 1986 for the infamous 'World Square' development, which remained a hole in the ground for nearly twenty years, before finally being completed in 2004.
Originally, in the early 1980s the buildings new owner, Singaporean based Ipoh Gardens Development, planned to try to save the Anthony Horderns building, but in the end it was found to be too costly after receiving independent advice from the CSIRO, on the state of the buildings concrete and other fittings. Ipoh Gardens, however did refurbish the Queen Victoria Building back to heritage standard.
There are still some legacies left in Sydney, such as the Hordern Pavilion, Hordern Towers (within the World Square development), and the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney in Croydon of which its oldest building, 'Shubra Hall' was the home of Anthony Hordern III until 1889.
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