1922. Gibsonia Mills

Two chimneys in Oxford Street, Collingwood, part of the Foy & Gibson manufacturing complex. This is the frontispiece photo of an album prepared for the firm in 1921 or 1922. On the cover is embossed in gold lettering: Foy & Gibson Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. Gibsonia Woollen Mills, exterior views. Handwritten inside the cover is 'James Wood, March 1922'. After commencing in 1883 with a shop in Smith Street, the first of the Foy & Gibson warehouse/manufactories in Oxford Street was built by 1895, to the design of William Pitt, architect and Collingwood councillor. From this time until the 1920s, the entire block bounded by Smith, Wellington, Peel and Stanley Streets, previously occupied by houses, small factories and hotels, was to undergo a transformation into an industrial landscape of woollen mills, clothing manufacture, hosiery, bedding, metal goods and cabinet manufacture on a scale unprecedented in Melbourne at the time. James Wood was the firm's accountant.