Formerly – 23 Ocean Beach Road

The Land

Sorrento Town Allotment 5 was alienated from the Crown on the 14th of January 1870 by Cornelius Job Ham for £11 7s 6d.

Cornelius Job Ham (1837–1909) A ‘Land and Estate Agent’ of Swanston Street. He was elected to Melbourne City Council in 1870 and was a Member of the Legislative Council from 1882–1904. ¹

May 1872 the land was transferred to Charles Gavan Duffy. Interestingly, Duffy paid £11 7s 6d which was the price Ham originally paid for the land. Despite Alienating numerous Parish of Nepean Crown Allotments between 1863 and 1875, Charles Gavan Duffy never directly bought a Sorrento Town Allotment. Was Ham acting surreptitiously for him?

October 1874 and Charles Gavan Duffy sold the land to the George Coppin founded, The Ocean Amphitheatre Company Limited. This was just one of numerous land purchases made in Sorrento by the company in 1874.

The Continental Hotel was Constructed and the first licence granted on 4 September 1875 to a Mr. John Crawford.

September 1875, The Ocean Amphitheatre Company sells a large parcel to The Sorrento Continental Hotel Company Limited, also founded by George Coppin, for £2000. This includes the Continental Hotel.

20th of June 1876 all unsold holdings (over 170 acres) of The Ocean Amphitheatre Company are transferred to the Mortgage Holder, The Australasian Alliance Assurance Company. ²

In May 1877 The Sorrento Continental Hotel Company Limited was wound up with George Coppin appointed liquidator. At the same meeting a new company with the same name was formed with increased capital of 4,800 shares of £2 10s each. ³

July 1877 the Hotel and land are transferred for “valuable consideration” ⁴ from the old to the new company.

January 1882 and the former Ocean Amphitheatre Company holdings are advertised for sale by J.H. Knipe, along with the Continental Hotel, its fittings and fixtures.

Despite promoted as being ‘Sacrificed to the Highest Bidder” The Continental Hotel and lands in Town Allotment 5 went unsold.

Despite this, in July 1887 the Continental Hotel (including land of 3 acres and 8.8 perches) was sold to George Coppin for £3,475. ⁵ As shown below.

Coppin sold the Hotel to Isaac Bensilum in November 1890. The rest of this holding was subdivided and created several of the frontages on Ocean Beach Road that remain today.

In March 1902 the area shown above in pink (circled) was sold to John Nepean Farnsworth (1873-1909, son of John Farnsworth, builder of many of the area’s heritage buildings). Farnsworth split the block in two and in June 1903 sold the northern half (No 25) to Maggie Morley (1872-1950, wife of storekeeper Edward Morley).

The Building

Edward Morley and his brother Albert John Morley (1866-1950) had run Morley’s Store attached to the South side of the Continental Hotel. Albert had arrived in Sorrento, from Malmsbury, in around October 1895.⁶ It is not known exactly when Edward came to town, but by November 1896 the business attached to the Conti was advertised as “Morley Bros”, with “Cottages to Let” and “cash grocers”.

By 1902 Albert and his family had departed ⁷, leaving Edward running the business. Having bought the land on the other side of the lane, Edward and Maggie Morley set about building the new store. The ‘shop and six-roomed dwelling’ were built by prominent Sorrento builder William Croad.

The building was almost completed by December.

In January 1906 the property was sold to Jane Robertson of Sorrento (Widow) for £925 10s 2d.⁸ We have been unable to find any reference to Jane Robertson. Importantly, the property came encumbered with three mortgages to the value of the purchase price.

By July 1906 the Morleys had leased the Numurkah Hotel and left Sorrento. Captain Edward Morley would return many years later in his capacity of MLA to lay the foundation of the Sorrento RSL, in April 1924.

In April 1908 Charles Haslett’s “White House” boarding house, next door to Morley’s, burnt down. Note that the article below was somewhat exaggerated as, while there was some damage to Morley’s and Wilson’s shops they were still very much standing. Note also the reference to “Morley’s grocer’s shop”.

There are some references to the shop being taken over by Sorrento Baker, Spencer Sullivan in 1908. (After the fire?) Firm evidence for this is yet to be found. The first we could find is the following advertisement from 1911:

John Louis “Spencer” Sullivan (1873-1929) was a third generation member of the pioneer Sullivan Family and had previously had a bakery in Old Sorrento, in what is now Greenwood Avenue.

In August 1914 No. 25 was transferred to Spencer Sullivan for £650. Not from Jane Robertson, but from Harry McLeod Duigan, Solicitor, who held one of the three mortgages mentioned earlier.

At the same time Spencer purchased the, presumably still vacant, block next door. Again, this was from Harry McLeod Duigan, Solicitor, who held the mortgage on the property.

The adjoining advertisement was for Spencer Sullivan’s Back Beach Refreshment Rooms which were constructed on the Tram Terminus and remained until the tram closed in 1921.

In 1927 Spencer Sullivan built two new shops on the block next door. He would open a new Cafe in one of them by the end of the year.

We believe that it was at this time that the bakery moved to the more modern building next door. The article above does not make clear whether Joe Howard moved into No.25 but we believe it is likely. Joseph Henry Howard (1882-1965) was a Sorrento farmer turned fruiterer. He was only in the area for a brief time from 1924 to 1931.

John Louis “Spencer” Sullivan died on 22nd June 1929 while at work in the bakery. His wife Theresa continued to run the business. Their son Angelo was the baker. The other sons Spencer and Dan were there part-time when young, until the war. ¹⁰

Theresa continued to own the building until September 1947, when is was sold to Charles William Forrester along with the property next door. Charles Forrester was a baker from Greville Street, Prahran. He sold out of the bakery in 1948 but owned both buildings until 1960.

Both buildings were sold to Mornington baker Walter Longhurst and his wife Doris in July 1960.

In February 1972 Doris Longhurst sold both buildings to Sorrento & Portsea Bakery Pty. Ltd. of Nepean Highway Rosebud. This was Rosebud baker Tom Callendar. Sorrento Portsea Bakery sold under his brand of “Peninsula Maid”.¹¹

In July 1983 both buildings were sold to Robert & Elizabeth Johnstone and John & Iris Salmon.

No 25 became “Just Fine Food” and introduced Sorrento to the “Extreme” Vanilla Slice. This possibly marked the beginning of a craze for Vanilla Slices across Victoria.

In 1984 the title of 25-29 Ocean Beach Road was split into three separate titles.

The Cafe became “the Vanilla Slice Café” in 2019, as it remains today.

An End Thought

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Footnotes

1. Australian Dictionary of Biography – C.J. Ham HERE ↩︎
2. Transfer Instrument 54589 – NHS Collection ↩︎
3. The Argus 23 May 1877 p5 Trove HERE ↩︎
4. Transfer Instrument 63869 – NHS Collection ↩︎
5. Transfer Instrument 192571 – NHS Collection ↩︎
6. Sorrento State School Register of Pupils 1895 p14 – NHS Collection A5803.2 ↩︎
7. ibid. ↩︎
8. Transfer Instrument 518054 – NHS Collection ↩︎
9. Bruce Bennett “The Butcher, the Baker, the . . . ” p101 ↩︎
10. ibid. ↩︎
11. ibid. ↩︎