Elizabeth Neighbourhood Shops

Elizabeth has been designed with neighbourhood or suburbs to accommodate about 5,000 people, and in each of these neighbourhoods is a shopping centre of some 8-18 shops, together with community facilities, such as post office, service station, rent office, banking premises, Mothers and Babies’ Health Association consulting rooms, playing areas and provision for pre-school kindergarten and buildings for entertainment.  Shops in these centres cater for the housewife’s day-to-day needs, but will not be sufficiently comprehensive to make it unnecessary for her to visit the Town Centre.  The trades in the neighbourhood centres, some duplicated, are grocer, butcher, greengrocer, delicatessen (as individual shops or as foodmarkets), fish, chemist, ladies’ hairdresser, newsagent and dry cleaner, together in some centres, with hardware, draper, cakes, babywear and branch public library.

In addition to the shops and other facilities, buildings have been erected adjacent to some of the completed neighbourhood shopping centres to provide for light service industries, such as cycle repairs, auto electrician, baker and shoe-repairer.

In the design of the centres the convenience of the shoppers and of the shopkeepers is the first consideration.  The shops face covered walkways and open spaces from which vehicular traffic is excluded and which are laid out with gardens and shrubs.  Access for delivery of stock is available from roads at the rear of the shops.

Public conveniences are provided at most centres.

There is ample car parking space at each centre with easy access to the walkways and from bus stops and taxi ranks.

The neighbourhood shopping centres are built by the Trust and are let by tender for specific trades for an initial term of three years, with right of renewal for five years.  Thereafter, new leases are negotiated.

Neighbourhood shopping centres are planned generally to be no more than a few minutes’ walk from all homes in the neighbourhood.  However, in cases where the shape of the neighbourhood is such that a large number of families are more than a few minutes’ walk away, the day-to-day needs of these families are served by a small group of from three to seven shops.  Three such groups are already open, one of which is designed on the food market principle.

Neighbourhood shopping centres have been built in each of the suburbs of

Elizabeth South  100 Philip Highway, Elizabeth South

Elizabeth Grove,  Fairfield Road

Elizabeth North, Hillcot st & Woodford Road

Elizabeth Vale 44 John Rice Ave, Elizabeth Vale

Elizabeth East   Spruance Rd & Midway Rd

Elizabeth Park    110 Yorktown Road

Elizabeth Downs  34 Hamblyn Rd

Elizabeth Field  55 Whittington Road

Smithfield Plains    240 Peachey Road