Mulgrave & Pipitea Streets

Opened by Mr William Herbert Brightwell in May 1870, the store was located at the corner of Mulgrave and Pipitea Streets. He claimed his good were cheaper than any other store in Wellington including:

Good Tea (not rubbish), 2s 4d

Finest Congou [a black Chinese tea], 2s 8d

English Jams 1s; Colonial jams, 8d

Painkiller, 1s 3 ½ d

Brown Windsor [a soap], per tablet, 2d

Double super Mustard, per lb, 2s 2d

Blue, per lb, 1s

The store advertised for trade heavily throughout 1871 and 1872 and then abruptly stopped. William and his brother Edwin were insolvent and the lease for the store was sold. It was described as an allotment of land ‘45ft x 69ft, with shop and dwellinghouse thereon, ground rent £40 per annum, currency of lease 14 years’. William Brightwell went and took up farming but he did not forget his start in commerce. He submitted a design to the Patent Office in 1888 for the specification of a butter package for general commerce and export.

Mr William Isaac took over the lease fn the shop for two years before moving up the road to open his Cooperative Baking and Grocery Business. His brother-in-law and also business partner, William Frethy carried on with the Thorndon Grocery Store.

Sadly William Frethy died in 1889 only two years after marrying Florence Ransom. His life insurance policy left sufficient capital for Florence to continue running the business, and presumably to also look after his eight children from his first marriage. Florence remained as the owner and proprietor of the store for the following thirteen years.

References:

New Zealand Gazette 25 May 1888

(1870, May 5) ‘Opening Notice’, Evening Post, 3

(1871, November 2) ‘Thorndon Grocery Store’, Evening Post, 3

(1873, April 4) ‘Business Notice’, Evening Post, 3

(1874, April 1) ‘Notice of Removal’, Evening Post, 3

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/suffragist/f-j-frethey