The ACT Heritage Council has provisionally registered the “Early Kingston Shops”, a row of small, mostly single-storey shops forming an ‘L’ shape along Giles and Kennedy streets.

“The Early Kingston Shops were the first shopping precinct developed in the ACT, and they were the premier shopping destination in the new capital from the 1920s until the late 1950s” said council chair  Duncan Marshall.

“These shops were the first fully formed shopping precinct in Canberra. They were essential for goods and services, but they were also a centre for socialising and employment.

“Development of the Early Kingston Shops meant that the first public servants and those who constructed Canberra didn’t need to order goods and groceries from canvassers going door-to-door, or make the trip into Queanbeyan any more; instead, they had a central group of shops that sold almost everything they wanted.

He said the Heritage Council reviewed three existing nominations for parts of the larger Kingston shopping precinct before deciding to provisionally register a smaller section of shops that dated back to the original development of Kingston.

“In terms of what we are proposing to register, we are talking about a row of small, mostly single-storey shops forming an ‘L’ shape along Giles and Kennedy Streets” Mr Marshall said.

This part of the shops, called the “Early Kingston Shops”, had the most significant impact on the development of the ACT, being built quickly and with little government control, and gaining an early competitive advantage over other shopping precincts at Civic and Manuka.

Provisional registration is the first public step in a process to recognise heritage places in the ACT. Public comments on the provisional registration are invited by July 1, after which a final decision whether or not to register the shops will be made.

More at the ACT Environment website.