Charles Birks builds a major department store in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, from small 1864 partnership
Charles Birks (left) who started in business with David Robin at a Hindley Street store (top, centre left) went solo with his Rundle Street store (top, centre right) and built a major dpeartment store, expended by his son Napier, with frontage expanded along Stephens Place and Gawler Place (bottom centre and at right).
Images courtesy Wikipedia and State Library of South Australia
Charles Birks & Co Ltd. was a Rundle Street, Adelaide city, department store founded by Charles Napier Birks, from his retail start in 1864, and eventually bought out by David Jones Ltd in 1954.
Birks was born in Knutsford, near Manchestor, England, near Manchester, in 1844, as the fourth son of pharmacist George and Hannah Birks who emigrated with their family on the Leonidas, arriving at Glenelg, South Australia, in 1853. They settled in Angaston where George Birks’opened a pharmacy. He died four years later, after being thrown from his horse.
Hannah Birks then ran the pharmacy in Angaston, assisted by elder sons William and George who, as W. H & G. N. Birks, later opened a stationery shop and Birks Chemists in Rundle Street, Adelaide city.
Charles Birks entered retail with David Robin when they took over the London House drapery shop at 89 Hindley Street, Adelaide city, from George Shaw in 1864. Birks & Robin’s next takeover was J. Ballantyne & Co.'s store at 38 Rundle Street in 1871. The partnership dissolved in 1876 when Robin took over the Hindley Street (at that time the major shopping strip and more prestigious) store. He sold it to Joseph Henry Pellew in 1882.
Charles Birks took the Rundle Street property, rebranded as Birks, and, helped by Harry Ingham, spent lavishly to place it at the upper end of the market. In 1879, Birks took his brothers Walter and William in as partners in the business rebranded Charles Birks & Co. from 1881.
Also in 1879 at Glenelg, Charles Birks married Rosetta Thomas who became stepmother to the six children that Birks had with her sister Mary who died in 1878. Charles and Rose lived in England until 1886 when the Commercial Bank of South Australia collapsed due to financial misdeeds by Alexander Crooks. Charles Birks resumed managing the department store. An enlightened employer, he improved working conditions for his staff and set up an employees' trust fund.
Birks retired from being actively involved in he 1880s followed by Henry Bailey and George Mowat who also had become partners. In 1888, the store had a major £25,000 expansion.
In 1893, Charles's son Napier Birks was taken on as an office boy, rising in 1900 to a partner, then sole proprietor when his father relinquished his share in 1908. In 1913, Napier Birks bought the whole Rundle Street frontage from Stephens Place to Gawler Place and rebuilt the store. He appointed Frank Cornish, with the firm since age 12, as general manager who ran the store when Napier Birks enlisted for World War I in 1915.
The firm was restructured as a limited liability company in 1920, with Cornish appointed a director, and new partners Edmund Farr and William Hayes brought in. In 1932 the company bought the warehouse of Good, Toms & Co., increasing its floor area to four acres and expanding Charles Birks & Co.'s frontage along Stephens Place and Gawler Place.
