Buckley & Nunn

The Melbourne department store of Buckley and Nunn first opened its doors in 1851, and in its heyday was a store with as fine a reputation as David Jones (1838) or Myer (1900)

It was especially popular with women of style. In 1914, for example, elegant frocks were the main feature of its mail order catalogue, and in 1939 it was happy to display chic female nightwear in its shop window. As early as 1912 it had been the acceptable cause of much congestion in Bourke Street outside its doors, as photos of the day show, and by the 1920s the Buckley and Nunn tastefully appointed tea room was one of the most fashionable meeting places for Melbourne ladies.

The name was thus a household phrase, and could well have served as the source of the Buckley’s and none pun. But only provided that William Buckley story had captured the public imagination already.

Built : 1934Address : 310 Bourke St City : Melbourne The Original site of Buckley and Nunn is now the site of David Jones at 310 Bourke Street Melbourne, the building was built in 1934 in the Interwar period in Art-Deco Style

Notable architectural features of the building are : Formerly Buckley & Nunn features male figures dressed in Jazz Age costume, glazed terracotta panels and spandrels faced with stainless steel chevrons and colourful musical notes.

The Building was designed by : Bates Smart formerly Bates, Smart & McCutcheon

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Buckley and Nunn was co-founded by Mars Buckley (1825-1905), a businessman who was born at Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. In 1851 he sailed to Victoria with his wife Elizabeth Maroon, née Neville, one child, goods to sell and letters of introduction. After some successful months at the Ballarat and Forest Creek goldfields Buckley returned to Melbourne and on the arrival of another consignment of goods began business in Bourke Street, taking into partnership Crumpton John Nunn (1828-1891), who soon returned to England to manage that end of the business. Buckley & Nunn's drapery store first occupied a wooden building, 9 ft (2.7 m) by 30 ft (9.1 m).. The great expansion of the next few years enabled Buckley to rent larger premises, he bought the land for £22,000, acquiring a Bourke Street frontage of 27 ft (8.2 m), soon extended to 162 ft (49 m) with a depth of 300 ft (91 m) to Post Office Place. In 1859 Buckley gave evidence to the select committee on the tariff; he was then employing twenty women and importing most of his goods through Dalgetys. In the 1860s he established direct communications with the main British firms, and the store made annual profits of about £40,000. In 1866 Buckley helped to found the Commercial Bank of Australia.

At the end of the 1860s Nunn visited the colony and persuaded Buckley, who was already dreaming of retirement, to continue the partnership. However, on Nunn's death by suicide in 1891 Buckley immediately offered the business for sale in London. He rejected an offer of £300,000 and sold it to Robert Reid for the price he wanted. In 1892 Reid disposed of the business in London for the figure mentioned. Buckley foresaw the collapse of the land boom, telling those who urged him to speculate, 'these values are fictitious; it is all a matter of paper'. As soon as the run on the banks began 'Old Tapes and Ribbons' with two assistants carrying two large trunks drew £10,000 in sovereigns and put them in safe deposit. By 1900 he could claim to have 'The Oldest-Established Drapery House in Victoria and the Most Fashionable Resort for Shopping in Australia'.

Buckley hated publicity and took no part in political or municipal life, engrossing himself in his business. There for forty years he ruled supreme, feared as a disciplinarian but respected for his shrewdness, integrity and frankness. He was a thickset man with bushy eyebrows and a passion for horse-riding. He often rode at four or five in the morning and every Saturday followed the hounds, a sport he had loved since childhood. In 1860 he had joined the Victorian Light Dragoons.

In 1863 Buckley, at enormous cost, built his mansion, Beaulieu (now St Catherine's School), Heyington Place, Toorak. There, aged 80, he died suddenly on 9 October 1905, survived by his wife and five of their seven children. Of his four surviving sons, Gerald Neville was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and bought Narrapumelap station from the executors of J. D. Wyselaskie; Percy Neville became a lieutenant-colonel and Godfrey and Charles Mars returned to England.