I can remember going to Mark Foys as a little girl. It was a big deal then, Mark Foys was a grand Department Store, the good old fashioned sort, with dark timber framed glass cabinets and tall ceilings. The main entrance on Liverpool Street had an impressive set of stone stairs leading up to the front doors. I can remember walking along them, tracing patterns in my head as I walked along the full length of each step, snaking my way to the top.
My favourite doll was bought in Mark Foys. I can still remember her standing on a glass counter on one of the cabinets on the ground floor. I fell in love with her at first sight. She was a large doll, about two feet high, Spanish and I called her Marion, which I believed sounded exotic at the time. She was beautifully made, had a porcelain face and real human hair and finely tailored clothes.
But of course my parents didn’t buy her for me that day. We didn’t get gifts outside of birthdays and Christmas, unless they were books, I could always convince my dad to buy me a new book, a strong believer in education, he didn’t take much persuading. But dolls were a different category.. Marion must have been purchased quietly when I wasn’t around and hidden on the top of my mother’s wardrobe until my next birthday or Christmas... I don’t remember when I was actually given her, but I can clearly recall her in Mark Foys, wearing her white summer dress, leather sandals and tiny lace gloves.
I still have her, tucked away in box somewhere. She won me a Blue Ribbon at the Doll & Teddy Competition at Primary School one year. I still have the ribbon too, its faded to a dull purple now.
Mark Foys was founded by brothers Francis and Mark Foy (1865–1950) and named after their father Mark Foy (Senior).
The store started trading from its Liverpool Street premises in 1909 and housed Australia’s first escalator.
It ceased trading after going into receivership in 1980. The building is now used as a complex of courthouses known as the Downing Centre. However, its former role is preserved in the ornate tile work on the facade and surroundings.
Mark Foy also founded the Hydro Majestic Hotel at Medlow Bath near Katoomba and Australia’s Oldest Open Boat Sailing Club the Sydney Flying Squadron, founded in 1891
This photo shows a downstairs doorway, that opens onto the Museum Railway tunnel entrance.
The facade of Mark Foys still sports the mosaic tile signs that indicated its many departments... Corsets, Gloves, Hosiery, Millinery... a legacy of bygone era!