I remember as a kid in the old square there used to be a water feature, quite a big one, and as a kid you could run right across and slide and have so much fun, I guess we weren’t as safety conscious in those days and we certainly fell over and skidded. I think we used to try and skateboard around it from memory. It was quite big and took up a large chunk of the square. It was a lot deeper than the current one, and that’s what made it fun and dangerous. Then after that, if we were really lucky, we’d go to where Stella’s currently is, it was like a deli and we’d get our mixed
lollies and then if you were super lucky you’d go to the fish and chip shop, which was where Malobo is now. The line-up used to go for miles out the door, it was really popular, and it was really hot in the Summer.
We’d visit Henley with my cousins, there would be 5 or 6 of us, my aunt and uncle used to live just around the corner, so we had a bit of freedom, we were allowed to go there and then walk by ourselves to the square and really enjoy the long summer days. It was a really special part of my childhood that has stuck with
me, so even when I see the old buildings now, I still do remember what they looked like all those years ago. A lot of those facades thankfully haven’t changed too much so it’s still has retained a bit of that history. The fish and chip shop was in a building from the 1890’s, today its still got the façade while the interior has changed significantly. It was always a great place to meet with family and friends, with the bonus of being next to the ocean.
- Kenzie
As a child I used to come down to Henley Square, but we were never really allowed to stay at Henley Square. I lived at Woodville, so we caught the train down. I remember the train coming right down to Henley station. It was basically where the police station is now. It had buffers, I don’t know if people know what buffers are –they are the stopping part on the train across the end of the track. That was very exciting to watch the train go down to the buffers. But we were never, as young
children allowed to stay around Henley square because it was considered a little bit rough and sleazy and I’m talking in the 50’s and 60’s. So, we weren’t allowed to stay at Henley Square and we had to walk down further until we got to what was known as Kilkelly Beach. But we did use to come back to Henley to catch the train back home.
I moved down here in the early 70’s and I’ve lived at Henley Beach since then. Henley
Square in the 70’s was not the sleezy place as it was in my own childhood. Henley Square was a shopping area. It predominantly seemed to have lots of banks. I worked as a school teacher and Henley Square because it had the Commonwealth Bank and the Savings Bank of South Australia was somewhere where you came on teacher’s pay day to cash your cheque and then we’d often congregate around Henley Square and catch up with the other teachers who worked
in the area. We all seemed to know each other because the Ramsgate was the place, we went to on Friday nights.
As far as my own children, I have four children. Henley Square was a place to come on the weekend. I have memories of my children climbing over the fountain. And as a Mother being very worried because it was extremely dangerous, but you just had to let them go. They would bring their roller-skates
and roller-skate around Henley Square. There use to be lots of activities for them. They used to have Sunday’s at the Square and they would have things like face painting and balloon sculptures. But also, Henley Square was a place to come on Friday night. It was where the local chip shop was. And we’d have fish and chips on a Friday night. That was the only take away back in the 70’s. McDonald’s wasn’t a big thing then. That was a special treat. We’d sit perhaps in Henley
Square or on the beach and we’d be surrounded by seagulls and the children use to chase the seagulls. There were many seagulls.
- Marie Hagan
My memories go back long before most of you were born. I guess my memories start in 1945. The features of Henley Square at that time were the Henley Jetty, the bandstand, which was a prominent feature in Henley Square while Henley Square itself used to be a big parking area. Other features of Henley Square were the kiosks on either side of the jetty, there was a chemist and the only bank was a savings bank. A particular thing that sticks out in my mind was a fire in 1947, there was a lot of trouble back then with the fire brigade, they had to have a guarantee for money to come from the city down to Henley Beach and eventually
turned up and put the fire out. The other feature, the fish shop was west of its current side.
There was an annual procession that went through Henley square and annual side shows. The annual procession probably started down at Grange and then went along Seaview road and as far as Henley south hotel and would finish back in the square. The floats were made up by local business men and featured cars and the bakers’ horse and carts. The local green grocers were carried on the horse and cart and Hicks petrol station at Henley Square was a very prominent
thing, Hicks would have had a couple of floats in the procession. The local churches would each have a float, the local milk man, in fact there were 6 milk men, they would have a horse and cart and each of the schools, Henley and Grange would have a float. The carnival after the procession used to run for 10 days. The Merry Go round was 100 metres to the North of the Jetty.
The train ran either side of a dual platform. The eastern side of the train station was a wood yard, piles of Murray roots and gum trees. On the southern side of the Jetty on the foreshore was
the headquarters of the Henley 14-foot sailing club.
Also, there were shacks underneath the western side of the Square, the shacks had access directly onto the beach. They had wooden slat frontage and you could get changed in there. Another feature used to be the Henley and Grange lifesaving carnival. It was a carnival at Henley and Grange every year in which all the Metropolitan Council lifesaving clubs would participate. On the jetty, there was a lookout tower halfway up the jetty where the lifesavers would stand to keep an eye on the swimmers. It spanned across the whole of the Jetty from one side to the other and had little outcrops on each side.
Going back to beyond East Terrace where the oval is currently, they used to have Motorbike races on Sunday afternoons, they weren’t the traditional motorbike races, they were running through muddy paddocks and up and down through slush and mud.
Henley Square on Public Holidays, the tram used to come down here packed with people, the older trams used to turn up on the very busy days. They used to use the traditional tram known as the Bay tram which runs to Glenelg.
The Police Station was on the other side of Military Road and that’s where the current Vet is in the old Police Station.
I taught swimming at the Henley pool. The swimming pool was 55 yards long not 50 metres, 55 yards long and was 12-foot-deep at the deep end and they had a 30-foot-high diving tower. The diving tower was a very prominent feature, it could be seen from West Beach. We had a 10-foot board, 20-foot board and 30-foot board. I used to play water polo there through the summer. I remember everyone used to eat bush biscuits from a little sweet shop opposite the swimming pool. It was a penny for a bush biscuit. A bush biscuit was about four inches long and two and a half inches wide and about quarter inch thick. Everyone had to have a bush biscuit after
you’d been swimming. Billy Spears with the main local diving hero. Dawn Fraser, she did a few demonstrations, but she swam at the Olympic pool behind the Parliament House.
I was as an observer at the pool and had to make sure no one did belly flops off the 30-foot diving board.
In my university days I worked for one of the local Milkys, I also worked for the post office and they used to have a depot just off the square. The milk depot for all the Milkys is just down right at the back of the square on East Terrace. We used to deliver milk to the Copacabana, it was a restaurant on the northern side of the square.
-Merv
I have been fortunate to reside in one of the most cosmopolitan suburbs within Charles Sturt - I particularly enjoy the ambience of the square during the summer months and the glorious sunsets.
- Sonia During the Depression Years of the 1930’s a day at the beach was one of the few activities families could afford. an outing on a weekend, was one of two things, it was either a trip to the beach, or a trip to the cemetery to visit the old relatives.
Beach attire may have changed over the years but our love for the beach is enduring.
- MGW11
Henley is all about the ice cream.
As a family we visit Henley Beach from the city in summer, it’s our favourite ‘close to the city’ beach. We park down one end and walk all the way to the cafes and shops for an ice cream and then walk all the way back to the car. Henley Beach is a good place to go for Ice Cream.
- CBD DwellerI like Henley Square because it has beautiful restaurants, which means everyone will be able to eat yummy dinners. The beach is also behind henley square, which means you get a perfect view of the sunset.
- By Mikaela age 8.
My greatest memory of Henley beach square is when I was young, we would play and climb on the large water fountains, or the kids would be splashing around while the adults looked on. It was a great family carefree atmosphere. The older kids would play on the larger fountains, climbing up on them and the younger kids had the smaller fountains to play on. Everyone got along and would splash around late into the night and the lights lit up the fountains.
- MJOne of my early memories is of standing on the running board of my grandfather’s Essex car, parked in Henley square and listen to bands in the rotunda on a balmy Sunday night. And then a treat would be an afternoon tea visit with my cousins and grandma to the tea rooms on the Esplanade, which is where Cibo’s is now.
- FJS
My mother was surprised when I bought a house on the corner of HMAS Australia road and Yeomans avenue. She shared her memories of travelling from her home in Glenelg, to relatives who lived in Henley beach. The tram ran along a swampy section of what is now HMAS Australia road and the water from the wetlands lapped over the kickboard of the tram.
- Meredith
