Chamber 23 - Statesman

Written By Gareth M.

Chamber 23 - Statesman was the second last of the large chambers of the oldest part of the Packing House's main building. It was accessed through Chamber 22 - Broom Park and Chamber 24 - Bartletts, and opened into Chamber 26 - Sheppards Delight, and also had a window looking into Chamber 28 - Garden.

It was inhabited by a single dealer for the larger part of Tyabb Packing House Antiques' history.

Maas Antiques were within this space from 1993 through to June 2021 when the husband and wife owners of Maas Antiques passed away. Those who inherited Maas Antiques closed the business shortly after.

Into this space, after a clean and rejuvenation of the space moved The Cheshire Cat, moving from the section of Chamber 21 - Pippin nearest to the 'garden in the middle'. They moved into the chamber in July 2021.

Letter to dealers of 9:00 am meeting on 28th April 2021. (Photo: 2022-04-21)

Then on 28th April 2022 a meeting was held with Morgan & Griffin's representative and point of contact for the dealers at the Packing House, ostensibly to discuss advertising and other ways to attract customers, as there had been a drop off of managerial engagement following the new owners taking over. Unfortunately tempers flared during the meeting, and along with some actions in the weeks following the meeting the larger Morgan & Griffin management informed The Cheshire Cat that they had to vacate the premises.

As The Cheshire Cat, and indeed all dealers at the Packing House were on month-to-month rental agreements with no leases in place there was little recourse for The Cheshire Cat.

2022-06-18 The Cheshire Cat’s notice to customers.

Sunday 19th June 2022 was The Cheshire Cat's final trading day at the Packing House, and by the following week they had completely vacated the building. They didn't move far though, remaining in Tyabb they took a shop at 1523 Frankston-Flinders Road, Tyabb.

Following The Cheshire Cat's exit from the Packing House this space remained empty. During July 2022 Peter French Antiques and Book Browser (located in the neighbouring Chamber 22 and Chambers 24, 25 and 26 respectively) used the opportunity of empty space to present some wares for sale. For Peter French Antiques it was an extremely large table and bench seating and for Book Browser it was some random chairs that had not found their place in the amongst the books.

In late July 2022 a new dealer took on the space; Antique and Retro Warehouse, selling a range of antiques and interesting decorative items sourced from Europe along with items for interior decorating and garden settings, ranging from the mid 19th century through to 1970.

Note: Images have dates written in YEAR-MONTH-DAY format, as there is a mix of mediums of images with some having more exact dates than others.

More information

  • This was the only chamber since 2002 that had a window overlooking Chamber 28 - Garden. Chamber 24 - Bartlett’s window having been renovated inside when Chamber 26 - Golden Delicious was extended.

  • As this chamber has never had carpet, and (as of 2023 still does not) it remains one of the best chambers with examples of the coolstore’s original white line marking, along with its numbers and stencilled notices.

  • As with the neighbouring Chamber 22 - Broom Park, this chamber’s floor leaned slightly towards the walls, due to the heavy fruit crates having been stacked there over its history.

External links

Other obscurities

Front Counter | Front office | Lay-by room | Internal phone system | Fire and emergency systems | Power, Heating and Cooling

Gareth M.
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Chamber 24 - Bartletts
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Chamber 22 - Broom Park