For almost 100 years, Springett’s Arcade has been part of Bowral’s story – a place shaped by family, enterprise, community and change.
The Springett family’s Bowral story began in 1926, when Henry Louis and Mary Ann Springett moved their bakery business to 302 Bong Bong Street. The site, with its shopfront and adjoining residence, became the foundation of what would later become Springett’s Arcade. From these beginnings, the family expanded into baking, pies, ice, cordial, groceries, catering and food production, building a business that quickly became part of everyday life in the Southern Highlands.
Over the decades, the Springett site continued to grow and adapt. In the 1930s, the family purchased the Bong Bong Street premises and neighbouring land, then built a two-storey extension that included a restaurant, bakery, ice factory, cordial factory and an upstairs ballroom capable of hosting around 300 guests. Springett’s became more than a shop; it was a place for meals, celebrations, functions, dances and community gatherings.
The family became known not only for hard work, but for innovation. Springett’s introduced Bowral’s first self-service grocery market, installed the district’s first bread-slicing machine, expanded Bowral Cordial Works, shifted from ice production into cold storage and frozen foods, and later developed the Hot Canary supermarket – a bold warehouse-style grocery concept remembered fondly by locals.
In 1972, the first Springett’s Arcade opened, creating a connection from Bong Bong Street through to the businesses at the rear of the property. It changed the way people moved through the centre of Bowral, turning the site into both a destination and a thoroughfare. In 1984, after the bakery and Hot Canary closed to make way for redevelopment, the modern arcade opened with 24 retail spaces on the ground floor and 20 multi-purpose spaces above.
Through every change, Springett’s has remained deeply connected to the community. The arcade has hosted music, fashion parades, school-holiday events, Christmas giving trees, community art projects and countless everyday conversations. For many locals, memories of Springett’s are tied not only to its shops, but to its atmosphere – the piano, the fish tank, the familiar shopkeepers, the coffee stops, the errands, the friendships and the feeling of being known.
The Springett family’s contribution has also reached well beyond the arcade walls. Across generations, family members have served in local government, supported Tulip Time, contributed to community organisations, helped establish local initiatives and given back to the community that had always been good to them.
Today, Springett’s Arcade remains family owned and proudly local; home to independent businesses, services and familiar faces in the heart of Bowral. The shopfronts have changed many times, but the feeling of a local arcade remains: a place to work, shop, meet, remember and belong.
As Springett’s celebrates its centenary, its history is not simply a record of buildings or business milestones. It is a story of the family who built it, the tenants who shaped it, the customers who returned and the community that made it matter.
Here’s to the next 100 years.
