Emma Chisett?

This post isn't on Cambridge Street but about another interesting little building not far from here.  The above is 81 Cameron Street.  This corner building has tonnes of character and I love the handpainted house name on the apex of the corner.  But who was Emma Chisett and why is this house named for her?  Time to bust out the history detective skills ...

There are quite a few references and old photos of this place.  Not surprising given how notable it is architecturally.  The image above is meant to be from the 1960's and shows it as a corner store.  The internet tells me (most likely from the Sands Directory) that this had long been a corner store.  Bridget Wines was running a grocery store from 81 Cameron Street since the 1880s.  Still that isn't Emma.

Here's another photo, this one from the collection of the Powerhouse Museum.  This is part of the collection of David Mist who was a fashion photographer back in the day.  This image is from a book of his published in 'Sydney: A book of photographs' published in 1969.  Still no Emma.

Aha.  Here we go.  Emma Chisett in the house!  And this photo dates from 1974 according to the State Library.  It is interesting to see how this building has deteriorated in a decade.  From quite neat and tidy to a bit grimy with the balcony half falling off.

And in this shot the balcony is totally gone.   But what of the name?  Well the story is that this became a second hand furniture / bric a brac shop and the shop was itself called Emma Chisett.  This is based on some Australian slang introduced in 1964 by visiting UK author Monica Dickens (see more here).  The story is that she was doing a book signing and an Australian lady came up in a broad ocker accent and asked "how much is it?" about the book.  Monica didn't miss a beat and inscribed the tome 'Emma Chisit'.  This story was apparently picked up by the Sydney Morning Herald and the rest is history.  I don't know how the proprietors decided on Chisett rather than Chisit, perhaps they had just heard the story.  Anyway, well done on the renovation and top marks for the sign.