Iconic McPhee’s antiques ends 116 years on Chapel St

One of Melbourne’s most famous antique stores is pulling up stumps after 116 years in the Chapel St retail precinct.

McPhee’s, which began trading around the corner on High St in 1901 before shifting to its current location at 200-202 Chapel St, Prahran in 1924, is selling the shop and moving the business to an as yet undisclosed new premises.

George McPhee established the business 116 years ago and it has remained in the family since, with great grandsons Duncan and Sean McPhee now the fourth generation to have run the shop.

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Renowned for its array of antiques, but particularly its collection of 18th century English furniture, the shop has been a Chapel St mainstay amid an ever changing and evolving retail landscape on the popular strip.

Duncan McPhee says the time is right for the antique store to seek out a new location.

“Much has changed in Chapel St over the last 100 years. It has become a destination for cafes, restaurants, bars, and other entertainment venues, and now the family is seeking a more appropriate address, an address which we hope will be home to the business for many more years to come,” he says.

If you get an opportunity to buy in this part of Chapel St, you take it

“We have customers that have been with us for 30 or 40 years or more and we would like to continue our service to them and at the same time nourish the business in a new location.”

Teska Carson’s Matthew Feld and Tom Maule are marketing the property, which Feld says presents the rarest of opportunities.

“This is a great time to offer such an iconic property to the market, providing the purchaser with an exceptional opportunity to get a foothold in what has historically been a very well regarded and very tightly held strip,” Feld says.

“This part of Chapel St has an enviable aura and reputation, driven by its eclectic mix of tenancies from cafes to restaurants to bars and entertainment venues, boutique fashion houses to the Chapel St Bazaar, The Jam Factory and Prahran Market.”

“The list goes on. If you get an opportunity to buy in this part of Chapel St, you take it.”

The double-storey, double-fronted retail premises spans 497sqm of floorspace on a 414sqm site, with 11 metres of street frontage and on-site parking via Hillingdon Place at the rear.

The property comes with vacant possession and will be auctioned on Thursday, September 28 at 1pm on-site.