When I grew up in South Africa my surname, Garlick, was very well known all over the country because of the department store called Garlick’s. My great grandfather, John Garlick, came to the Cape Colony in 1872 and opened his first store three years later, selling “General Drapery, Hosiery, Haberdashery, Millinery, Boots, etc, etc”[1] on the corner of Strand and Bree Streets, Cape Town. He expanded with branches in Kimberley, Johannesburg and Pretoria in the 1880s and moved from Strand/Bree Streets into his own custom built Victorian store in Adderley Street in 1893.
Business grew rapidly and the need for larger premises saw his next iconic building rising from the block behind his Adderley Street Store with large lettering at the top, GARLICK’S WHOLESALE WAREHOUSE, the tallest building in Cape Town at the time and large as life on many of the early 1900s postcards of the city. Bicycles and Typewriters were imported and separate businesses created to manage these agencies. John Garlick was always on the lookout for new ventures. The cycle store became Garlicks Motor and Cycle Supply importing the first car to Cape Town and expanding the range of sole agencies for cycles to include cars and motor bikes. There are so many facets to his life I will use this page to write about my journey, discovering the life of this intrepid entrepreneur.
Business grew rapidly and the need for larger premises saw his next iconic building rising from the block behind his Adderley Street Store with large lettering at the top, GARLICK’S WHOLESALE WAREHOUSE, the tallest building in Cape Town at the time and large as life on many of the early 1900s postcards of the city. Bicycles and Typewriters were imported and separate businesses created to manage these agencies. John Garlick was always on the lookout for new ventures. The cycle store became Garlicks Motor and Cycle Supply importing the first car to Cape Town and expanding the range of sole agencies for cycles to include cars and motor bikes. There are so many facets to his life I will use this page to write about my journey, discovering the life of this intrepid entrepreneur.
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Although
the shop no longer exists, I often bump into people in Cape Town who had
either worked at Garlick’s, or whose parents had worked there, or even folks
who had just been loyal customers. They always ask “What happened to Garlicks?”
By 1996 all the branches had closed.
I like to think of the shop in Cape Town as the flagship store upon which all other branches in South Africa were modelled. But perhaps I feel that way because that's where John Garlick began his business, and was very involved in the plans for the two Cape Town stores he built. And because I had a brief career working in the Warehouse building in the early nineteen seventies as a budding computer programmer.
I like to think of the shop in Cape Town as the flagship store upon which all other branches in South Africa were modelled. But perhaps I feel that way because that's where John Garlick began his business, and was very involved in the plans for the two Cape Town stores he built. And because I had a brief career working in the Warehouse building in the early nineteen seventies as a budding computer programmer.
I
began delving into the history of the man who started this ‘empire’ as a
tribute to him, to the 56 years he spent diligently attending to the business he started,
to the 100 plus years the store existed and to all
who worked and shopped at Garlick’s and still remember and miss the store.
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to be continued . . .
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