Top Ryde Regional Shopping Centre

The Top Ryde Regional Shopping Centre opened on 14 November 1957 as a drive-in, one-stop shopping centre. It was the vision of Peter Benjamin, whose father had founded the A J Benjamin’s department store in Chatswood. It was the first such centre to be built in New South Wales, the second in Australia.

The Benjamin’s Department Store had 166 permanent staff and supplied hardware, furniture, furnishings, drapery, clothing and a supermarket. In addition, there were offices for payment of gas and electricity bills and for medical benefit claims. There was also a travel bureau, electrical appliance repairer, shops for watches, fountain pens and shoe repairs.

A modern sculpture was a focal point of the Centre. It was a tall vertical, abstract structure 15 ft high, made of fibreglass over a steel mesh and was encrusted with chips of coloured glass. Its designer, Graham Andrews, described the sculpture as ‘just a decorative piece symbolic of contemporary living themes’. He would later design Australia’s decimal currency.

In 1962 the Centre was purchased by Lend Lease. The following year considerable extensions were carried out which included the addition of a Woolworths Supermarket and Variety Store, several speciality shops, and another 200 car parking spaces.

In 1964 the firm of Benjamin’s left Top Ryde; Grace Brothers took over.

In 1985, after 21 years of trading, Grace Brothers vacated their premises and the Centre was given another facelift. The $9 million refurbishment included completely new tiling and lighting, the installation of moving walkways and the roofing of the mall area. Official histories state that in 1986 the Centre was renamed Top Ryde Shopping Square. However, since at least 1981 there were references to Top Ryde Shopping Square in newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald.

Further re-modelling was undertaken in 1991 with the re-organisation of shops into service areas – such as baking to the south-west of the mall and the Food Hall onto the lower concourse. By 1990 the use of the name Top Ryde Shopping Square to describe the Centre was becoming less frequent with Top Ryde Shopping Centre more commonly in use.

When it opened it was a regional shopping centre but the development of Macquarie Centre in 1981 and the establishment of shopping centres in suburbs such as Hornsby, Parramatta, Birkenhead Point and Rhodes, severely affected the economic viability of Top Ryde Shopping Centre.

In July 2007 the centre was demolished and shortly thereafter construction began on redeveloping the site, the new centre to be known as Top Ryde City.