There is something about the architecture of KFC fast food restaurants – you can spot them from a mile away. So what happens when they close down, and how have they changed over the years?
A few years ago I stumbled on a Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisement from 1982, that listed all 35 restaurants scattered around Melbourne, as well as the three in Geelong.
In the years since, some didn’t change at all – the store in Ashburton went almost untouched until it was demolished in 2009.
The same applies to the store in Newport, which closed down by the Google Street View came past in 2007.
Others have just received new KFC branding over the original building, the the KFC in Highett.
However not all stores have survived, such as the original KFC at Frankston, which became a Mexican restaurant.
Up in Ferntree Gully a succession of different restaurants have occupied the former KFC.
In Thornbury the KFC moved to a new store next door, with the old building being split into two, with Subway and Cheesecake Shop moving in.
However the strangest conversion was in Seaford, where a dry cleaner took over the tiny take-away only Kentucky Fried Chicken store.
The full list
Here is the full list of KFC stores from the 1982 advertisement:
- Cnr High St & Carool Road, Ashburton
- Cnr Burwood & Albert Roads, Auburn
- 289 Carlisle Street, Balaclava
- 129a High Street, Belmont
- 845 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
- 460 Geelong Road, Brooklyn
- Cnr Centre Road & Audsley Street, Clayton
- 137 Bell Street, Coburg
- 29 Lonsdale Street, Dandenong
- Cnr Darcy & Doncaster Roads, Doncaster
- Cnr Bell & Albert Streets, East Preston
- 1293 Sydney Road, Fawkner
- 930 Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully
- 281 Smith Street, Fitzroy
- 368 Barkly Street, Footscray
- 14 Beach Street, Frankston
- 257 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley
- Cnr Lower Heidelberg Road & Villa Street, Heidelberg
- 1121 Nepean Highway, Highett
- Cnr High & Derby Streets, Kew
- 157 Nepean Highway, Mentone
- Cnr Mt Alexander Road & Hall Street, Moonee Ponds
- 450 Melbourne Road, Newport
- 91a Keilor Road, Niddrie
- 431 Princes Highway, Noble Park
- 217 Melbourne Road, North Geelong
- Cnr Varman Court & Whitehorse Road, Nunawading
- 638 North Road, Ormond
- 379 Chapel Street, Prahran
- Cnr High & Lemington Street, Reservoir
- 387 Maroondah Highway, Ringwood
- Cnr Sims Street & Beach Road, Sandringham
- 109 Nepean Highway, Seaford
- Cnr Dandenong & Police Roads, Springvale
- Cnr Princes Highway & St Georges Road, Corio
- 429a Ballarat Road, Sunshine
- 389 St Georges Road, Thornbury
- Cnr Boronia & Wantirna Roads, Wantirna
More photos can be found on Flickr.
Footnote
The abandoned KFC restaurant pictured at the top of the page is located on Princes Drive in Morwell – it doesn’t feature in the above list.
And more photos
I found a photo of the Guildford KFC on the Daily Telegraph website, along with photos of the KFC Preston grand opening day at Broadsheet.
The very first KFC in Warrnambool, now a “King Homes” shopfront.
KFC left the building decades ago.
https://goo.gl/maps/GQSyC
Cheers – a very obvious looking former KFC!
I have seen that KFC in Warrnambool Princes hwy. Its the same design as the Seaford dry cleaners one on Nepean hwy.
where was the second store to open in AUST
There’s a subreddit for these – /r/NotFoolingAnybody
A direct link:
http://www.reddit.com/r/NotFoolingAnybody/
I’ve also found a similar website:
http://notfoolinganybody.com/
The original Wantirna store closed and was moved to the triangle of Boronia Rd/Mountian Hwy/Wantirna Rd when that site was developed, your flicker photo depicts the current site not the original site.
Prior to being bulldozed the old building was turned into a medical clinic (which still occupies the site today).
Thanks for the correction – am I correct to say it was the north-east corner?
https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Wantirna+VIC+3152/@-37.847718,145.229092,3a,75y,331.47h,70.56t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sDNdtTLQ-MocyUIcdv-vhcw!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x6ad63c0037aa47f3:0x5d9c8f1089d71a28
Search for 621 Boronia Road, Wantirna. That was it’s address, the 2008 and 2009 street view has it as the Medical Centre in the old KFC building. But in the 2009 view you can see construction is starting on its demolition and rebuilding to what is there today.
I always through it was funny that a KFC turned into a medical centre, a likely destination if you ate too much of it.
Cheers – a former KFC indeed!
https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.848587,145.230933,3a,75y,10.2h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s4vSgg57hTW20wduADdDadw!2e0
Marcus, I thought I was the only one intereested in derelict KFC stores!
It is interesting to note that in every instance the stores were ‘stand alone stores’,not near any other fast food stores, somethhing I’ve noticed with every abandoned fast food store, regardless of brand. It goes to show that there’s safety in numbers.
Paul O’Connor
One of the earliest KFCs was on the corner of Burwood Road and Camberwell Road East Hawthorn – opposite the Tower Hotel on the corner of Albert Street.
Interesting to see that it had closed before 1982.
It was a structure surrounded by a car park, is now an office building.
Morwell was the first store I was taken to as a child. We loved it, even though my father insisted it was only rabbit.
Rabbit meat probably has more nutritional value!
There was a “take away only” store inside the Shell service station at cnr Linton Street & South Road in Moorabbin during the mid-1990s.
The Newport one was closed following some health concerns and a new one opened further up Melbourne Road in Spotswood.
IIRC the KFC at the eastbound West Gate Bridge service centre was a drive thru only store until recent years.
Also, never heard of a “Sans Street” in Sandringham, but there is a Sims Street. I never knew of any KFC there, at least not before 1990.
The Highett one was famous for the slowest drive-through in Melbourne and a bucket would be conveyed down with your food via a cable.
‘Sans Street’ must be a typo – Sims Street is correct.
On the subject of conveyor belts at drive through restaurants, the McDonald’s at Bakery Hill in Ballarat also has one.
Try the McDonalds in Victoria Street, Collingwood or the McDonalds drive through for Waverley Park Shopping Centre. They both have mechanical means to get the food from the kitchen to the drive through window attendant.
How about former Pizza Hut buildings.
You can recognize them from a mile away also.
The ‘Used to be a Pizza Hut’ is full of examples from around the world:
http://usedtobeapizzahut.blogspot.com
With ‘Pizza Shut’ containing a number of local examples:
http://pizzashut.tumblr.com/
[…] As for why I was chasing up KFC restaurants on Google Street View, you can find the end results in my post on closed down KFC stores of Melbourne. […]
I picked up a doco from 1971, on 16mm film, detailing KFC’s entry into Australia – must upload it YouTube at some point! Did upload a couple of the original TV commercials in it, just not the rest…
Marcus – do you have any interest in original photos of the stores? Came across a few shots of opening ceremonies at two or three of the Melbourne ones in the early 70’s – can pick the Bell St Preston and Burwood Rd Hawthorn ones, not sure of the others.
Drop me a line if you’re interested…
257 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley also closed down circa 2009? Now taken over by H&R Block Accountants.
what year and where were the first 6 kfc stores to open in Australia please
RIP KFC Box Hill, which closed down earlier this year (or was it late last year, I forget).
Weird, I could swear I drove past the Ashburton store a couple of months ago and it was still operating… Worked there for a couple of years 1986-87, fun times!
In the late 70s and early 80s I worked at the Mordialloc store as a cook. It was on the south bound side of Nepean Hwy, just before you got to the roundabout with Beach Rd. It was demolished and eventually replaced by apartments. The address of those apartments seems to be 555 Nepean Hwy, Mordialloc.
At the time it closed, the Mentone store was already open. I worked the very last shift at the Mordialloc store. A week or so later I did a shift at the Mentone store and that was the end of my KFC ‘career’.
Hi Marcus,
My Dad managed the Moonee Ponds store in the 1970s, before I was born.
My mum and brothers used to get free chicken all the time.
Bec