Nestled in a cluster of small limestone buildings in the early business district of Oamaru, this shop was built for businessmen John Johnson Spence and William Bee in 1878. Grain and wool production on the pastoral estates boosted the development of Oamaru as a port town. The early 1870s saw the town transformed from an ‘insignificant collection of stone and wooden buildings’ along the west side of Tyne Street to an ebullient show of Victorian architecture. In 1872 William Bee and his brother James advertised their premises on the corner of Itchen and Tyne Streets, on what is still known as Bee Corner. The North Otago Times reported: ‘Messrs, J. and W. Bee have also improved their stores, in Tyne and Itchen streets, by the rearrangement of the building and putting in a new front.’ William Bee and John Spence subsequently entered a partnership as ‘Wholesale and Retail Grocers, Wine and Spirit Merchants’ in the premises previously occupied by J and W Bee and Company. In February 1878 architects A.T. Brindley and Stewart (of Dunedin and Oamaru) advertised for tenders for the masonry and carpentry work for the construction of new premises for Spence and Bee. The course of business did not run smoothly. James Bee was involved in bankruptcy proceedings in 1878 and John Spence and William Bee, trading as Spence and Bee, followed in 1879. Spence and Bee’s partnership was dissolved in 1884, with William Bee carrying on the business on his own account as family grocer, wine and spirit merchant, baker and confectioner. In 1902 William Bee was still advertising as ‘family grocer, bread and biscuit manufacturer, and wine and spirit merchant. The advertisement indicates that the offices were located on the corner of Tyne Street and the retail grocery and other departments occupied the Itchen Street frontage. Behind the shop a two-storey building was used as a bakehouse, where bread, cake and biscuits were manufactured.’ Information provided by the North Otago Museum indicates that the store went through a variety of incarnations in the twentieth century, including general merchants Mercer and Mitchell in the 1940s. In 2012, Spence and Bee’s Store (Former) remains a retail business in the historic Whitestone precinct of Oamaru.