Fantasy High Street From Yesteryear!

C&A
Chelsea Girl
Etam
BHS
Littlewoods
Woolworths
and Bruccianis (Leicester bakery chain, loved by my late MIL) for a coffee and bun

HelterSkelter1

I worked in Bentalls for a few years from 1970. Behind the scenes was amazing. So many staircases and busy departments. It felt like an enormous theatre and the stage was the store. I loved it. So exciting for a 20 year old. I think they had the first personal shopper who said everything must have pzazz ... a word I had never heard before !!!
And the beàuty department was stunning.

Bentalls still there! although driving past a week or two ago has been re branded as Fenwick, the parent company I believe. I loved it too, such a myriad of different departments, whiled away many a Saturday afternoon there, friends and I, we called it "Bent tools" back then that appealed to our sniggering juvenile minds.

I miss BHS . I’ve always had a soft spot for them since my summer job there in 1971. All individual counters and tills then. I worked on the handbags and umbrellas counter. When we weren’t serving or tidying the counter we had to stand obediently by our till and no chit chat allowed between staff. If you had to speak to the person on the nearby counter they had to be quietly addressed as Miss and their surname .

I felt very grown up especially the first time I was invited by staff after work to the Berni Inn for prawn cocktail and steak and chips 😊

Oakley’s in St Albans, a marvellous delicatessen. Lyon’s, the ABC, Thrales cafe and an independent department store , Greens .
Also a marvellous art shop. VADOS .

I worked in Bentalls for a few years from 1970. Behind the scenes was amazing. So many staircases and busy departments. It felt like an enormous theatre and the stage was the store. I loved it. So exciting for a 20 year old. I think they had the first personal shopper who said everything must have pzazz ... a word I had never heard before !!!
And the beàuty department was stunning.

Sparklefizz: I, too, was the Saturday girl in our local Timothy Whites because I was saving up to go on a school trip to Italy. Ultimately, the girls couldn’t go because no female member of staff would accompany us. The boys went, though, with a few male teachers.

Timothy Whites in Dorking backed on to caves where large items were stored, eg dustbins. I didn’t care for going in there but loved the shop, especially at Christmas. Sadly it closed down and was replaced by Dorothy Perkins.

I remember Bentalls in Kingston, HelterSkelter1, as it looked in the Sixties - I was amazed by the escalators, having only seen them on the Tube, never in a shop. It was magical at Christmas.

Caleys in Windosr and the original Bentalls in Kingston. And a department store in Lewisham which had lambs to feed at Easter....did I imagine that. Was it Chiesemans??

Berni Inns, oh the sophistication!

Saxone
Bata
Lewis's
What Every Woman Wants

The Golden Egg in Leicester Square in the mid 60 s.
Restaurants and eateries were few and far between then. Think it was a chain.
Eating out was more of an occasion then which is why I remember it.

River Island still has High St. shops.

I have a Wimpy Bar 10 minute walk away.

I miss Top Shop (brilliant for jeans) and although Debenhams is online I miss having a mooch round a physical shop.

There are at least two Spaghetti House’s in London still, one right by the Palladium and another in Goodge St.

Blacklers. A wonderful department store, great range of clothing , always got my winter coats from there, fabulous window displays at Christmas, and a huge rocking horse you could ride on for a donation to Alder Hey childrens hospital.
Then C&A. Freeman hardy Willis , Etam. Dolcis. WH Smith
Lastly the Kardomah cafe, many of the Liverpool group members would go in on a Saturday afternoon. ,Such happy carefree days ,

Yes I also loved Biba. A fascinating shop full of exotic looking things.

Lyons Corner House - I remember these from my first visit to London in 1961. Nice place to have afternoon tea served by "nippy" waitresses.

Jaxjacky I used to work in a Wimpy bar in my last year at high school. Loved working there - we could choose whatever we wanted for our staff meal - but hated getting the bus home reeking of Wimpy!

And bring back the Great American Disaster Terribull. The Manchester one was fab.

Good old Woolies.

Chelsea Girl

Just loved everything in there.

Ravels
Lyons
Richards (clothes shop)
BHS ... especially at Christmas time because they decorated the shops so beautifully!

C and A
Etam’s
BHS
Debenham’s
Berni Inns
Dorothy Perkins

Coopers - Oh the smell of that coffee. And those huge gateaux. Yum. 🍰🍰🍰

A Wimpy, my first knickerbocker glory and the bendy sausages.

coopers in liverpool

It was a large deli in the centre of town, the aroma of coffee was divine

Loved Biba

I was a Woolworths Saturday girl and loved my time there.
The first clothes I bought for myself came from Littlewoods.
Stead and Simpson for shoes and sandals.

Macfisheries that's a blast from the past, early memories of doing the shopping rounds with my mother and our Sainsburys, which was old fashioned and smallish with a marble counter no less, assistants behind serving, nothing like today's supermarket.

Definitely C&A an exciting first shopping experience, where 13 year old me got my first maxi skirt. Chelsea Girl loved that shop too, in spite of coming face to face with Bob from On the Buses, it was the teeth, worse than Jaws they were he was in there with a girlfriend.Ravel for shoes and boots.

Kardomah, oh yes! we enjoyed a Saturday afternoon there, me and my mates.

Later on when I was working and had some money Biba and eating in a proliferation of restaurants in London which were called either The Great American Success and The Great American Disaster, nice burgers a bit like The Hard Rock Cafe. I also remember being taken to The Spaghetti Houses in London with a first boyfriend where I had the best profiteroles ever, they're probably still around.