Fantasy High Street From Yesteryear!

C&A oh liked their shirts used to stock up when we went to Germany don't know if they are still there.
Chelsea Girl was a favourite of mine .
All we have in our local town are tried chicken, ice cream parlour and Turkish barbers .

Woolworths

Whiteley’s was in Bayswater, I think.

I have fond memories of Dickens and Jones in Regent Street. I bought my wedding outfit there in 1968, having rejected every other famous London shop, including Harrods.

Bourne and Hollingsworth in Oxford Street, or ‘Up West’ as we from the London suburbs would say. I worked there one Christmas and got friendly with the Irish, Scottish and Welsh girls who lived in the hostel behind the store. It was just like ‘Are You Being Served’ with a stately shop walker to keep us all in order.

Our local departmental store in Finchley, ‘Priors’ that had the cable cash bullets whizzing over your head and where i bought my first bra! There was a MacFisheries nearby that strangely sold groceries and fish.
I loved all the shops in Oxford street especially the big Lilley and Skinners, There are few of the big stores left. Who remembers Evans and Waring and Gillow for beautiful furniture? The street is so tatty these days. My parents always went to Whitleys for special purchases, was thatvin Knightsbridge? My memory falls me.

Biba, Busstop, Medici Gallery and a decent woolshop..

Fuller’s tea shops, it was the place for a special tea, and their coffee and walnut cake was to die for.

Paiges and Richard Shops, both quite stylish and well priced for the young and strapped for cash. BHS - I still miss their jeans which fitted me perfectly. I could never pass a shoe shop - loved Dolcis. And all those department stores that will never be replaced. In Dundee, Draffens, where I met up with friends for a quick lunch and where I bought a suede coat with my first tax rebate. In Edinburgh, my sisters and I used to try on the hats in Patrick Thompson's until a member of the sales staff caught up with us.

Russell and Bromley shoes were a bit pricey but I could just afford them in their sales! I see they're online now which is a surprise!

I think they’ve stopped doing the Princess sponges too Granmarderby I never see those anymore. We used to have one when we went up to my Grandma's for tea on a Saturday after shopping in town. Occasionally she would get us the iced Bakewell tart.

Yes SachaMac, Birds * is*still going but in the last few years (even before Covid) they have drastically cut their range.
They were never a cheap shop but sold unique cakes.
Sadly many; like the delicious meringue have been discontinued and certain sizes of loaf are not to be found now

Fine Fare
C&A
Shades Boutique
The Wimpy Bar
Athena
Woollies
John Bryan’s
Old fashioned nursery equipment shops where they had beautiful prams all lined up.
Bennett’s & Midland Drapery (local dept stores both now closed)
Thankfully Birds Bakery keeps going strong 😋

I haven't smelt coffee roasting for many years.

Bhs, C&A, Woolworths, Freeman Hardy Willus, Saxone, Dolcis. Home & Colonial. Does anyone remember UCP? United cattle products....got sent there to buy tripe & cow heel for my dad's tea. Our local butcher used to do the rounds with a horse drawn van. When my DM was in hospital when I was a child his wife would send a note out with the meat explaining how to cook it as my DF had no clue.

Oh, thank you DanniRae! I shall now waste spend time investigating! I was beginning to think that I'd made up the zoo!

NanTheWiser

Squiffy

NanTheWiser Can you remember what other animals were in the arcade? If I remember correctly, it was like a mini zoo, but I can’t remember what animals were there.

No, sorry I don’t remember! Probably because I only had eyes for the pony!

If you go to Kennards on Wikipedia it says all about the mini zoo and even names lots of the animals. It's quite a story!

British Home Stores

Mr Mullenger the fishmonger who opened up in an alleyway all day Thursday and half days Friday and Saturday. Mainly selling ready cooked winkles, smoked eel, kippers, crabs and very occasionally, lobsters all aimed for special weekend breakfast or high tea. And the only shop to sell bunches of fresh parsley for a parsley sauce to go with Fridays fish. The Co-op Haberdashers which sold a wonderful selection of curtain material and dress lengths and it’s manager who called me a little red haired maiden right up until the time I went into the shop the week before my eldest was born and I became the little red haired young madam. Woolworths with its young salesgirls nattering together behind its counters. The Home & Colonial’s shop with its hessian sacks of pudding rice, dried pulses and other goods, open at the top to display contents and lined up against the counters behind which men wearing brown long jackets stood quietly waiting to measure out whatever was asked for.
It was the only place to find the long grain rice suitable for the curries we sometimes had, using the Co- ops curry powder mix which had a vile yellow colour never seen again until the 1970’s when it became a popular colour for cars and called baby shxxt yellow by those who knew babies. The dairy which sold goose eggs and bottles of milk with thick cream on the top and it’s large lumps of butter which they would willingly pat between two flat wooden paddles to produce attractive flat butter portions, ideal for a special Sunday tea. The greengrocers run by father and son, both born with cleft pallets and the son whose operation was more successful who translated for strangers who couldn’t understand his fathers speech. And who always asked what the potatoes were for and always seemed to recommend King Edwards.
All shops long gone but remembered from the late 1940’s

Ironmongers. Do don’t get the same smell or service in B&Q

Squiffy

NanTheWiser Can you remember what other animals were in the arcade? If I remember correctly, it was like a mini zoo, but I can’t remember what animals were there.

No, sorry I don’t remember! Probably because I only had eyes for the pony!

What a wonderful trip down memory lane. Thanks for the thread.

Blimey! So enjoyed reading the above! Would add knitting shops with all the patterns.

Woolworth, Pollards, Debenhams, Freeman Hardy Willis ( I was a Saturday girl there and before that had a Saturday job in a beautiful toy shop- where did they go ,with wooden toys, Hornby railway and sabutteo? I walk into Smyths and it is a sea of plastic.) Also Laura Ashley. We still have a local Wimpey!

Lewis's and Schofields in Leeds
Brown Muff and Busbys'in Bradford
Collinson's cafe and shop in Bradford - probably where I first smelled the aroma of freshly ground coffee

A bank or building society in our small town would be good

Someone mentioned River Island earlier - I spotted one in Teesside Park today.

I’d settle for having M&S back units now empty spot in my town and BHS in the empty spot two doors down .

NanTheWiser Can you remember what other animals were in the arcade? If I remember correctly, it was like a mini zoo, but I can’t remember what animals were there.