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Shops and Cafes no longer here.

(26 Posts)
NanKate Mon 01-Jun-26 08:04:41

In my late teens I used to have coffee in the Kardoma (don’t know how to spell it)

Bought clothes when I could afford it from Neaterwear.

What do you remember ?

Grandmabatty Mon 01-Jun-26 08:08:03

I remember Kardomah. The branch i frequented was in Buchanan street in glasgow city centre. We called it Cat and Donut.

luluaugust Mon 01-Jun-26 08:16:25

I remember going to the Golden Egg in Oxford Street, London as a teenager 60 years ago

Esmay Mon 01-Jun-26 08:18:21

It was a very different world wasn't it ?

We had a selection of interesting shops -there was the man who sharpened your lawnmower once a year.
There was a very elderly and rather frail elderly man who sold toys and lent out books for a penny a week
The corner store where you could buy broken biscuits at a discount .
I enjoyed watching them weigh out everything.

Moving on -looking at footage of eighties Britain -there's Past Times and girls wearing those lovely Laura Ashley dresses some of which I either coveted or owned .

BoggledMind Mon 01-Jun-26 08:22:59

The Magnet cafe, Manchester
Greenwoods menswear

Neither exist anymore.

SpinDriftCoastal Mon 01-Jun-26 08:56:02

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

kittylester Mon 01-Jun-26 09:04:26

My mum and Dad met in the Kardomah in Derby.

Bassoues Mon 01-Jun-26 09:08:16

The Golden Egg in Wimbledon, my refuge during my au pair days. A few of us used to meet up there and compare notes on our employers...I was very lucky with mine and became a real member of the family. Not many who were so lucky though..

Greenfinch Mon 01-Jun-26 09:08:20

I remember the Dolls’ Hospital in Reading where I took my china doll to have a leg replacement.

BlueBelle Mon 01-Jun-26 09:09:17

Never heard of any of those names but then I never lived in a city

OldFrill Mon 01-Jun-26 09:16:34

If we include restaurants, Berni Inns

Grandmaofone Mon 01-Jun-26 09:17:44

The Milkmaid on Piccadilly?
Danish Food Centre for open sandwiches,
I dimly remember the Kardomah on Market Street,
Manchester, a palace of Art Deco and cigarette smoke
all gone now its a New Look, this is called progress
Marshall and Snelgrove
Affleck and Brown
Lewis’s
all the lovely shops on posh St Ann’s Square
Kendal Milne! on Deansgate
The Rosenthal Shop,
the many bookstores
and
Mazel Radio!

Grandmabatty Mon 01-Jun-26 09:22:04

Chelsea Girl!

Grandmadinosaur Mon 01-Jun-26 09:24:30

kittylester

My mum and Dad met in the Kardomah in Derby.

Oh Kitty I remember that Kardomah 😀

Grandmadinosaur Mon 01-Jun-26 09:25:56

Yes Chelsea Girl GB I used to go and spend my wages from my Saturday job in there after work. Etam too long gone.

Astitchintime Mon 01-Jun-26 09:27:54

I recall many independent shops and cafes……all sadly gone now after the big names took over. But those are closing down since the trend of online shopping! No wonder town centres look so drab and uninviting………charity shops, nail bars and barber shops abound now.

tanith Mon 01-Jun-26 09:29:11

I miss C&A still, I used to work there so staff discount too. Shoe shops there are hardly any now, Anyone remember Lyon’s corner house? My sister was a ‘nippy’ at Marble Arch corner house.

BoggledMind Mon 01-Jun-26 09:37:51

SpinDriftCoastal

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

The vegetarian restaurant rings a bell now you mention it, though I never went in.

Grandmaofone I remember a few of yours.
Lewis's (Liverpool's branch also closed down)
Affleck & Brown became Affleck's Palace - a great place full of independent traders
I remember the underground passage linking Kendals' two buildings on Deansgate.

My gran worked at Affleck & Brown. When it closed, she went to Pauldens, which became Debenhams.

ixion Mon 01-Jun-26 09:41:11

SpinDriftCoastal

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

The Eighth Day, Oxford Road?

Still there!

Grandmaofone Mon 01-Jun-26 09:45:44

Stead and Simpson, Freeman Hardy Willis, Dolcis was an enormous store on Market Street, Manchester, Saxone,
Ravel! Barretts, then Bally Shoes and now Russell and Bromley

now what do we have, the ubiquitous trainer

Richard Shops, Principles, Wallis all gone in 2000
with the demise of the Department Stores.
The evolution of the High Street and personal shopping.

Grandmaofone Mon 01-Jun-26 09:52:43

BoggledMind

SpinDriftCoastal

Manchester? Does anyone remember The Seventh Day on Oxford Road, possibly one of the first vegetarian restaurants. Or, The Plaza where they served vindaloo after a hard night on the town?

The vegetarian restaurant rings a bell now you mention it, though I never went in.

Grandmaofone I remember a few of yours.
Lewis's (Liverpool's branch also closed down)
Affleck & Brown became Affleck's Palace - a great place full of independent traders
I remember the underground passage linking Kendals' two buildings on Deansgate.

My gran worked at Affleck & Brown. When it closed, she went to Pauldens, which became Debenhams.

O yes Pauldens! thanks

I used to meet my boyfriend outside Lewis’s in Liverpool
as I came in via Central Station.
“standing there like one of Lewis’s” ha ha
my Nan used to buy her stockings at Blacklers in Liverpool

I remember The Adelphi when it was posh and couples honeymooned there on their first night. Long ago!

MT62 Mon 01-Jun-26 09:52:50

Esmay

It was a very different world wasn't it ?

We had a selection of interesting shops -there was the man who sharpened your lawnmower once a year.
There was a very elderly and rather frail elderly man who sold toys and lent out books for a penny a week
The corner store where you could buy broken biscuits at a discount .
I enjoyed watching them weigh out everything.

Moving on -looking at footage of eighties Britain -there's Past Times and girls wearing those lovely Laura Ashley dresses some of which I either coveted or owned .

Loved both of those shops 😊

MT62 Mon 01-Jun-26 09:54:36

Used to like Chelsea Girl when I was a teen, I think river island took over.

Whingey Mon 01-Jun-26 10:20:31

The Swiss Centre in Leicester Square.The clock with the people going round is still there

TerriBull Mon 01-Jun-26 10:26:13

Kardomah! Yes I remember them? They had an air of days gone by conjured up visions of my mum waxing lyrical about Lyons Corner Houses her generation's place to go for the most wonderful KnickerbockerGlory I was told.

Pierre Victoire a chain of French Restaurants that went bust in the '90s I think. They offered really cheap 3 courses, maybe why they disappeared.
Loch Fyne, there was a lovely one in Canford Cliffs, Bournemouth, very clapperboard New England style we always went there on our annual trip to the area. I love fish, their speciality so sorry when that one went.
Cafe Rouge have gone now maybe trounced by Cote Brasseries.

Spaghetti Houses in London, I remember they did wonderful profiteroles once, back in the '70s. An ex and I frequented them quite a bit.

Pizzaland anyone remember that chain?, A German friend and colleague and I sometimes went to one near our office. They did a special offer between 12 and 2. 2 slices of pizza, jacket potato and coleslaw. Got there once around 2.10 once, waitress told us that had finished for the day. Friend stared her down with a "it's on zee menu and I vont it" and hey presto it appeared. I was always in awe of her assertiveness thereafter 🤣