What Shops Did Your Town Have in Your Day?

[PaulSB]

This thread has me trying to walk through the village I was raised in. There were two roads with shops/commercial premises:

Post office (run by Mr Oxtoby)
Hotel (my grandmother's)
Dairy (run by Mr Roe)
Cafe (my parents)
Pub (painted pink, the Fox and Pelican)
Lloyd's bank
Garage for petrol and servicing
Ironmonger
Cake and bread shop
Newsagents x 2
Butchers
Grocer
Haberdashery
General food shop (The Continental)
Victoria Wines

There were other shops but I can't remember what they sold. I know these existed because I can see them in my mental walk up the roads.

 

[Electric_Andy]

The town I grew up in had a greengrocers, which is now housing. A few doors up was the Butchers, that's now housing. There was a video hire place, which changed hands and then became a sports shop. It's now a fried chicken and kebab shop.

Post office is gone, Lloyds Bank has gone. The co-op is still there; they also had a homewares section upstairs but that part closed in the 70s I think.

Edited to add: There was also an off-license which is now gone. And a penny sweet shop/papershop which is now an estate agents. I think being a small town of 4000 people, the co-op has become the central hub and they've spent a lot of money making it more like a supermarket. There's no Deli/Meat counter anymore but loads of extra fridges filled with pre-packed goods. It has quite an ageing population and high unemployment for younger people, so I'm guessing there's not enough interest or wealth from the population to warrant more niche shops.

 

[Illaveago]

Model shops still thrive in some places, there's one not too far from me that's just moved into bigger premises, and whilst I was working in Lowestoft before Christmas I noticed a decent looking one there.

Does anyone still have a proper sports shop, the kind where you could buy balls, air rifles, dartboards, racquets, snooker cues, football boots, and archery equipment, all in one place?

Sadly no ! Our last one was turned into a pub !
They used to be good , ours sold balsa and plastic kits and it was where I bought my air rifle . I think it was where the school children must have bought their football kit, unless it was from mail order catalogues . At the time the town had 4 junior schools , a boys school , girls school and grammar school .

 

[winjim]

We had a Wimpy. As a treat, when we went to Aldershot we would have a McDonalds, which was very exciting. Then later on Aldershot even got a Burger King which was new and exotic and special.


Now the best pub in the town has been turned into a McDonalds drive through, but there's still a Wimpy.

 

[Illaveago]

This thread has me trying to walk through the village I was raised in. There were two roads with shops/commercial premises:

Post office (run by Mr Oxtoby)
Hotel (my grandmother's)
Dairy (run by Mr Roe)
Cafe (my parents)
Pub (painted pink, the Fox and Pelican)
Lloyd's bank
Garage for petrol and servicing
Ironmongers
Cake and bread shop
Newsagents x 2
Butchers
Grocer's
Haberdashery
General food shop (The Continental)
Victoria Wines

There were other shops but I can't remember what they sold. I know these existed because I can see them in my mental walk up the roads.

I do that when I am in my town . I can remember quite a lot but there are a couple which still evade me .
From our town hall working up the High Street we had a Timothy Whites, a tobacconist, Boots , Neil's a chemist , Foster Brother's clothes shop , Curry's , it's where we could do the Harry Worth trick as they had big windows. I can't remember what came next but I think there was a fish mongers, next to a cobbled street which was ripped out when Sainsbury's came to town . The other side of the street was Burton's , then the Midland bank , an off licence next to the White lion pub, some houses and then Coles the sports shop . A house came next before a driveway for the Angel hotel, Angel hotel and then the magistrates court .

 

[PaulSB]

We had a Wimpy. As a treat, when we went to Aldershot we would have a McDonalds, which was very exciting. Then later on Aldershot even got a Burger King which was new and exotic and special.


Now the best pub in the town has been turned into a McDonalds drive through, but there's still a Wimpy.

Aldershot was an hour away for us on the No.24 bus from Hindhead. We use to catch the bus to the lido and my father pick us up on his way home.

Can I ask whereabouts you hail from. I was born and raised in Grayshott, 67 years ago.

This thread has me wandering around my childhood.

 

[winjim]

Aldershot was an hour away for us on the No.24 bus from Hindhead. We use to catch the bus to the lido and my father pick us up on his way home.

Can I ask whereabouts you hail from. I was born and raised in Grayshott, 67 years ago.

This thread has me wandering around my childhood.

Grayshott is somewhere, like most the East Hants / West Surrey / South Berks villages, that I have vague memories of from my childhood. I'm from Farnborough, the perineum between Camberley and Aldershot.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A sweet shop that was things like Penny chew, sherbet dips, pineapple chunks, gobstoppers, strawberry straws. Every thing a penny

 

[Bollo]

I remember the Happy Eater that had been converted to a sex shop near my parents when they first moved to Lincolnshire. I think it’s a Starbucks now.

 

[PaulSB]

Grayshott is somewhere, like most the East Hants / West Surrey / South Berks villages, that I have vague memories of from my childhood. I'm from Farnborough, the perineum between Camberley and Aldershot.

Likewise me and Farnborough other than the airshow.

 

[Dave7]

I was dragged up in seacombe (on the Wirral)....1947.
2 up 2 down, no bathroom.
Around the corner we had 2 chippies opposite sides of the road.
A Co-op where we got our sliced bacon AND the guy really had a thumb missing as he had sliced it off.
An ice cream shop run by an italian.
A 'dolls hospital' were we got our fireworks.
Lots of picture houses..... all gone now.
Progress eh

 

[pawl]

I do that when I am in my town . I can remember quite a lot but there are a couple which still evade me .
From our town hall working up the High Street we had a Timothy Whites, a tobacconist, Boots , Neil's a chemist , Foster Brother's clothes shop , Curry's , it's where we could do the Harry Worth trick as they had big windows. I can't remember what came next but I think there was a fish mongers, next to a cobbled street which was ripped out when Sainsbury's came to town . The other side of the street was Burton's , then the Midland bank , an off licence next to the White lion pub, some houses and then Coles the sports shop . A house came next before a driveway for the Angel hotel, Angel hotel and then the magistrates court .

If I remember correctly Curry’s back in the day sold bikes.Mid 50s I think.

 

[palinurus]

In my day (being five years ago) we had a bike shop. However high rents and falling revenues put paid to that.

Other shops I miss: the Danish restaurant that for a brief period did the most amazing croissants, but the owners and employees tended to drink a lot of their stock of wine* after closing and it went a bit 'drunken bakers' and the croissants frequently didn't get made, then it closed.

The Chinese restaurant that hadn't changed since the late 70s and all the staff were past retirement age and I could get lunch- lunch was the only sitting they did- plus a beer for a few pounds. Lost to redevelopment.

The 'Wine Bar' which for some reason attracted all the misfits in the local area, and the only wine ever drunk there was Thunderbird.

I'll be back here in 10 years telling you all about how we used to have four vape shops and seven phone repair shops all within walking distance in the year 2022.

*I stayed there for a lock-in once, I was not very well afterwards.

 

[winjim]

Likewise me and Farnborough other than the airshow.

TBF that's pretty much all there is to it. It's some crap shops round an airfield, overlooked by a dead French emperor.

 

[ianrauk]

A sweet shop that was things like Penny chew, sherbet dips, pineapple chunks, gobstoppers, strawberry straws. Every thing a penny

We have one in our high street (Orpington) does a roaring trade.