Dearly departed shops :-(
Discussion
Sports shops in general seem to have gone. In the early 80s a small-ish town like Leamington had several independents: Cartwrights, Hamiltons, Mercia Sports, Steve Montgomery. When I started secondary school I saved up my pocket money for a Mileta sports bag from Cartwrights. My mum sellotaped 50p into the bottom of it for an emergency phone call...
Sports shops in general seem to have gone. In the early 80s a small-ish town like Leamington had several independents: Cartwrights, Hamiltons, Mercia Sports, Steve Montgomery. When I started secondary school I saved up my pocket money for a Mileta sports bag from Cartwrights. My mum sellotaped 50p into the bottom of it for an emergency phone call...
aka_kerrly said:
Jek Porkins said:
I remember a market stall in Cheltenham which used to sell quite cool things. The guy then got a proper shop in town: "Cult Clothing", the go to place for t-shirts and other stuff.
I was sad when it closed, but he's doing alright now. He renamed himself... SuperDry!
Yes, Cult clothing for jeans & hoodies. Used to be a big event getting the train/bus up to Cheltenham!I was sad when it closed, but he's doing alright now. He renamed himself... SuperDry!
CD shops for me, there are still HMV but only a few years back there was Woolworths, MVC, Virgin Megastores & Our Price.
I used to love Retro (?) in Bennington St near Smokey Joes (I understand that's still going!)Gardners Bakery, for the drippers.
A couple of Chester memories:
Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
Tudor Records - I may have got the name wrong. Down near Boots, Toy & Hobby (gone) and the ABC cinema (gone). Great shop for vinyl & tapes, didn't survive long into the CD era. I remember many things about that shop - the deep knowledge of the shop staff; the excitement of the latest vinyl release (going in, with my big brother, on the release day of Van Halen's '1984' to pick up a copy - only just disposed of); and their huge collection of posters and flyers which was the best way, at the time, of working out what was going on, where and when, in the local area.
Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
Tudor Records - I may have got the name wrong. Down near Boots, Toy & Hobby (gone) and the ABC cinema (gone). Great shop for vinyl & tapes, didn't survive long into the CD era. I remember many things about that shop - the deep knowledge of the shop staff; the excitement of the latest vinyl release (going in, with my big brother, on the release day of Van Halen's '1984' to pick up a copy - only just disposed of); and their huge collection of posters and flyers which was the best way, at the time, of working out what was going on, where and when, in the local area.
thismonkeyhere said:
A couple of Chester memories:
Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
Is that the one where it was toys in the floor where you went in, them railways and kits down the really narrow stairs? Only gone fairly recently?Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
And there was the other one, on the way out towards Bill Smiths motorcycles shop, basically head out of town as if you're going to walk to Nantwich, just where the one-way system forks. Only ever made time to go out there once, massive range of stuff, a lot of it seemed to have been there for years, now a double-glazing shop I think.
I used to love mooching about for Hi-Fi in the massive Laskys on Corporation St, Birmingham, back in the 80's. It stocked superior kit to Currys or Dixons, but wasn't the unaffordable top end stuff for your serious nerd that you wouuld find in the specialist Hi-Fi shops. When I finally could afford the HP on one I got a great Kenwood system from there.
Motorcycle City is much missed too, but that became Infinity in many locations. Alas the one near me in Reading became a now defunct discount tile warehouse.
Motorcycle City is much missed too, but that became Infinity in many locations. Alas the one near me in Reading became a now defunct discount tile warehouse.
CountZero23 said:
MVC. Many a college lunchtime spent at the listening stations.
Virtually all of the old vinyl stores. Were a couple in Oxford where I smoked fags and frittered away my student loan. Good times.
I used to work in MVC!Virtually all of the old vinyl stores. Were a couple in Oxford where I smoked fags and frittered away my student loan. Good times.
Woolies put them out of business when they sank, the pricks. Utterly hilarious job when i was there however, i can still remember two of our burlier staff members dragging some shoplifting scrote struggling through the shop to wait for the police.
droopsnoot said:
thismonkeyhere said:
A couple of Chester memories:
Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
Is that the one where it was toys in the floor where you went in, them railways and kits down the really narrow stairs? Only gone fairly recently?Walton's Models - right up at the top (wrong) end of the market precinct. Great shop, seemed to have all bases covered, and great stock. Closed down due to poor location and rising rents, I believe, though the UK does seem short on model shops in general these days.
And there was the other one, on the way out towards Bill Smiths motorcycles shop, basically head out of town as if you're going to walk to Nantwich, just where the one-way system forks. Only ever made time to go out there once, massive range of stuff, a lot of it seemed to have been there for years, now a double-glazing shop I think.
I also only ever went in the other one once - the one on the fork on the way out of town. Too far out to get to as a schoolboy with only legs for transport!
selym said:
Westy Pre-Lit said:
Might have missed it but not seen this place mentioned yet.
Where I had one of my first jobs shelf stacking. I'll never forget walking round a corner catching a fellow stacker drinking out of a large coke bottle then putting it back on the shelf to be sold. To this day I still check that every bottle top is sealed before I buy it.
k Presto.The family spent an entire weekend vomiting after eating some rancid kippers bought from them. Have you ever smelled Kipper sick? Bunch of bds. Glad they went bust. Gareth1974 said:
On a similar note, in the 1980's there used to be a bakery called "Don Miller's Hot Bread Kitchen" in Sutton Coldfield our family used to go to everytime we went there shopping, which disappeared years ago. To my surprise, when I googled them, they still seem to be in existence 'up North'.
I also remember a shop called Midland Educational in Sutton Colfield and Birmingham, which had some interesting stuff in when I was a kid.
As a fellow old Suttonian I remember both well! Midland Ed was a kind of independent WH Smith, what is sold now is now all done by Hobby Craft I also remember a shop called Midland Educational in Sutton Colfield and Birmingham, which had some interesting stuff in when I was a kid.
jet_noise said:
Funkycoldribena said:
Boney Maroney and Paradise Garage ring any bells?
Not in my belfry!Purveyors of the finest 80s fashionable 'buckle' shoes
Can't remember the name of those, but they also sold 'pods' and slogan-y teeshirts etc
thismonkeyhere said:
You are thinking of the 'Arts & Crafts Studio' in the Grosvenor Precinct. I worked there for a while as a schoolboy. The market precinct - where Walton's was - is the one to the left of the town hall, went through to where the theatre used to be?
I also only ever went in the other one once - the one on the fork on the way out of town. Too far out to get to as a schoolboy with only legs for transport!
Of course, wrong precinct. I can't remember going in the other one a long time ago, so I don't remember that shop. I do pop through there now and again, but mainly because the stall at the top end of the market does very good cheese in small (and therefore cheap) pieces, great for trying out different stuff.I also only ever went in the other one once - the one on the fork on the way out of town. Too far out to get to as a schoolboy with only legs for transport!
My excuse for the distant one is the car park costs, it could easily tip over to the next pay band going out there. I use the Park and Ride now, so no time imperative. I think the only time I went out there was when I had the car at the Festival of Transport on the racecourse, so two days to wander around parts of Chester I didn't usually have time to get to.
mfmman said:
jet_noise said:
Funkycoldribena said:
Boney Maroney and Paradise Garage ring any bells?
Not in my belfry!Purveyors of the finest 80s fashionable 'buckle' shoes
Can't remember the name of those, but they also sold 'pods' and slogan-y teeshirts etc
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