Shops on Kenton Bar Estate
'Each shop had a frontage 8 metres wide with a variable depth of up to 9 metres...'(Rutter Carroll 'Ryder & Yates book)
I remember L-R looking west say from the top of the ramp:
a)Laundrette(which became Fish and chip shop run by Keith(Beefy) now a kebab shop(spelt 'kabab'...)
b) Mr Grey's VG containing the post office taken over by the cockney kid Addas's dad(new post on that soon...(Now nothing I do believe...)
c)John'the weasel face's' North Kenton Newsagents shop(still a newsagents shop)
d)Sylvia Grant's haberdashery shop(selling baby clothes, buttons etc) which became a fruit and veg shop...now Fahrennheit Sunbeds I do believe...
e)Goldfinch Wines Offie, now 'Pefections' hair salon(I thought perfection had a 'r' in it...)
I remember L-R looking west say from the top of the ramp:
a)Laundrette(which became Fish and chip shop run by Keith(Beefy) now a kebab shop(spelt 'kabab'...)
b) Mr Grey's VG containing the post office taken over by the cockney kid Addas's dad(new post on that soon...(Now nothing I do believe...)
c)John'the weasel face's' North Kenton Newsagents shop(still a newsagents shop)
d)Sylvia Grant's haberdashery shop(selling baby clothes, buttons etc) which became a fruit and veg shop...now Fahrennheit Sunbeds I do believe...
e)Goldfinch Wines Offie, now 'Pefections' hair salon(I thought perfection had a 'r' in it...)
Spelt (Triticum spelta) is a hexaploid species of wheat.
ReplyDeleteThe shops all had the same depth available with a variable width. Each had a small yard out the back and a toilet block.
ReplyDeleteThe Offy didn't use the full shop depth for retail, having a stock room behind (and another stock room in the covered over yard where the crated stock was kept). The Offy was probably the smallest width shop.
A 1969 snapshot would be from left to right: Bendix Launderette, Small Supermarket (perhaps a VG?), North Kenton News, Unoccupied, Goldfinch Wines.
I remember the smell of the launderette.
ReplyDeleteIt had a new fangled dry cleaning machine and that was probably the strongest smell. The machines were all bright colours, reds and oranges methinks.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rutter(Ryder&Yates book)the flats above the shops were to be made available to the traders with direct access to each unit...I wonder if this design ever came to fruition?...I dont recall any of the shopkeepers living above their shop...
ReplyDeleteThe only direct access I ever heard of was when someone "tunneled" through the roof of the off license in order to rob them of their fags.
ReplyDeleteEl Patron, that doesn't surprise me. The flat roof was just made out of some fibrous wood board material that looked like Weetabix and if the felt leaked it went very soft indeed.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it was criss-crossed with burglar alarm tamper wire so any attempt would have set off the bells. It also used to ring 999 and there was a record player affair that played three minutes of "Help, police, burglary in progress at Goldfinch wines, Mallowburn Crescent..."
I once took my Dansette in to the Offy to play the record out of boyhood curiosity, it was a fairly regular 45 RPM single, although it was single sided.
(In the event of setting off the alarm, it was necessary to move the tone arm back to the start of the record afterwards).