Having been reminded of buying our first cooker, around 1986, at the Gas Showroom, here is a fuller list of shops in Bury Street Precinct from about that time. Four are unchanged, and remarkably they are all now neighbours, and are pictured below as they look today.
If you were granted a wish to bring back one shop from the list (or from any other time), which would it be?
1/2 Columbian Cafe and Restaurant
3 Pic a Card
4 Radio Rentals
5 Adams Childswear
7 Parslows of Reading (Bakers)
8 Savory and Moore (Chemist)
9 Currys Ltd (Electrical)
10 Sketchley (Cleaners)
11 Dewhurst (Butchers)
12 K Shoes
13 Wigfalls Television
14 Frend & Co Limited (Jewellers)
15 Qualifruit
16 Halfords (Cycles / Motor Accesories)
17 H L Textiles
18 British Gas (Southern)
19 John Lane Ltd
21 Mister Mint
22 F W Woolworth & Co Ltd
23 Gateway Foodstore Ltd
24 Times Furnishing Ltd
25 H Samuel (Jeweller)
26 Clays (Butchers & Greengrocery)
26a Dorothy Perkins (Female Clothes)
27/28 Boots (The Chemist)
29 The Gift Centre
30 Centre News
32 Foster Bros Clothing Co Ltd (Male)
33 Focus Shoes
34 Lemon Plaice
35 Oxonian Travel Service
36 Abbey National Building Society
37 Mr Candy
37 Swiss Chalet
37 Gerrards Ltd (Greengrocers)
zodiac toy shop for me not on list but great memories
Could not settle for one, but a butcher/greengrocer for me please!
abbo man, thats exactly the comment i was going to make. I remember going in there with my nan and buying a toy gun that you could see sparking on the inside. Brilliant!
But yes wouldnt it be great to have a butcher and a greengrocer in the precinct
i recall going in zodiac toys many a time looking for rare he man figures as a kid. then there was the greengrocers – as teens i went in there with a friend and was shocked to see the nude model we had painted earlier that week in art class was in there buying fruit and veg!
for nostialgia reasons it has to be woolies even though they were the architects of their own misfortune – wilkinsons are their modern day reincarnation so maybe we need them in the precinct.
butchers/greengrocer
How about a men’s wear shop?
This town needs Radio Rentals or Rumbalows back.
Lemon Plaice! I miss being able to buy a cone of chips!
Butchers, green grocers and Lemon Plaice (without the litter outside the chip shop).
MacFisheries!
Other than that I agree with all those who say butcher and green grocer I would have said baker, but actually all we need is for the Patisserie to move in there.
I have to agree with those that have said Green Grocer and Butcher.
Oh and Zodiac! I miss Zodiac, ah, was such a good shop!
Bring them all back the town needs them and then i will go back to Happy man .
the internet has changed the face of retail – no good pretending otherwise.
that and big shops – if they had toys r us when i was little i doubt i’d have much time for zodiac toys – or the other toy shop that was in the high street – the guy in there once looked through a whole box of star wars figures to find me a gammorean guard.
Not part of the Bury Street discussion but the best toy shop was Carters in Stert Street, formerly Picket’s (TV and Radio).
Modern Music, please, in the days when it had a comprehensive classical section and you could buy all the grade exam pieces and sheet music to suit all tastes and talents.
when it was Haken and Bell
Fine Guitars on Stert Stret sell the grade books for piano and theory as well as guitar – not sure about other instruments.
But i agree about Haken and Bell/Modern music – many happy hours spent upstairs in there.
How about paradise video ?
haken and bell actually soldered up an audio lead for me for my spectrum +3 from scratch – now that’s service!
but again, in this day and age i’d just get one posted from hong kong for a quid from ebay.
Abingdon has a butchers in Queen Street. It’s a catering unit and they supply a lot of cafes, pubs and restuarants locally. There is no shop front just a door and a serving hatch but they do welcome the public.
Hedges are fantastic – cant recommend them highly enough – a very good butchers
Hedges are a good quality butcher. In my view, we could use a nice sign over the alleyway from the market place to alert townsfolk to their presence
Greengrocers/buthchers,
Zodiac Toyshop also, (Used to buy my Plastic Model kits of Hot Rods in there for 50p each…..
(Now worth a fortune on Ebay- Oh if Id only known π
apparently zodiac were a nationwide chain and fell apart due to mis-management – first i heard of it.
was there a mac fisheries in west st. helens st?
..greengrocers with veggie-box service.
we once had a butchers,greengrocers,and bakers,all under one roof in abingdon.i think mid to late 1960s i worked for JH DEWHURST.
I lived In Abingdon form 81 – 86 I loved going to Haken and Bell of a weekend to buy my records and John Menzeis in the corner of the market square where we bought our computer games, good times and brilliant memories.
My brother worked in Dewhursts the Butcher at that time aswell.
The kids need THE MOUSEHOLE back again. Stops them going into pubs .
We used to go there all the time in the 60βs.
Just a jukebox, cheese and tomato rolls and CocaCola.
Turn the music up as loud as you likeβ¦. No one could hear it outside. Great days
The snooker club with the arcade games, Braggs bikes π
Charters nightclub – horrendous place but I was about 14 and they let me get seriously mullered π²