Various old shops, now gone.


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Before self-service.  When there was a sales assistant in the middle of the counter at M & S.  

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If you entered Pearsons on long row (next to Yates) and went up a floor or two you could walk out on Parliament st.

For some reason I only ever used it as a short cutt off Parlaiment Street 0 wasn't is quite a small entrance at that end?

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I seem to remember a great big window ( must have been 40ft tall x 40ft wide) on Parliament street, opposite the cafe,( Hollies?) by the 39/72 bus stop ,and some very bright stripes.

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I seem to remember a great big window ( must have been 40ft tall x 40ft wide) on Parliament street, opposite the cafe,( Hollies?) by the 39/72 bus stop ,and some very bright stripes.

A window 40 feet high and wide? - the only one I remember had pink elephants on it - but that doean't mean it wasn't there - or the elephants come to think of it. Actually, when Stu Morris was angry he looked 40ft high and wide and no one hung around to measure him!

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It was made of separate pains of glass with big round brass joiners at each corner conecting to the next pane .

Each individual pane was about 10 foot by four foot

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Ok, now I'm thinking Griffin & Spalding. Given the weigh I spell things it looks very much like Waring & Gillows!

Did G&S sell lots of things furniture, TVs and - well everything?

Yes, very much a department store (and a very nice one) selling all kinds of different goods. It had (and still has as Debenhams) entrances on Long Row and Market Street.

Here's a pic of it in the background:

42.jpg

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  • 11 months later...
  • 6 months later...

I am sure MacFisheries was alongside Slab Square, South Parade, I think!

As for Burtons, it was a fantastic shop that was unique just like a mini Harrods food hall, but I believe it was taken over by Fine Fare in the early eighties or late seventies

I was a rep for Jacobs biscuits and had to call on them every week for their order and it was fantastic under the shops with store rooms and passage ways under the council house

I always remember the fantastic window displays they did especially at Christmas

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Shops like Burtons are sadly missed nowadays..I remember the smell of bacon,cheese etc as you walked through the door.

Fine fare was the start of the rot that has destroyed the high street,with the loss of stores like Maypole,Home & Colonial,and Meadow Dairies.The old days of personal service and good tasty food,like bacon that's not pumped full of water.

While I type this an ad is on the box for the great god tesco's with another 'celebrity' raving about a shirt he's just bought.

Mac Fisheries was on South Parade...And I was with Crawfords :tease:

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It's a long time ago, but from what I recall the MacFisheries on South Parade was a straightforward supermarket, called Mac Market, and the only non-prepacked food it sold was fruit & veg.

At some point in the early 70s MacFish decided to return to its core business and sold the supermarkets to the Dee Corporation (Gateway). Since the city centre was at that time still well served by other food supermarkets (Tesco Maid Marion Way, Co-op UPS, Sainsbury Broad Marsh, Scan and Safeway Victoria Centre, Burtons of Smithy Row) they just closed the South Parade store.

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Macfisheries definately on site of Halfords, South Parade. Moss Bros was on Hockley on right as you walk up. John Collier (the window to watch!)was on corner of Friar Lane and became Burtons.

Big store on King Street was the previous Jessops location before it moved to Vic Centre(Now J.Lewis)

Best thing about Burtons in the Council Buildings was the dapper old Ted who worked in the wines+spirits section - always wore a white stewards jacket and treated and spoke to everyone alike as if they were royalty. I once went in when I was 15 and asked for a bottle of aussie white wine(see Yateses - docs and samples)and he said:"An EXCELLENT choice, if I might say so, sir! I'm sure sir will thoroughly enjoy that. Shall I wrap it for sir? My pleasure, sir." Behind me was the most battered up, minging old tramp I ever saw in my life and he asked for the same, except it sounded more like "AAAHZAGIZZABARRALLA AZZAWOWWOWWA, YER BASSS!" to which the reply came: "Certainly sir! A very popular vintage today, sir! I'm sure sir will thoroughly enjoy that! Shall I wrap it for sir, or will sir drink it now?" "AAAZAGLIKK!" "My pleasure, sir!"

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Burtons was a fantastic food shop. It used to dominate that arcade of shops under the Council house.

They had experts working there who'd been employed for decades. I was very sad to see it go.

MacFisheries was on South Parade facing the Market Square.

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