StephenFord 866 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Do I detect just a whiff of cynicism sneeking in? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Michael Booth 7,364 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Welcome to Nottstalgia, Doreen. I look forward to reading your posts and sharing your memories. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Blondie 1,392 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Never seen this one before, but it's the closest I've seen to a photo of Toby's. I've seen this photograph before, because the middleaged lady with the walking stick and the shopping basket was my hubbies, great aunty Lizzie........She recognised herself in the local newspaper and wrote to them, was sent the photograph................. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Blondie 1,392 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 I only went into Toby's once, I did not like the store, I thought it was old fashioned...........I used to like their Royal Albert China and when I married, my mother-in-law, who was a bit posh, bought me the tea service, it was 1970 and cost 25/-.........Every year after that for presants I had an addition until I had almost the entire set, still have it today, still love it, but hardly ever use it now........... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
katyjay 5,091 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 I think I must be the only person on here who never set foot in Tobys. As a kid I hardly ever ventured further than the big Co-op, as 1. our bus terminated behind there, and 2. mam hated the town so we never wandered around it. I use to look in Tobys window as a teen but can only remember fancy china etc displayed in there. I am amazed to read it was a department store selling soap powder, make up etc. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bilbraborn 1,594 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Welcome Doreen and have fun. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Doreen 15 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Nice one Doreen,and welcome.Thank you I enjoyed writing about Toby's and have a lot of stories I could tell . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
hippo girl 1,995 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 I loved going into Jessops when it was on King street.....remember getting school uniform there and my mum buying cosmetics....( she still goes to the Estée Lauder counter, but now it's John Lewis in the viccie ) The cafe in the king street store was amazing......cream cakes on a tiered cake stand !!!!!......1 shilling 4 pence, sooo funny what you can remember. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Robbie 39 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 We only went into Toby's maybe a couple of times, I think it was an expensive shop and we just didn't have that sort of money in those days. Didn't it later become a antiques emporium similar to the Top Hat on Derby Road? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Doreen 15 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 I've just had a thought relating to Toby's, in my loft some where Ive got some Beswick horses brought from Royal Doulton in Tobys i also have a number of Toby jugs and charactor jugs. But Ive got one Toby Jug that actually says underneath it Toby's department store .these were not sold in my time so they were sold before 1957 infact when I first started in 57 I remember there were some photos in the canteen taken 2 or 3 years before celebrating Toby's being open 25 yrs the Toby jugs could have been made and sold to celebrate that but not defiantly sure , it could have been when they originally opened . When Tobys first opened it was just a small china shop further up friar lane .in fact I used to have a magazine think it was called Topic and in it was a big write up about Tobys telling you how it started etc. . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTramp 139 Posted February 21, 2015 Report Share Posted February 21, 2015 Gee Hi Limey, I found a romantic little history of Tobys in a Civic Soc. book, a plumber bloke called Hartley had a bathware shop top of Friar lane, married a girl called Florence who'd been a manager in a posh china shop, to please her he spent big with an architect and built her a shop to sell nice things (and make money) she called it Tobys, that being his nickname as a lad. They both did well didn't they? Even more romance (for the ladies) the shop was built on the site of Dorothy Vernons cottage as was before she eloped with Lord John Manners. --- and another vague element, Hartley was a practical man with a wife who wanted posh, reminds me a bit of Jesse Boot. are you bored yet? yes the building is vernon House. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Doreen 15 Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 Thank you Trevor I am really enjoying living the past . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trevor S 2,003 Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 Then you have come to the right place............ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mary1947 2,079 Posted February 22, 2015 Report Share Posted February 22, 2015 I suppose Nottingham's claim to fame for shop's still with us is wait for it!!! Boots and Hopewells. well done to both store's although I think Boots now belongs to our German friends. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAVIDW 1,683 Posted February 24, 2015 Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 Bit of Toby's history . Article on the death of the founder James Hartley in the N.E.P. 30th Oct. 1937 And a list of mourners at the funeral a few days later......may jog a few memories Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Pianoman 1,535 Posted February 24, 2015 Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 The bit missing is 'How did it come to be called Toby's?' Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DAVIDW 1,683 Posted February 24, 2015 Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 The bit missing is 'How did it come to be called Toby's?' see #61 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Pianoman 1,535 Posted February 24, 2015 Report Share Posted February 24, 2015 Thanks. Didn't go that far back! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BilboroughShirley 1,120 Posted February 28, 2015 Report Share Posted February 28, 2015 On the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website it says that Toby was the nickname of James Hartley the founder of Toby's. The site gives interesting short histories of some of the main iconic stores of old Nottingham. A nice read. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pgudgin@hotmail.co.uk 0 Posted October 7, 2015 Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 My best friend Mum worked in Toby's. What I loved so much about the shop was all the giant Toby jugs on the outside of the shop😍 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,306 Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Many years ago, I worked for Rotheras, solicitors, on Friar Lane, just further up from Toby's. I've been looking at the photos in the Toby's thread and Friary Chambers can just about be seen on the extreme margin of some of them. However, Friary Chambers was only part of Rotheras' Offices. There was an archway which led through to a very down at heel but beautiful Georgian house which also housed Rotheras' offices. Some philistine had built a 'bridge' at first floor level, linking the house with Friary Chambers. The house was fascinating and always reminded me of the description in Dickens' A Christmas Carol of Scrooge's abode: that it must have run in there when it was a very young house and forgotten the way out! At the time, I was clerk to Peter Howard Mellors who was the Senior Partner. A wonderful chap who had read history at Cambridge and whose knowledge of Nottingham's past was phenomenal. I've never forgotten the house and often wished I'd taken photos of it. It was so tucked away that it won't appear on any Friar Lane shots. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 43 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said: Many years ago, I worked for Rotheras, solicitors, on Friar Lane, just further up from Toby's. I've been looking at the photos in the Toby's thread and Friary Chambers can just about be seen on the extreme margin of some of them. However, Friary Chambers was only part of Rotheras' Offices. There was an archway which led through to a very down at heel but beautiful Georgian house which also housed Rotheras' offices. Some philistine had built a 'bridge' at first floor level, linking the house with Friary Chambers. Is it this place? 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jill Sparrow 10,306 Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 I think it must be, Cliff Ton, although I've never seen it from that angle before and it looks as though it may have been altered. I always used to wonder what Friar Lane looked like when that house was built, before the present frontages arrived. I suspect someone may have wrecked it still further since Rotheras left! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chulla 4,946 Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 Nice shot of the Roebuck at top right. The bay window is the upstairs roof terrace where the smokers go. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,466 Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 44 minutes ago, Jill Sparrow said: I always used to wonder what Friar Lane looked like before the present frontages arrived. Quite different. This was the scene before the building of the ugly block at the top. (The building in the centre is still there, on the corner of Maid Marian Way). Same thing looking down towards the Market Square. Before Friar Lane was widened in the mid 20s, looking towards the Square. Toby's would be approximately where the "Plumbers" building is. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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