Corner shops.

[darren]

WHAT are people memories of their local corner shops.
how many did you have were you lived.
are any still around.
what did they sell etc.

was not sure where to put this thread.
if its wrong could it please be moved.
thanks darren.

[Marine Boy]

Re: Corner shops.

Our nearest corner shop when I was growing up wasn't on our street corner, but was 10 mins walk away. It was one of those wonderful shops that was a newsagent, confectioner and toyshop. I loved it!

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

Our nearest corner shop when I was growing up wasn't on our street corner, but was 10 mins walk away. It was one of those wonderful shops that was a newsagent, confectioner and toyshop. I loved it!

can u remember its name mate.

where i live there was a corner shops it closed down 3 yrs back.
it closed down because those who owned where getting old and no other family member wanted it.

it was always packed out right till its final hour.
it first opened in 1890

[HG]

Re: Corner shops.

We had a corner shop in our street, it was a newsagent, confectioner and off licence and was part of the local community.

It had 1/2p, 1p and 2p boxes where you pick sweets from and in the summer the manageress made penny lollies which were just basically frozen cordial but were great for those long hot summer days.

I got my first job with them a paper round when i was about 10 and did paper rounds for them right until I was 18, they were on a winner really as i spent a lot of my wages on sweets.

The original owner died suddenly in about 1990 and his family and others have tried to keep it going but due to the area it is now in which is a student area there just isn't the trade there for half a year to make it viable and it has recently been converted into a house. I think corner shops are living on borrowed time in general due to the profileration of Tesco Extras and Sainsbury's Locals etc.

[tulip]

Re: Corner shops.

We had a little shop,which was almost hidden away next to a doctor's surgery.Asked my mum about it,but she can't remember it.It was a tiny place.

tulip

[Richard1978]

Re: Corner shops.

Living on a new estate meant there wasn't a single shop for at least 1/2 a mile, but one of the nearest ones was a newsagent that occasionally branched out into other household products.

It was taken over by Forboys in the early 1990s, & sold off as the already had a shop nearby. It's been a few things since, & is now an estate agent.

[ClaudineJones]

Re: Corner shops.

We had 4 corner shops where I lived. One I remember used to have a rabbit running loose behind the counter, one was renowned for their gorgeous home-made chocolate cake, one for those cordial lollies, delux lucky bags and giving us kids money (6d?) for every returnable pop bottle we could find.

The fourth one, Broxton's I think it was called, I remember for only one thing; I was about 2 and went with my Nan to this shop. As we walked in Nan did the most enormous trump I'd ever heard and made a big show of wiping her feet on the doormat, pretending that was what had made the noise - until I piped up "Nana! You dirty thing!" while looking pointedly at her behind. We never went in there again and right up until I was 30 I was still getting reminded of it with claims that she'd have "got away with it" if I'd have kept my mouth shut

[Trickyvee]

Re: Corner shops.

We had a little group of shops down the street from where I lived. In the early 80's (from my earliest memories) it was thriving with a newsagents, greengrocers, general dealers, butchers, cobblers, two baker's shops, fishmongers, hairdressers, chemist, florist, wool shop and wine bin.

The only ones remaining are the chemist (now owned by the Co-op) and the newsagent. The buildings occupied by the butchers, wool shop, fishmonger and original newsagents are now a dental practice. There's also an Indian takeaway, a sun bed place and a dog grooming parlour. I don't even know what the other places are (if they are indeed occupied) as I never go there. In the last decade a huge Tesco Extra and a Tesco Express have opened up less than a mile away.

[HG]

Re: Corner shops.

I forgot there was another one at the bottom of the street, this was more of a grocers though and it sold game and fish also. It was more expensive so I didn't go in there as often, just when the other was shut. It branched out into making fresh sandwiches and shut down and moved to another location purely as sandwich shop. It was established in the late 1800's or early 1900's.

[sweep]

Re: Corner shops.

Toms was our corner shop he sold almost everything with sweets in the window and floor to ceiling shelves filled with tined goods so high he had to use a step ladder to reach the top fruit and veg in front of the counter along with the scales and cooked meats and cheese in another chilled counter with the bacon slicer on top all this in a living room sized space it was very much like Arkwright`s Tom even wore a brown overall and did deliveries but in a van not on a bike

[Trickyvee]

Re: Corner shops.

Our general dealers was called Turnbull's and my memories are very much like sweep's. My Turnbull always seemed grumpy (although my mam says he was actually very nice). I think he had that sort of face. A cross between Barry Cryer and Beaker from the muppets with a shock of thick white hair, glasses and a protruding bottom lip. He wore the brown overall and had a bacon slicer which used to mesmorise me! He had broken biscuits too - lovely!

[branny]

Re: Corner shops.

We had a few near us when I was younger. The nearest was called A & H Graham. They sold mainly food from what I can remember. Everything from cereal, tinned stuff, iced lollies amd sweets. They also had a cooked meats and cheese counter with one of those huge slicers and the owner would always pinch a piece when slicing meat.

There was an off licence which was simply kmown as the "out-door". They had beer on tap and you could take an empty mineral bottle and get it filled, They even had beer towels on the counter.

The 3rd was called Nicholls. I can't really remember what they sold apart from Vimto ice cups. Yummmm.

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

Well one of my corner shops still exists to this day.
its called mackles.
its still in exactly the same place it ever was.
its been running for at least fifty yrs.

it still sells sweets behind the counter.
they are kept in those clear plastic screw top bottles.
and they give them to you in a white paper bag.
you can still get half pound of this or quarter pound of that.

[vanhelsing]

Re: Corner shops.

Didn't some of them also cash in on the video craze by adding video librays full of dubbed European video nasties/Mad Max Rip offs or obscure video titles as well?

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

Didn't some of them also cash in on the video craze by adding video librays full of dubbed European video nasties/Mad Max Rip offs or obscure video titles as well?

very true mate.

we had loads of corner shops in my town.
one called odds and bobs and it sold everything sweets,videos,computer games and consoles.