Early Closing

This photo of a fabric shop on Petticoat Lane is from the wonderful book “Shutting Up Shop” by photographer John Londei which is a beautiful but very sad time capsule of the traditional small British shop. Sadly these little oasis of local, individual English character are vanishing and being replaced by chains and megastores.

There was a Chemist shop just like this round the corner from us when I was a kid with wooden shelves and glass cabinets laden with rows of powders, potions, syrups in heavy brown bottles, and Lucozade wrapped in orange cellophane. Apart from the chemist we had a butcher, a greengrocer, a proper old sweet shop, a haberdasher, a grocer, and even a cobbler. They’re all closed now and my mum does her shopping at a big Waitrose. Peter’s Fish and Chips was still there last time I looked though, going strong (I hope) after what must be more than 30 years in business.

I wrote about shops like this in the very first post on this blog and much as I try to avoid going the old fogey, “things were better in my day, lad” route sometimes I can’t help it (anyway, they were better).

Not an entirely relevant song, but close enough.

Download: Portobello Road – Cat Stevens (mp3)
More photos here.