Life Stories and Personal Memories > Personal Memories

Medway shops

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Dave Smith:
Shoot999. Don't know why you were told off, it was local social history. So here goes! Before WW2, in fact before I started school in 1935, I used to go on the 19 bus (1d adults) from Gillingham cemetery to the High Street with my mother on Tuesdays & Fridays to shop. Those that I remember, starting with the railway station behind me, on LH side, were Maypole( grocers), Lefever( curtains & material, etc. & haberdashery), Barclays Bank, x over Canterbury Street, Rix( furniture), a "wet" fish shop ( sold whale meat during WW2!), Library.X over & return on the other side. Hubble & Ames( sports- Ames the Kent & England wicket keeper), a toy shop?, x over C. Street, Liptons( grocers), David Greig (large grocers & butchers- who made up your butter pack from a cubic foot- or more-with a pair of paddles), Co Op tobacconists with the barber shop at the back, THE Co Op ( large grocers & butchers below & a variety of other goods- they had the overhead cables to send the money to a glass central cashier-who returned the receipt & any change the same way & upstairs ladies & gents outfitters, curtains & material( always fascinated me the price was always " something & eleven three" e.g. 1 shilling & eleven pence & three farthings!), a short road with an underground ladies & gents toilets- in the Winter on the corner a small stall selling hot chestnuts, Woolworths (3d & 6d general store), International Stores(grocers), & a pub near the end. As you can imagine, I've forgotten the names of most, but it was 85 years ago.  And I think all those names have gone as well now- apart from the Co Op( I still remember our divi no.1509. My Dad was a keen Co Op man & the divi gave us our Christmas chicken!). 

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