| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Anyone got a good memory for shops of yore? | |
| Posted by: | Tim Warren | |
| Date/Time: | 19/08/19 16:40:00 |
| It has been very enjoyable reading these posts and recollections, also a reminder of how rapidly the years have passed. I came to Putney in 1972 and worked for Aylesford & Co at 204 Upper Richmond Road, one of only six Putney estate agents. The others were, H.A Mawer, Ellis Copp, Taylors, Acland and Sturgis. At Aylesford we sold properties from Richmond to Battersea, hardly anything was more than £55,000. Opposite the office and adjacent to The Fox and Hounds was a cinema where I believe, Pierce Brosnan watched his first film. The High Street was busy, many independent shops and at least two butchers and indeed Montfords, which many of you have mentioned previously,the go to place for made to measure net curtains! On the corner of Putney Common was the French Revolution Pub and restaurant, one of the first fully modernised Putney pubs. I think it opened in 1971 and for a time it was extremely popular. Further along the Lower was 'Ossie' Osman's delicatessen and Old Times Furniture, the latter had a vast warehouse replete with all sorts of extraordinary items which were hired for tv and film sets, it's now Griffin Gate. At 139 was Jid Shamsa's stripped pine shop, now a Warren office. The Putney Pharmacy was Simmonds the Chemists, run by the lovely Julia Willis who sadly died in 2000. Near there was a brass bed shop and opposite a most successful newsagents owned by the ubiquitous Ramesh Parmer, who eventually owned many local shops including the fish and chip shop. 'Wild Thyme' restaurant in Lacy Road was owned by Ronnie, who personally brought fresh vegetables from the country and took them from table to table in a trug! Later Emil's opened on the site. In 1980, I opened the first Warren office at 127 Lower Richmond Road and leased the shop from Elsie Burridge who ran a bric a bac/junk shop from the premises. In my planning application I mentioned that there were sixteen similar shops along the Lower and that the Council could afford to lose one! In 1982 I opened my second office at 192 Upper Richmond Road, formerly a kebab shop, opposite was Micawber's wine bar and around the corner on the Hill, La Forchetta. Both venues were popular with agents and solicitors and one notorious Putney lawyer used to pin a note to his office front door saying that for the rest of the afternoon he could be found at either venue. Happy days! |