Comments on: Wickhams’ Lopsided Department Store

By: Paul Morris

Paul Morris — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 17:11:32 +0000

On a sombre note I remember my great grandmother telling me her 7 year old brother was so excited to get to the store that he ran across the Mile End Road and got run over by a horse and wagon and died. That was 1911.

By: Matthew Washer

Matthew Washer — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 13:06:00 +0000

The Wickhams are my ancestors on my dad’s side. One of the Wickham brothers, Thomas, of the Middlesex regiment, died at the Somme in 1916 and his grave can be found in one of the graveyards nearby. Angie Hatton, we may be distantly related.

By: Adrian Lebetkin

Adrian Lebetkin — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 06:09:50 +0000

I worked at Spiegelhalter in the mid to late 1970’s (and it must have been just before Simon who contributed above). I was learning to manufacture jewellery and that was done on the first floor. In the 1970’s ‘anything went’ in Avant Garde styling. The manufacturing company was called Spiegelhalter Gem Creations. Raymond Salter was very creative with a cigarette in his mouth, terribly knowledgeable and ash all over his jumper. A lovely man. Michael Salter, his cousin also worked in the workshop and the shop. There was a young lady name Eileen, a shop manager (David I think), Kay who had been there for years and who made / arranged lunch each day for us all. Raymond showed me an advert in the Retail Jeweller magazine for a job at Andrew Grima, one of the crown jewellers at the time and suggested I ‘go for it’ …. so I did, and I got the jog ! …. I’m still in touch with the Grima family today too. The frontage had been changed from an older photo on the internet. I last saw Raymond in 1990 when he came to an exhibition I had at Harrods telling me they’d moved to Loughton as there was little business in Mile End Road. After returning to the UK for family reasons I contacted Raymond’s wife recently during lockdown. She told me both Raymond and Michael has passed. Apparently the jewellers in the South West with the same name are very distant cousins.

By: Margaret Smith

Margaret Smith — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 18:49:55 +0000

I worked as the Administrator’s secretary at Wickhams in 1962 to 1963 when some of us were made redundant with half an hours notice. We knew the shop owned by Sloanes was going to close down. But it came as a shock to us to lose our jobs, being given a week’s wage with such short notice. I don’t know how quickly the rest of the staff went. There was a disabled lady who worked the lift and I know she was also going but had worked there many years and was quite distraught. But the facia is still up in Stepney.

By: Raine

Raine — Sun, 31 May 2020 16:57:55 +0000

In the late 1970s my grandmother took me to the former site of Wickhams. It was then a carpet warehouse. She told me that this could have belonged to her family but her grandmother was disinherited for not naming her son Wickham. I can find no evidence of this. The only connection is my great grandmother’s sister worked as a Draper’s assistant at Wickhams. My great grandmother was called Emily Woods. Her father was a mariner.
I would love to know more about the Wickham family to see if there is a connection.

By: Michael Harris

Michael Harris — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 22:21:31 +0000

I remember having my photo done with Father Christmas in Wichams. This was in the sixties.

By: Marge

Marge — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 12:09:43 +0000

Such lovely articles and memories. Mum is 99 and lived near the Mile End Road until the end of World War II. She still remembers the wonder of Wickhams and being taken there by her Mother. Whatever the bulldozers do, the memories remain.

By: Ralph Brown

Ralph Brown — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 21:21:24 +0000

My Mother,Millie Bargeman, born 1901, worked at Wickhams in her young days, but being only
young myself did not take a lot of notice about her life there
I am now 88 and recently found this site, and very interesting it was to read the history of Wickhams. I doubt if there is anyone still alive who also worked there , mores the pity
Ralph

By: Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 10:55:11 +0000

Fabulous story behind this oddity of a building. I very much enjoyed reading the replies, more of this stuff please.

By: Pat Butt

Pat Butt — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 09:02:27 +0000

I have just found and read the Wickhams piece and Jean Mark’s reply. My dad was a tally man for Wickhams. Sometimes on. Saturday I would go out for the day with him, very often his regulars would “knock” paying him their 2bob, but give me a tanner for sweets! What a mixed bunch they were…… but it was how meant families furnished their slum clearance new flats.
Wickhams also had a sports ground where we would go to play tennis and watch cricket!
All in the 60’s.
Pat