Comments on: Philip Mernick’s East London Shopfronts

By: Beverley Shepherd

Beverley Shepherd — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 22:05:12 +0000

Such wonderful photos. Would love to see any of shops in Abbey Street, Plaistow E.13. I know there was a grocer on the corner with Kelland Road but can never find any photos of this Street.

By: Gandha key

Gandha key — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 13:52:47 +0000

Do you have copyright on the Huxtable Stores photo I’d love to do a lino print of it. I’m a London based printmaker.

By: Shirley Carney

Shirley Carney — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 20:18:04 +0000

I was looking at the wonderful old shop photographs and wondered if you had any of shops in Major Road around 1920 1935 time as I have been told my maternal grandparents had a grocery shop there,, was told it was called Ushers Stores.

By: Mark Brennan

Mark Brennan — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 01:10:28 +0000

Great photos. This was my granddad’s parents’ shop. Sadly we don’t have an adress, but it must have been either in Hackney (My granddad was born at No1 Well Street), or Walthamstow, where they later moved to. I contacted the heritage department of both councils, but had no luck. My granddad is the youth standing in the doorway.His name was Henry Woodroffe. His father, who owned the shop, was Charles Ratcliffe Woodroffe. http://i.imgur.com/NqGlHK3.jpg

By: Jules

Jules — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:14:04 +0000

What fantastic photographs.Thank you for enlarging too!
I can trace my East End heritage all the way back to 1758, Bethnal Green and Wick (Hampton) as it was known then was the place my ancestors originated from.I so wish I could time travel, step into the photographs and live there.A day would do me fine!

By: s berris

s berris — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 17:05:25 +0000

Oh, the power of advertising! and the pride of the shopkeepers. And what a joy to indulge the human impulse to acquisitiveness with such window shopping. I see Spratt’s Puppy biscuits are advertised at an appropriate level. Thank you for this fascinating post.

By: Daryl Chambers

Daryl Chambers — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 20:59:18 +0000

A social historian`s dream. Many thanks.

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 18:48:59 +0000

Lovely! We are about to move our bookshop into mediaeval premises in our town and we are making plans already as to exactly how we want it to look so I really enjoyed looking at these. So much thought and effort went into window displays then and the advertisement which included White Horse Oils brought back memories of the bottle of this oil which we always had in our house. My grandfather was a horseman and my mother swore by the horse oils which she made up herself to her father’s recipe, I can vividly recall the smell now but they did the trick if you had any aches and pains, it wasn’t only horses who benefitted!

Pauline.

By: Stephen Barker

Stephen Barker — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 18:39:29 +0000

Fascinating photographs, I for one would buy a book of photographs of old shop fronts. Living in Leicestershire I know of a hardware shop in Market Harborough where goods are piled up outside on the pavement. The shop is crammed with stock with just a narrow passageway to the counter. In Uppingham there is a traditional ironmongers which has in stain glass above the main windows Gas fitters and Bell hangers.

By: Elizabeth cornwell

Elizabeth cornwell — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:06:22 +0000

We are very lucky ,in our local town there is still an old fashioned ironmongers full of stuff where you can buy anything from a single screw to a battleship if the owners looked hard enough!Its a wonderful shop & always busy!