Philip Mernick’s East End Shopfronts
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These splendid shopfronts from the beginning of the last century are published courtesy of Philip Mernick who has been collecting postcards of the East End for more than thirty years. In spite of their age, the photographs are of such high quality that they capture every detail and I could not resist enlarging parts of them so you can peer closer at the displays.
S.Jones, Dairy, 187 Bethnal Green Rd
J.F. List, Baker, 418 Bethnal Green Rd
A.L.Barry, Chandlers & Seed Merchants, 246 Roman Rd
Direct Supply Stores Ltd, Butcher, Seven Sisters Rd
Vanhear’s Coffee Rooms, 564 Commercial Rd
Williams Bros, Ironmonger, 418 Caledonian Rd
Francis J. Walters, Undertakers, 811 Commercial Rd
Pearks Stores, Grocer, High St, East Ham
A. Rickards, Umbrella Manufacturer, 30 Barking Rd, East Ham
Huxtables Stores, Ironmonger, Broadway, Plaistow
E.J Palfreyman, Printer, Bookbinder & Stationer, High Rd, Leytonstone
J.Garwood, Greengrocer, Bow Rd
“The banana is the safest and most wholesome fruit there is”
You may also like to take a look at
Alan Dein’s East End Shopfronts
Emily Webber’s East End Shopfronts
Eleanor Crow’s East End Shopfronts
Jim Howett’s Spitalfields Shopfronts
Love them.
What amazing lovely photographs. My mother in law Polly Foley had a milliners shop in London in the forties. I think it was called Paulines. I would love to know if anyone remembers it. I think it was in the Canonbury or Islington area. So sad there are no relatives left to whom I could approach.
Thank you for the enlargements! They are stunning. I was so captivated by the orderliness of each storefront, thinking how primped and staged everything was……….quite nice………but then the uproar of Palfreyman’s reminded me of how much I like visual chaos. I was able to also enlarge this photo at bit, and was pleased to see a whole array of toys on the left edge of the photo.
Seemingly, dolls, little toy horns, etc. I can imagine this storefront inside, the endless aisles of temptations, the collective “muchness” of it all. Quite thrilling for young and old alike. And for paper hounds like me — Well, stand aside. I’m puzzled by the object hanging above the door –
Could that be some kind of kite? Or is it a defunct awning? I like the shy grin of the sales girl, her face quite young and scrubbed, her hair a bit askew — and yet dark stockings and high heels — and is that a tiny flower in her lapel?
Thanks for publishing these marvellous images!