By: Carol Fisher

Carol Fisher — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:39:59 +0000

Having originally discovered this while doing some work on my family tree, I have been really interested in the fact that so many Welsh people were involved in the dairy industry across London. Apparently, the milk really did come up from Wales on the 5am, so called, ‘milk train’ & then much of it was either wholesaled & retailed by Welsh families. The dairy shop shown in your photos, being run by a ‘Lewis Lewis’ must denote a Welsh connection, somewhere along the line.. Those shops were everywhere across London & in some cases, you can still see the vestiges of them
One of my uncles by marriage came from the Price family-another great Welsh name.
His maiden Aunt, who had brought him up in her home in Forest Hill, ran a dairy based business on her own & did very well from it-not only having bought her own brand new semi-detached home in the 1930’s, but managed by the 1950’s, to have acquired such state of the art belongings as a full size Kelvinator fridge and, the thing that impressed me most in the 1960’s, a telephone in her bedroom!

Comments on: Photos From London’s Oldest Ironmonger

By: Carol Fisher