The Way We Were

LATE-night shopping at Christmastide is nothing new - it was a regular occurrence in the 1930s.

We may not have experienced special lighting effects covering the whole length of the High Street but shops, beautifully decorated and lit, shone out onto the pavements.

Mind you, the street-lighting wasn't quite as powerful as it is today!

It is impossible to mention every shop - and remember, I am only concentrating on the High Street - but here are just a selection of shops trading in what claims to be the country's oldest street, during the 1930s. The main street was laid out by the Romans around AD70.

On the site of Mottisfont Court, near the 13th-century Westgate, stood a butcher's shop, opened by James Salter in the second half of the 19th century, which continued trading until the 1950s. A massive hand-carved Royal Coat of Arms dominated the faade, reading "J. Salter - Purveyor of meat to Queen Victoria". This can be seen today in the City Museum.

Along with six similar shops in the High Street, J. Salter & Son supplied all the necessary requirements for the Christmas table. An alternative feast was provided by Page & Phillips - now part of the premises occupied by the Royal Bank of Scotland - with displays of rabbits, hares, duck, pheasant and partridge, all hanging upside down on rails outside their shop. This certainly wouldn't happen today!

Pork butchers, Durnford Bros - part of Dixons premises - and John Kaines, which today forms the extension to Lloyds Bank TSB, sold delicious sausages and ham for the festive season. Families who preferred fish to meat and poultry were catered for by the two branches of MacFisheries, one partly where Elvi Fashions is today, the other now "What's New" shop. Crooks, the family-run fishmongers with an open shop front, occupied part of Blockbuster Video site on the Broadway.

We were well served with seven grocers and provision merchants in the High Street, W. Pink & Sons Ltd - where City Insurance Group is now - being one of them. A bakery within a large store is now popular but, in the 1930s, two bakers dominated the High Street. They were Dumpers - now QD Best by Far - and Ponsfords - now Reflex and Positive Space. Both supplied delightful Christmas cakes and fancies, along with scrumptious doughnuts, lardy cakes, cream horns, brandy snaps and dough cakes.

Among the fruiterers and greengrocers of the High Street was Grants - now Three Cooks and Bananas - by bus station. You could pick your choice of fruit and vegetables without stepping inside because this was another open shop front. Walnuts, chestnuts, figs and dates were also available from this mini-market.

Main suppliers of milk in the 1930s were Co-op Dairies in Jewry Street and Collis Cobb & Spencer - now Monsoon - on the corner of High Street and Market Street. Their windows displayed model cows with milk churns and a large china figurine of a swan containing eggs clustered within the body space protected by her wings.

A good selection of wines and spirits for Yuletide was obtainable from Godrich & Petman - now McQueen Clothing Co - with a "special offer of sherry" advertised in their window. The wine merchants' main shop was at 9, Parchment Street.

When it came to boxes of Cadbury, Rowntree, Terry's, or Fry's chocolates and other confectionery, Allens, at the start of the Pentice - now Art - with jars of sweets stacked to the ceiling.

Smiths - now Zoo Jewellery - who were noted for home-made sweets and not far away, Hutchins - now part of The Blue Dolphin Fish and Chip Restaurant - were all kept busy in the run-up to Christmas.

Very few homes possessed central heating in those days and families relied solely on coal fires to keep warm over the Christmas holidays. R.G. Gifford - now The Body Shop - was one of the suppliers of coal, gas coke and anthracite. The business also traded as corn merchants, providing hay, straw and seed to farmers. In case of a "freeze-up", paraffin heaters could be purchased from The Mercantile Stores along with bundles of wood and logs - Somerfield occupies the site today.

Two florists in the High Street did a roaring trade with Christmas trees, holly, mistletoe and floral decorations. These were Hillier & Sons (now part of Barclays Bank) and Jeffrey & Sons (adjoining Next) on the comer of High Street and Parchment Street.

Among the shops selling Christmas cards were Warren & Son, who are still trading today at 85, High Street. They were also printers, publishers of Hampshire Observer, ceasing in 1957, and bookbinders with printing works in Staple Gardens - now the headquarters of Winchester Housing Group.

An assortment of festive wrappings, decorations and stationery gifts was also available from this store, coupled with W. H. Smith - ground floor only. The book department on the upper floor as seen today was the Awdry Restaurant which transformed into a dance hall on Saturday nights; the Cadena Caf - now The Baker's Oven - also served as a ballroom at weekends, both with special dances over the Christmas period featuring Albert Smithers and his orchestra, Bert Osborn and his band, or the Cyril Watts Trio.

Useful gifts for the ladies included fancy boxes of talcum powder, bath cubes, soaps and perfumes manufactured by the likes of Yardleys, Coty and Mornay. Christmas-packed perfumes such as Evening in Paris, Californian Poppy and Mischief were very popular. Boots Cash Chemists, as they were then known, and Hunt & Co. specialised in these products.

During the 1930s, Boots only occupied the middle section of their premises, the extensions coming much later. Hunt & Co - now The Edinburgh Woollen Mill - operated on that site from 1859 to 1980 when the business was transferred to Hunts' Silver Hill branch. In the same year, the High Street shop was reconstructed on the ground floor of the City Museum where it remains to this day.

Specially-wrapped packages of cigarettes, cigars and tobacco, suitable presents for men, varied from Craven "A", Players and Senior Service cigarettes. Grandee, Castella and Manikin cigars and Three Nuns, St Bruno and Redbreast tobacco for the pipe-smokers. H.B. & D.A. Hayward Ltd - now Eye Site - on the corner of High Street and Southgate Street supplied these commodities along with T. Foster & Son - now Tie Rack - in the Pentice. Thomas Foster started his business in 1871, succeeded by Stanley Cobb, who continued operating until his death in 1978. The shop was completely rebuilt on the ground floor of the City Museum, also in 1980.

Television was in its infancy during the 1930s and so, for entertainment over the festive holiday, families relied on their radio - mostly battery-run, the wind-up gramophone or a "sing-song" round the old upright piano. Sheet music and 78rpm gramophone records on Columbia, Brunswick, HMV or other labels were in great demand and Whitwams Music Salon - now Fox & Sons - or Teague & King - where Sussex Stationers are today - sold the latest releases of popular recording artistes like Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson, Layton and Johnstone, Gracie Fields, Peter Dawson, Fats Waller and a young Bing Crosby.

I haven't forgotten the children of that era; I was one and always headed straight for the London Bazaar - now part of Marks & Spencer. Boys' gifts varied from Hornby clockwork train sets, Dinky Toys and Meccano sets to military toys and model home farms complete with cattle, sheep and pigs, all made of aluminium or lead/tin alloys.

The girls were well-provided-for with rag dolls, the Chad Valley collection of dolls with fully jointed velveteen limbs and dolls' houses. The shop also sold post cards, crest china and souvenirs of the city.

For an alternative Christmas present, Curry's Cycle Co - now Boots Opticians - was the shop for Hercules and Raleigh bicycles and scooters. F.W. Woolworth, the 3d and 6d store - now Abbey National and River Island - sold a variety of small toys for the Christmas tree and stocking, along with games such as Ludo and Snakes & Ladders, which kept the whole family amused.

I also remember buying small wax records on Crown and Eclipse labels, priced 6d, featuring Stanley Holloway's monologues - Albert and The Lion, for instance - and George Formby's comic songs with those double entendre-laden lyrics. "When I'm Cleaning Windows" was one - and then there were Leslie Sarony's songs such as "Ain't it grand to be blooming well dead?". Why isn't there a Woolworth store in Winchester today?

Finally, I come to Sherriff & Ward - now Debenhams - which was noted for fashions, fabrics and furnishings, but the attraction for children was Santa's Grotto. The new part is built on the site of St Maurice Church, demolished in 1957 except for the Norman tower.

Well, that's just a "taster" of Winchester shops at Christmastide in the 1930s. There were, of course, many more, but space prevents me mentioning them. Season's greetings to all readers of the 230-year-old Hampshire Chronicle.