Shops of yore

When I was learning to swim at Livingstone Road on Monday nights, it was the chippy we called into on our way home [courtesy: Google Street View]

Really?

Norman C, I thought it may have been Ekco radios, formed of the owner's initials Mr E.K. Cole. You remember the Avon Ladies, started by an American salesman selling Encyclopaedias and Shakespeare books door-to-door, gave away perfume to help sell, found the perfume sold better. Named them out of admiration of Shakespeare and the river Avon. Lec Fridges were made by Longford Engineering Company, late forties, but not from Coventry. Couple of chip shop guys in Longford Road, Bognor Regis, made them to keep their fish cool, started from there.

Yes MR. I am going back to 1952ish. The shop certainly had Comet over the window and was later told that it was Comet's first shop. True or not I don't know but they had to start somewhere. Yes Kaga that is a similar book to the one I had. Suppose I just binned mine.

Just checked and the very first Comet electrical store was opened in Hull early 50s the first of a chain of stores. All started by a guy charging radio batteries. I remember the one on Foleshill Rd in the early 50s.

My Gran lived in Matlock Road, near the top on the right, with Courtaulds behind her house - I think. I remember the corrigated iron fence being a barrier to access the canal. TV story, very entertaining, We were put in contact with Radio Rentals by my inlaws, my dad thought it was the best idea since sliced bread, only renting your TV and them repairing or changing it when it went wrong.

According to this, it was started in 1933. There doesn't seem to be any mention of an outlet "in the chippy on Matlock Road". As far as Foleshill Road is concerned, I believe D.F. Gibbs was the main dealer for many years

From the same article. The company was formed in 1933 by George Hollingbery as a business charging batteries for customers on a weekly basis. The business grew and diversified into radio rentals, and the first store opened in the 1950s. Comet expanded during the 1960s and 1970s. Yes Gibbs had a shop near the General Wolfe. There was another electrical shop opposite the Eagle pub that later became an off licence and now I think it's a greasy spoon café. You are correct MR as far as I am aware the chippy doesn't sell TV sets.

Yes Little Nut, we also had the Courtaulds big office block behind us, we lived at 34. The tall building behind us interfered with our TV reception. An Irish man named Martin Roddy lived near you also the Clarke family. Martin worked on security at Courtaulds and was found dead in his back garden. There was also the Slevin family that lived a few doors from us. Opposite you was a car repair workshop and close to us there was a small engineering workshop, all gone now I suppose. In spite of the corrugated iron fence it was possible to get on the canal towpath from Matlock Rd and often went through there to go fishing. Courtaulds bought our house for £1,700 which was a good price for a two up two down and no bathroom.

It was my gran that lived there, can't remember the number, but I think it was rented as she moved to a council flat in Wood End and then later to one in Radford to be near us. We always lived in Radford. Her name was Charlotte Knight. My grandad was a pipe fitter at Courtaulds, he was called Donald Septimus Knight and died of TB in 1953. I think all of my family worked at Courtaulds in one area or another, even me - my first job was in the Textile Technology Lab. Sorry this is off thread !

Little Nut, we moved into Matlock Road in 63 near the bottom on the right hand side, an Irishman lived next door to us, had mad Irish music parties at the weekends, my son played with a little girl named Barbara from the first house inside Matlock. The house had a small extension at the back as kitchen and toilet. We moved in on the Friday, from the corner shop we rented a television for a couple of years, the word Ekco comes to mind about the shop, but it could be anything. I rented on the Saturday, on the Monday the TV van came round and caught me without a licence, I was fined £2 quid. My one and only brush with the law. My second son was born in Matlock Road, all the phones had been vandalised, by the time I got the TV shop to ring the mid-wife and she arrived I had done what was necessary, and my son was born.

The girl you mention was Barbara Slevin she lived in the first terraced house in Matlock Rd. Thanks for confirming that the corner shop sold electrical goods.

Kaga, I think we must have just missed each other ! I remember going to the Wood End flat on the bus after school, before I left Hill Farm juniors, which would have been around 62/3. We missed each other in Sussex too as we lived in Littlehampton for 28 years before moving to France.

My wife tells me the shop on post 632 was not a shop but an eng factory in 64. There was a small path at the side of the eng and opposite to the Levins in Matlock and a small path the other side of the eng in Foleshill Rd and next to the path in F/Rd was a greengrocers shop, we can't agree where the tele-shop was. I was out of the house before 7am and returned about 6pm as I worked at Leyland Canley in those days.

Hi The picture below, lifted from showmystreet.com, is the engineering works that I mentioned earlier. Looks like a furniture store now. There was a path next to the engineering works that I thought just gave access to the rear of Foleshill Rd shops. Could be wrong as I don't recall ever using it. To the far left of the image is what is now a chip shop. Next door to it on the main road was a baby clothes shop, next to that was Bromfields, a general grocer/greengrocer. The next shop was a butchers owned by a Polish man. Beyond that was a shop that sold and repaired push bikes but he was rarely open. Kaga, I left Matlock Rd about eight or nine years before you moved in so our memories may be different. Most of what I have said about Matlock Rd is from my wife, as like you I was at work most of the time.