High Street had lots in store for eager shoppers
THE A board at the entrance to Macfisheries’ branch in Cheltenham’s High Street says ‘Christmas Fare’ in the Echo photo from the 1950s (top right).
The smartly turned out members of staff in their white overalls and wraparound pinafores have as their backdrop a sight to make vegetarians swoon on the spot.
Capons, English poultry and boiling fowls, pheasants, rabbits and Cotswold hares are all dangled proudly on show for shoppers in search of Christmas dinner.
But as the name would suggest, Macfisheries was mostly about fish and presented its fishy wares on slabs of cold white marble, made the more chilly by scatterings of crushed ice.
For many children, the scene on the slab gripped the imagination. Flat, delicately spotted sole, eel-like huss and whelks struggling to climb out of their imprisoning bucket, kept in place by an assistant who ran half a lemon round the rim every so often. Whopping cod with bulging eyes and rosy-hued lobsters with pincers and whiskers. And for a treat, a pint of unpeeled pink prawns to take home on the bus.
Macfisheries were found in towns all over the country, but in the 1950s there were still numerous small, family-run, independent shops. Pictured below is F Castle’s grocery store, which stood at 262 High Street. Mr Castle plainly took great pride in his window display, which features a pyramid of Fray Bentos corned beef tins flanked by butter on one side and margarine on the other, both shaped into blocks and packed in greaseproof paper.
By the 1950s, the name ‘Boots corner’ had come into use by Cheltenham locals. This followed the remodelling of the High Street/promenade/clarence Street junction just prior to the start of the Second World War when the roundabout with a fountain was installed. You can see what this town centre meeting point looked like prior to the changes in the photo with the white sleeved policeman on point duty.
Dodwell’s the stationer and bookseller was made homeless by the demolition of its premises and so moved to Queen’s Circus. It’s still in business to this day, although now the shop is in Bath Road.
To make way for the new Marks and Spencer store, a range of buildings including a garage, hotel and Cheltenham’s Corn Exchange were demolished. It was in the latter building that movie magic came to the town in 1908. ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’ was the title of what was called a biograph, a delightfully cumbersome pioneer form of cinema involving gas cylinders, acetylene lamps, sturdy men to crank the projector and firemen with buckets of sand on standby in case the whole shebang burst into flame. There’s something to think about over the next few days when you’re in the food hall buying your Christmas pudding.
M&S wasn’t the town’s first department store. That honour goes to Cavendish House, which opened in the 1820s and is pictured here before its original frontage was swept away in the 1960s.
Many will recall days gone by when the delicious whiffs from Cav’s food hall permeated the ground floor and the shop’s upper storey was given over to Santa’s grotto and Tinsel Toyland during the festive season.
The restaurant was a treat, too, with its white clothed tables, EPNS cruets and fashion models who stalked between the tea takers displaying the price of the frock they were wearing, available from the ladies’ department.
Another café that many will remember with pleasure was the Cadena. There was one branch in the High Street and another on the corner of the Prom and Imperial Lane that later became Habitat.
It came as a surprise when Cheltenham, like numerous towns across the country, said goodbye to Woolworth’s in 1997. From that date, we’ve all had to find an alternative place to buy our pick and mix.