Taking trip to shops of yesteryear – and long queue for a banana
VALERIE James has kindly sent me her memories of what it was like growing up in the Canton area in the 1940s and 1950s.
This week she shares her fond reminiscences of the times she went shopping with her mum, including the time her mother queued for hours for a banana.
She also provides a fascinating rollcall of the names of some of the longlost shops of this popular suburb.
She recalled: “First, on the one side of Cowbridge Road East was Donald Knight’s hosiery and haberdashery.
“You always went there to buy curtain material, stockings, socks, cottons, clothes, etc.
“There were high wooden chairs to sit on while the assistants served you.
“You got to know the assistants who always served on the same counters and they got to know you and the things you liked to buy, or could afford.
“When goods were purchased the assistant would place the bill and your money in a metal screw-top container which was then connected to an overhead cable to transport the bill and the monies to the cashier’s desk.
“There it would be checked, due change put back into the container and returned by the same cable transport to the counter where the goods were purchased.
“A few doors away from Donald Knight’s was one of the larger greengrocery stores known as Kennards. This was where my mother once queued for hours when she heard that they had bananas in.
“That’s how it was in the war years, she told me – if you saw a queue you stood in it even if you didn’t know what was being sold because food was so scarce.
“That day, my mother was allowed
one banana which she eagerly brought home to me because I had never seen one.
“I took one bite and said I didn’t like it and have never eaten bananas since!
“Further along was a lovely flower shop called The Flower Box and, more important to little girls at that time, the Dolls’ Hospital where we once took my baby doll to have her leg re-fixed.
“Further along was Hansons the photographers and Pope’s photographic shop.
“On the other side of the road the first landmark was the Coliseum Cinema. Next door was Legassicks the ladies’ hat shop. Most women wore a hat or even a scarf tied around their heads like a turban when they were out shopping.
“The public house on the corner – The Kings Castle still stands there.”
“On the other corner of King’s Road was one of the chain of Thomas & Evans grocery stores.
“Opposite Donald Knight’s was Arthur’s Stores which also stocked hosiery and haberdashery and on the corner of Severn Road was another large clothing and general household supply store by the name of Zeidmans.
“These were not of the same quality of Donald Knight’s but had a lot of trade being a cheaper option.
“The last time I had a doll for Christmas it was purchased here.
“I was longing for what was known at the time as a Beauty Skin Doll – beautiful and lifelike.
“These were hard to come by but my mother persuaded me that if I had the large ugly baby doll in Zeidmans, I
could also have a baby christening robe to go on it – because it was obtainable on the Premier cheque!
“I realised then that the Beauty Skin Doll was not going to happen, so I settled for the doll I didn’t like.
“Much further up the road on the same side was the bakery and cake shop Franklins where you could buy the most delicious jam/cream sponges and pasties.
“A rather more unusual service was
provided for my mother by Olive Hooper who lived in Avon Street, where there are no houses now but a large car park; you can still walk through the original cobblestone golate between the shops in Severn Road as you approach the car park.
“Olive was a childhood friend of my mother and had a large family and was very poor so when my mother was really short of cash and needed someone to take something, usually her wedding ring to the pawn shop in Clare Road, Olive Hooper was always glad and not too proud to earn a shilling by going for her.”
As for the shops in the city centre, she recalled her “Nanna Jones taking me into town and buying fruit at the open market stalls on The Hayes near the then Central Library then walking over the bridge of the old Glamorgan Canal nearby where there used to be stalls with old ladies all dressed in black wearing shawls and bonnets, selling their fruit and vegetables from large baskets”.
Valerie added: “They all looked so sombre and I was in awe of them as we walked on our way past them over the bridge and on the road alongside the canal past warehouses to visit Aunt Millie, my Nanna Jones’ childhood friend who never married and lived in one of the tiny terraced houses in Plymouth Street situated between the Kardomah Cafe and Boots the Chemist until her house was demolished as part of the modernisation of the city centre.”
More of Valerie’s memories on another occasion.
■ Please send your pictures and stories to Brian Lee, Cardiff Remembered, South Wales Echo, Six Park Street, Cardiff CF10 1XR or email brianlee4@virginmedia.com – please include your telephone number as I cannot reply by letter.