Retail therapy 2
London food stores: RIP Grodzinski's
Swiss Cottage –
a name that promises so much and delivers so little. Swiss Cottage, the
southern end of the stretch of the
All of these have now closed as this
population centred on the western side of the
Poppy seed rolls
Grodzinski was the byword for kosher bread
products. Their poppy seed rolls were particularly fine and I was very partial
to their Danish pastries. The shop itself was neat, if not particularly
spectacular with its distinctive Judaic take on a sixties’ theme hoarding and
with its tidy tiers of metal shelving. The family came from
Cultural symbol
It was a world of people whose affiliation
with Judaism was cultural as against religious. In a way the closure of this
branch is symbolic of the schism in current Judaism between secular Jews whose
ancestral ties with Jewish culture is their focus and the orthodox Jews whose
connection is centred on religious practice. Grodzinski’s in Swiss Cottage
represented a world where cholla was compatible with bratwurst. Grodzinski’s
elsewhere doesn’t.
London furniture stores: RIP Bowman's
I was listening
to the radio recently and the subject came up of the large furniture store in Camden Town
that had closed down in the early 90s. No one could remember its name.
Well, for all you London-RIP devotees, the answer is 'Bowman's'.
Now it so
happens I’m thinking about refurbishing my house and I’ve become aware of
furniture being mostly either cheap crap or quality costing an arm and a leg,
and it got me thinking about the long lost furniture shop.
Slightly unctuous
Furniture stores were extensive shops filled with a hushed reverential air and slightly unctuous but invariably helpful male shop assistants dressed in suit and tie. There were floors with suites for bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. Whilst not cheap, neither were these stores as pricey as the current designer outlets. Bowmans’ was where my family bought many furnishings including our beloved radiogram.
Beautiful tiling
I remember their pantechnicons, good word that, being red with white and black lettering. It is now a selection of very mediocre Camden-on-the-slide shops. However, if you look upwards at first floor level, there survives some beautiful tiling with Viking motifs showing the craftsmanship of Bowmans, and I believe there is still an aged painted advert extolling the store.
RIP Maples
Nothing remains of the famous Maples Store in Tottenham Court Road. This was more upmarket than Bowmans and its furniture was rather more bespoke. Their vans were also larger and painted a very distinguished dark green. I believe that my folks bought a particularly durable suite for the living room from Maples.
The advent of Habitat and out-of-town furniture warehouses killed these shops off and the British furniture industry was killed off by cheap flat-pack imports. Possibly the sedate tone of these stores was an anachronism, a gentlemen’s club full of home wares, but the products were very high quality and built to last.
Style irony
There is also a certain irony in that with the current vogue for 50s furniture, glass and ceramics, products bought from doughty old shops such as Bowmans and Maples are being re-evaluated as modern style icons.
Got any furniture store memories to share? Contact London R.I.P and tell us about it.
