Now I went looking for a picture of Kingspot today, that shop of incredible cheap bargains, plastic flowers, even cheaper kids toys and of course the picture of San Francisco Bay Bridge in the setting sun.
My kids were never out of there and the comment "off to Kingy” seemed part of their vocabulary for a decade.
Now the purists will of course mutter that it was not a corner shop but I don’t care it was as much a part of the shopping experience as the trip to Hanbury’s or Woolworths.
And yet despite its popularity and place in many people’s memories I have yet to come across a picture of the shop and that just points to that simple observation that we often neglect our surroundings until it is too late.
So here is one corner shop that was photographed and more than once.
My first picture comes from the camera of Tom McGrath who ventured out in 1985 to record bits of Chorlton and followed these up with a second batch 27 years later.*
In the way these things work I only have a vague memory of the place although I will have bought sweets there, after all it was the last shop before the bus station and a journey somewhere and likewise for those returning home it will have been the first they encountered before the trudge down towards the green or off into the ville.
The second is from 1958 and is all that I remember a corner shop to be including the packed window displays and the adverts for the cinema round the corner.
And transcending the decades there is that cigarette machine which I suspect has pretty much vanished from our streets.
So all that is left is to make the appeal for pictures and memories of Kingy.
And a promise that there will be more corner shops on the blog over the summer.**
Pictures; number 1 Beech Road 1985, from the collection of Tom McGrath and by R.E. Stanley, November 1958, m17659 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Tom McGrath, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tom%20McGrath
**Corner shops, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Corner%20shops
My kids were never out of there and the comment "off to Kingy” seemed part of their vocabulary for a decade.
 |
| Beech Road, 1985 |
And yet despite its popularity and place in many people’s memories I have yet to come across a picture of the shop and that just points to that simple observation that we often neglect our surroundings until it is too late.
So here is one corner shop that was photographed and more than once.
My first picture comes from the camera of Tom McGrath who ventured out in 1985 to record bits of Chorlton and followed these up with a second batch 27 years later.*
In the way these things work I only have a vague memory of the place although I will have bought sweets there, after all it was the last shop before the bus station and a journey somewhere and likewise for those returning home it will have been the first they encountered before the trudge down towards the green or off into the ville.
 |
| Beech Road, 1958 |
And transcending the decades there is that cigarette machine which I suspect has pretty much vanished from our streets.
So all that is left is to make the appeal for pictures and memories of Kingy.
And a promise that there will be more corner shops on the blog over the summer.**
Pictures; number 1 Beech Road 1985, from the collection of Tom McGrath and by R.E. Stanley, November 1958, m17659 courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
*Tom McGrath, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tom%20McGrath
**Corner shops, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Corner%20shops
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