We are on Shooters Hill in the summer of 1977 and my old friend Jean was passing with her camera.
And what a good job she did, because in the intervening 37 years, the little newsagent’s lock up has been converted into a two storey property, all white and pebbled dashed and Ace Auto Electrical lurking just beyond the Red Lion car park is a Convenience Store.
It just goes to show that not everything urns out for the worst.
Picture; Shooters Hill in 1977, from the collection of Jean Gammons.
Would love to know more.
ReplyDeleteI remember Bill Cooper who used to run Ace Auto Electric. My friend Ed Hambly used to work for Bill and took over the shop when Bill passed away. Bill lived around the corner and when you knocked at the door his minor bird would shout out "who is it".
ReplyDeletePost your email address here it wont be seen and I wont publish it and we can correspond. Failing that I am on facebook and twitter
ReplyDeleteIt's strange as I lived at the top of shootershill in 1077. I often walked down the hill to well hall but have no memory of this shop only the oub
ReplyDeleteYou must remember the shop! As soon as work finished the guys that worked there were in the Red Lion next door!
DeleteMy father was Bill Coopers apprentice. Bill was a talented engineer. He and his brother, Fred Cooper built Cyclotron that held the british speed record for a while topping out at 240MPH. Although the shop might look a little rough, it was built for pratacality rather than aesthetics. The three door arrangement at the shop entrance might seem odd. One door in, one out... but the middle door hinged with the other two, and allowed the shop front to be opened right up so that a vehicle could be driven in and worked on out of the elements. This shop is a piece of motorcycle history.
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