This is a shop I grew up with.
It supplied Dad with a variety of work clothes, the odd selection of tools and when I was older provided me with great coats, and battle dresses which many of us students bought as cheap alternatives to High Street fashions.
You could find the shops in any town, and they were a wonderful cornucopia of cheap and durable products, many of which were Government Surplus.
Today those great coats, and combat gear, tun up in Retro shops and retail at silly prices, but in the decades just after the last war they were for sale at knock down prices, and were a good bargain.
But even then in the 1950s, there were fashions for surplus stock amongst us kids.
One year it was green fabric bags, which might have once have held a gas mask or rounds of ammunition, but were perfect for carrying a packet of sandwiches , a bottle of lemonade or Tizer, and if we were very lucky, a slice of cake.
The bags cost just a shilling, which was still a big chunk of your pocket money which weighed in at 2/6d, but they were a must to have, and along with a balaclava, set you up for an adventure.
In the case of the balaclava, it didn’t matter that the sun was cracking the paving stones, and the last bout of rain had been a month ago, they were just a required part of what you needed to have fun.
This shop was on Denmark Road, but it is so like the ones I used to go to in Peckham and Woolwich, and similar to ones across Manchester.
Like the local ironmonger’s surplus stores had a distinctive smell, which I guess was derived from the musty clothes, shoe leather, and the well worn bare floor boards, added to which there was usually that lingering scent of paraffin stoves, which were lit even in summer.
Look closely and hanging up just over the door are a selection of military jackets, and I rather think the centre one might well have been scarlet, which were particularly fashionable in the mid 60s.
And here, I know there will be friends who took the path of a military career, and while I slouched around the College of Knowledge on Aytoun Street*, for them, those ex-surplus uniforms were just what they wore for the day job.
Our picture dates, from 1967 and it is typical of these sorts of shops, but what makes this one just that bit different are the two figures either side of the owner who stares out at the camera.
Now I have tracked the two of them across the collection and they reappear in areas zoned for house clearance, and in many of them the woman carries a map or a notepad, which suggests they are from the Architects or the Planning Department and are engaged in the survey of the area.
And their presence like the albatross in the sky may have signalled the end of S.Small & Sons, with pretty much the rest of this stretch of Denmark Road
Location, Denmark Road
Picture; great coats, work clothes and much more, Denmark Road, 1967,Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
*The College of Knowledge was actually the College of Commerce, which became the Faculty of Commerce in 1969 when Manchester Polytechnic was established, and was where me,, Lois, John, Mike and Jack passed three happy years between 1969-72.
And as I write is being converted into residential flats.
You could find the shops in any town, and they were a wonderful cornucopia of cheap and durable products, many of which were Government Surplus.
Today those great coats, and combat gear, tun up in Retro shops and retail at silly prices, but in the decades just after the last war they were for sale at knock down prices, and were a good bargain.
But even then in the 1950s, there were fashions for surplus stock amongst us kids.
One year it was green fabric bags, which might have once have held a gas mask or rounds of ammunition, but were perfect for carrying a packet of sandwiches , a bottle of lemonade or Tizer, and if we were very lucky, a slice of cake.
In the case of the balaclava, it didn’t matter that the sun was cracking the paving stones, and the last bout of rain had been a month ago, they were just a required part of what you needed to have fun.
This shop was on Denmark Road, but it is so like the ones I used to go to in Peckham and Woolwich, and similar to ones across Manchester.
Look closely and hanging up just over the door are a selection of military jackets, and I rather think the centre one might well have been scarlet, which were particularly fashionable in the mid 60s.
And here, I know there will be friends who took the path of a military career, and while I slouched around the College of Knowledge on Aytoun Street*, for them, those ex-surplus uniforms were just what they wore for the day job.
And their presence like the albatross in the sky may have signalled the end of S.Small & Sons, with pretty much the rest of this stretch of Denmark Road
Location, Denmark Road
Picture; great coats, work clothes and much more, Denmark Road, 1967,Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection, https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY
*The College of Knowledge was actually the College of Commerce, which became the Faculty of Commerce in 1969 when Manchester Polytechnic was established, and was where me,, Lois, John, Mike and Jack passed three happy years between 1969-72.
And as I write is being converted into residential flats.
I had one of those green gas mask bags, which cost 1/6d from the Army & Navy Store on the corner of Needham Ave. It served me well to carry all the crucial stuff on my forays like a bike spanner, catapult, and a plastic bag in case I found anything exciting to take home like a dead bat or owl (yes, both!). Sixty years later it has just come down from the loft and been lined with a plastic container for collecting raspberries etc on the allotment - I knew it would come in handy one day. I used to love exploring all the stuff in the army surplus places, especially the huge one in a basement on Tib St where you could get everything from a tuppeny soap tin to an 8 man rubber dinghy.
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