Remembering the High Street: A Nostalgic Look at Famous Names

On every high street there used to be butcher, baker, grocer, greengrocer, draper, Boots, ironmonger, pub, W H Smith, cafe, bank, Freeman Hardy & Willis, jeweller, Marks and Spencer, furniture shop, hotel, secondhand bookseller, off-licence, haberdasher, Woolworth’s, confectioner, cobbler, tobacconist, electrical showroom, Burton’s, gas showroom, ladies’ fashions, Home and Colonial, and more, and maybe a department store or two. You know what we mostly have now. A parade of pound shops, charity shops, building society branches, ladies’ hairdressers, kebab take-aways and shops boarded up.So what has gone wrong - if it is wrong? The author answers this and many other important questions, such as who exactly was H Samuel, who was the Fifty Shilling Tailor and what the Dolly Sisters did to Mr Selfridge. So, if you wondered where the yellow went, when you brushed your teeth with Pepsodent, wonder no more. It’s all in here.