Shopping in Hillfields

by Tom Mason 

Most of the everyday shopping was done "up the street", that is, in Hillfields. During the Great War we used to get our meat from a butcher on the corner of Vine Street and Charles Street. I was a toddler at the time, and I can remember standing in a queue there. In those days women's skirts were down to their ankles, and I remember being hemmed in by a wall of dark skirts with feet at the bottom. Their top halves were way up above my line of vision. Later we used to go to a butcher in Victoria Street, one of a chain whose name I cannot recall. The manager there was Oliver Neale who later set up on his own account near the top of King William Street, and we transferred our allegiance there. When we wanted pork we went to Sutton's at the bottom of Primrose Hill Street. 

Fruit and vegetables we bought at a shop in Victoria Street which became Powis's. Nearby was a small sweetshop with a very high step - was it Duke's? - where we often went for coconut ice and some kind of pineapple confection. 

Groceries came from the Co-op. On Wednesday morning mother took in her order book, and in the afternoon a neat parcel was delivered to our home. All without charge and with a substantial dividend! Those were the days! (For some things).

I can still remember many of the Hillfields shops. Starting at the bottom of Primrose Hill Street there was, on the left-hand corner, Suttons the pork butcher. I think there were houses next until you came to the Globe cinema, then the Queen's Public House, then more houses until you came to the top where there were a few shops. One of these was Jack Boswell's green grocery. His slogan was "Don't bring a big purse, bring a big basket!" There was a confectioners, a hairdresser - haircuts were six pence each, that is 2.5p, in the early days. On the corner was the Leopard pub. 

Primrose Hill Street looking from the junction with Vine Street towards the city centre

On the other side of the street, at the bottom, was Brain's cycle shop and Mrs Little's cooked meat shop, and one or two more. The rest of the street on that side was lined with houses each with a garden, all rather neglected, if I remember aright, until you came to Sharp's fishing tackle shop at the top corner. About half way up was Tayler's the photographers, which looked just like the rest of the houses except that there was a display board in the garden near to the pavement. 

Primrose Hill Street in 1971 shortly before it was demolished to make way for Sidney Stringer school.

Turning now to Victoria Street. On the left-hand corner was a wallpaper shop, though I think that in the early days it was something else. Then there was Hands the tobacconist, and Rainbow's the chemist. I remember I got hold of the formula for making gun powder, and we tried to buy the ingredients there. There was no trouble with the sulphur, but Mr. Rainbow would not part with the saltpetre. He wanted to know what we wanted it for, and my "I don't know what my dad wants it for" didn't work the oracle. 

There was a bakers, a small pub (the Old Vic?), a draper, Tuckers, I believe, and one or two other shops of no interest to children. 

Shops in Victoria Street in 1919

Apart from Rainbow's there were three other chemists in the area. One was Brown's, at the corner of Castle Street and Cross Street: the window occupied the curve where the two streets met. The other chemists were Boots, near the Co-op, and Douthwaites, in King William Street. Also in this street were, on the Canterbury Street corner, the pub known as the Clock and next to it Phillips the ironmonger. On the other side of the road was the Maypole, where we were fascinated by the man who scooped out the right amount of butter and patted it into a neat block in a twinkling. Attempts at home to emulate him using a lump of plasticine were a a dismal failure. On the wall was a picture in the tiles of a maypole. Nearby was the Home and Colonial where, occasionally, cut-out cardboard models of a H&C shop were given away. 

View of Victoria Street

Our post office was in Adelaide Street, on the left hand side, but what I remember most about the street was a house opposite to the post office where in the late summer you could buy home-made toffee apples that always seemed bigger and better than any available elsewhere.

Shops in King William Street

Reproduced with kind permission of the Hillfields History Group. This story was first published in the group's third publication of Hillfields in their Own Words.

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This page was last updated 24/05/06