Shopping

Mr Bakhsish Singh Attwal came to Highfields in 1957.
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No Indian vegetables available. No yoghurt available.

One grocery shop. Mr Patel used to come to your house and drop lentils etc off. Could telephone him.

Yoghurt was essential so asked dairies to produce yoghurt.

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Mrs G. Biggs was born in Highfields in 1922.
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No 4 Abney Street was just across the road from the corner shop which is now the Laundrette. It used to be owned by Mr Growther who sold bread and cakes.

The next shops going up the hill in Eggington Street where:-

Mr Laird, a boot and shoe repairer, Miss Wandle, a greengrocer, Mr Cowney selling fish, Messrs Pittock and Gramp, a haberdasher and Mr Wilby, the chemist.

On the opposite corner to Wilbys was the butcher. A little further down on the same side was Sturtons the grocers who ground and roasted coffee on the premises. The roaster was in the window with a grating to the street and the smell wafted down each day.

On the corner of Abney Street opposite to Crowthers was Browns the grocers, a little further down was Wheatcroft the Pork Butchers who made their own pork pies on the premises.

The baking was at the bottom of our garden, and here again, the smell of pork pies being cooked was delightful.

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Roger Cave came to live in Highfields in 1940, the year he was born.
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I can even remember them delivering bread and milk, and there was a horse and cart delivery in those days.

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during the time of the 1950s you would go for your bread or tinned food to the small shops, but also in every area there was a Co-op. The nearest to us was in Chandos Street, just the other side of St Peters Road. Most people, I mean with it being a working class area, would be in the Co-op.

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Helen Edwards interviewing Sandy Coleman for Highfields Remembered.
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All food shopping was done locally. Yes. We had quite a good shopping area because we'd got shops on the Evington Road which were
very good, the Five-ways was all shops round there on Biddulph Street. I mean on the corner of Laurel Road and Biddulph Street we had a shop that sold everything under the sun, you can't imagine. Like over the road from that was an off license, everything you needed was there, butchers, the post. I can remember the Post Office on Mere Road...yes, you didn't need to go into Leicester. Wee used to walk into Leicester, we never caught the bus, we used to walk into Leicester and do shopping for shoes and things like that, but food, no, we bought food locally.

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My dad did the front room out. We used to go to Margins, the furniture shop on Wharf Street for our furniture and my mum and dad used to pay so much money every week. It wasn't hire purchase because it was paid for before they actually bought it. They paid for it like a club

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Linda Cox who was born in 1948.
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Certain items of laundry like my dad's best shirts were taken to the little Chinese Laundry on East Park Road. This was near to the newsagents shop, then newly-owned by Mr and Mrs Nuttall. Their son Robert went to the same school as me – St Barnabas Infant and Junior. A bit further along from the newsagents shop was a cake shop, a florists, and on the corner, I think it was Eastwood Electrical.

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On Sundays after dinner, I would be sent round the corner to Rossa's Ice Cream Factory (which is still there) to get the milk lollies at 3D each, and delicious they were too!

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I used to go shopping with mam on Saturday mornings in Green Lane Road. We would first go to the grocers, a double fronted shop just a bit further along from Baradells the clothes shop. I remember that the sugar, mixed fruit and other dry goods were weighed and packed into those small blue bags. All the items were listed into my mam's little exercise book, and certain things were put on 'tick' to be carried over to the next week when she could pay. Then it would be a visit over the road to Mr and Mrs Hindmarsh for the fruit and vegetables. Occasionally, we would go to the chemist shop on the corner of Bridge Road, (it had an extremely small customer area in those days) it was run by a friendly husband and wife team. I always loved it when mam could spare a penny, and I would hop onto the old-fashioned scales to be weighed. This was then followed by a stick of barley sugar for me as an extra treat!

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When I was nearing my teens, it seemed that my friend Lynda Cowles and myself were always hanging around Charny, looking for bargains or boys! We once got the shock of our lives when we thought we were looking quite glamorous to find we had been covertly photographed by the 'Leicester Chronicle' and appeared on the front page as "Two young window-shoppers". We both had short hair cuts and were wearing our gabardine school macs and ankle socks! We never lived it down.

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Mr Boleslaw Dobski came to Highfields in 1947/48.
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Let's go back to that time when you first moved into your house. Where did you shop? Did you still want Polish food?

At that time there were very little of Polish foods, we just shopped around the corner. Mind you, we become a member of the Co-op. We had been buying in the Co-op. £1.00 per week for groceries, it was enough you see in the olden days. Well we didn't have contact at that time with Poland at all, so we didn't get any of those sort of sausages and delicacies you get now in the continental shops, we had been relying on what we got next door and besides, everything was rationed. You wouldn't remember? We got a Polish butcher. He started a shop in Churchill Street and so all the Poles were going to Mr Morawiec because he was a Pole and he really was a proper butcher and then we enjoyed the Polish sausage. Max his name was. He was the first one in Leicester to start up a Polish delicatessen.

I was earning about £4 or £5 a week for 48 hours. Mind you £4 was something different to the £4 today of course! But that was the general rate of pay. You tried to make a little overtime or a little bonus and so on. If anybody was earning £6 that was regarded as having a good job. We started working (more or less) in factories.

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Slowly the Polish shops started up here in the Sixties. One was in Mere Road. Next door to a Polish church there was a grocery shop, that was owned by Colonel Dadrowski. His Christian name was Anthony. Yeah, he was the commanding officer of one of the Panzer units in Italy. He lives with his friends. But that was one of the first shops. There was others as well but it was next to the church, so when we went to the church on Sunday, the next thing it was to go to Dadrowski for Polish sausages. It was very new but everybody was happy to live together. So that was Highfields in those days.

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Dr Stuart Fraser lived in Highfields from 1946 the year he was born.
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there were shops just down on the Melbourne Road which I think now is just a spectacle shop and hosiery shops. The houses that are now shops are mostly hosiery shops, corner shops, general store and spectacle shop. From what I remembered as a child was there was food shops, groceries, bakers, butchers vegetable shops and there was a shop near us called Mr Tivvy's, and I used to get sent there to get fruit and vegetables for my mother and the corner shop I think was Curtis's the butchers who again my mother used to get her regular joint from once a week and I think he continued to deliver meat to her, when she went to live on the Scraptoft lane area. Opposite my abiding memory is of the Worthington's general store which is now a bookkeepers premises and I can remember going in there to get food and my mother having to cut coupons up because there was some food rationing still going on.

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The other things that I remember about living down here in the area are the fact that there was a marvellous shopping area that I remember going down. The one thing that I recollect getting there was a bike – Mr Bones the bikes on the Charny- Charnwood Street which I remember vividly as being one mass of shops and things for sale.

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I certainly didn't have any friends who came down into this area, and in fact it was one thing that I used to have as a bit of a problem as a school child and I used to say, "why can't we live where my school friends live?" They were all obviously professional and upper class people and I was told "this is where the people are, this is where the work is, this is where we have to live". And so I accepted that.

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Mr Tirthram Hansrani came to live in Highfields in the late 1940s.
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I could not get Indian, Punjabi food. I could get a few things like lentils, curry powder, chilli powder. After a long time, a Mr Stanford opened a shop. He was very nice, really helpful and sympathetic. He used to deliver to your home.

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Mr Abdul Haq came to live in Highfields in 1963.
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When you lived in Highfields could you easily buy Asian groceries?

No, nothing, hardly any at all. After 1955 more Asians lived here. More came in 1972, when Idi Amin threw them out of Uganda. A lot of people in this area came from Kenya too

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There's more Asian shops now, meat, clothing, fancy goods, spices. The park was beautiful, many people used to go summer time in nice weather. Very few Asian families in 1963. Only about three or four.

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Mrs Betty Hoyland was born in Highfields.
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Pocket money as such was unknown. Sometimes we had a halfpenny to spend, or perhaps a penny when we would run round the corner to Mrs Normans' sweet shop to buy some home made ice-cream, watching her dive into a big tub behind the counter with a spoon, and bring out a delicious primrose coloured concoction, and wait for the magic words, "Would you like some flavouring dear?" We always did, and she would then pour some sweet red syrup on the top of the primrose nectar, and our heaven was complete!

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Mr Amarjit Singh Johl came to Highfields in 1964.
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We were very limited as a community, we used to dress and clothe as the English did. We used to go to town for clothes. The standard of shops was much higher than India. I used to like to dress properly. I liked good fashionable clothes. We used to buy groceries in the neighbourhood.

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How do you see the change where you used to live?

It is beyond recognition, everything has changed. There were lots of small corner shops in the area. There were no Indian shops. All the shops were owned by English people. The shops used to cater for all the needs in the area, there were a milk dairy on 254 Mere Road, which has been converted into Leicester Family Housing Association. There is a vast change in the area. There was an electric shops opposite the dairy. A meat shop on the next corner and grocery shop. It was a very community based system. People in the area knew each other and shops had regular customers. The service was very good, it has changed altogether. It is very commercialised.

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There were small shops in the Charnwood Street. It was like an Indian bazaar. They have been demolished. The shopkeepers moved to other areas such as Hartington Road or Green Lane Road. The standard of houses is very high now. The houses have been renovated with local government grants. There are all facilities such as toilets, showers, baths. There is improvement all round, such as outside of houses, streets and footpaths. The general appearance has changed but it has lost its peacefulness.

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Mr Aidan Maguire came to Highfields in 1962.
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we moved to Sherratt Road which is in the old Charnwood area, or what was called the 'Old Charny' which is the shopping area. A shop that sticks out in my mind was called Paddy Slacks. It was a famous old shop.

Why?

I think it was because it was a bric-a-brac place and there were a lot of toys there. I was just one of those places that stood out and everyone remembered it.

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So if you wanted to go anywhere you used public transport?

Yes, a lot of people used the local area because it was the local shopping area and because there was so many shops on Berners Street, most people who ever lived in Highfields walked to Berners Street at one time or another.

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On Berners Street, there was a delicatessen. I remember this because there was such a variety of shops on Berners Street. In fact, I remember the shops had an unbelievable variety! Even back in the sixties when we were really young, there was a Delicatessen on the corner which was run by a Polish guy. The Polish people came from all over and they were doing things like Salamis and different types of bread and cooked bread, gherkins, and things like that which you wouldn't get in lots of other shops. There were cold meats, I would say it was a delicatessen now, but we just knew it as a Polish shop where you went for bread that tasted slightly different.

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Marjorie Marston was born in Highfields in 1942.
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I remember we used to go to the local shops and get things called locus beans; they were long brown things that we used to chew on instead of sweets because obviously, sweets were short and we could only have a certain amount on a ration book.

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Mrs Margaret Porter came to Highfields in 1923.
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Memories Of Sparkenhoe Street, 1929 – 1946 by Mrs Margaret Porter (nŽe Hall).

I have very happy memories of living at the fish shop in Sparkenhoe Street opposite Gearys the chemists. We moved there when I was three (around 1929), taking over from Mr and Mrs Dave Whittaker who moved to the fruit and vegetable shop next door but one. Next to us on Sparkenhoe Street, was Mr Johnson (Jonty) the cobbler, then Whittakers' fruit shop, Pitchers' cake shop, a Post Office, and lastly Tantums, the newsagents where we bought all our birthday cards. There was also Billy Bares a cycle repairers. Beyond Tantums were the railings of the gardens leading to the front entrance of the workhouse (later known as Hillcrest Hospital).

On the other side of our shop was Jack Bamford, the butcher, which was on the corner of Sparkenhoe Street and Upper Conduit Street (now Maidstone Road). Next to Bamfords (or Mr Nichols) was a tobacconist, and another fruit and vegetable shop called Dunkleys. After that came Mrs Garners shoe shop, then a sweet shop run by a Miss Brown, and a drapers shop run by a Mrs Drake.

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The sweet shop on that side of Conduit Street was full of wonderful sweets for children which were put into little triangular bags. I think you could get a bag for a farthing or a half-penny in those days. Sweets consisted of aniseed balls, coconut chips, sherbet dabs etc. There was a better quality confectionery shop on the other side of Conduit Street where my mother paid weekly to obtain a Crown Derby teapot full of chocolates one Christmas.

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I can't remember any other shops on the left-hand side of Conduit Street except for Goodalls' grocery shop, which was more or less at the end of the row. This was a large double-fronted shop which had counters running all round the shop. They also had a delivery boy who went around on a bicycle (just like Granville). He had a mop of blonde hair, was usually whistling the latest tune, and I thought he was wonderful.

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We shared a large communal back yard with 6 of the shops: Mr Johnson, Mr and Mrs Whittaker, Mr and Mrs Bamford, Mrs Wacks, the tobacconist and Dunkleys (who had their own portioned off section of the yard for a time). We had no garden but the yard was lovely to play in for Joyce and Mary Whittaker and myself (the only children on the yard). We each had our own shed, my father's shed contained his potato-peeling machine and store of potatoes (it was known as the potato shed). There was also a communal wash-house containing two or three mangles and an outside tap. Beyond this at the top of the yard, were the row of toilets, one for each family, and then the very high brick wall separating the yard from the grounds of the workhouse. There was also a loft over the sheds with wooden steps leading up to it, which belonged to Mr Whittaker. This was used as a factory for a time, but later on we children were allowed to play in it (until the steps rotted).

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The living accommodation at the back of the shops was small but cosy. We had no electricity upstairs and had to use candles. (This didn't stop my mother from reading in bed at night with the candle-stick resting on a pillow). We had two bedrooms (no landing) and an attic reached by another set of stairs leading from the back bedroom. I remember playing in the attic with my dolls, as it had a very solid floor and was very clean but above it were the rafters of the roof.

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Both Mr Whittaker and my father went very early in the morning to the wholesale fruit and fish markets which were at the bottom of Halford Street. Mr Whittaker carried his goods back on a hand-cart (which stood in the yard) and my father often had to help him push it up Swain Street bridge (which we often used to play on). I can remember Mrs Whittaker boiling beetroot for the shop, and my mother boiling mussels and whelks which had to be removed from their shells later and displayed on large oval meat dishes in the shop window. My father spent every morning at the sink filleting the fish which was a very cold job in the winter.

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On Sundays (the only day the shop was closed) we often went on day trips to Skegness. This entailed packing sandwiches and walking all the way to Belgrave Road station very early in the morning. We knew we were nearing the sea when we saw fields of yellow mustard and Boston Stump (the church tower), and got very excited at the prospect.

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The shops I have memories of were finally pulled down around 1950. A picture taken in 1954 shows them recently demolished, although the terraced row of houses on the other side of Sparkenhoe Street (opposite the workhouse) were still there then. Most of the shops, including ours were still open until that time, although we actually moved to better living accommodation on Mere Road in 1946.

My regret is that I didn't take a photograph of these shops when I had the chance, and hope to find someone who may have one tucked away somewhere. I never dreamt that I would become so nostalgic about them as I grew older.

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Mr Charan Singh came to Highfields in the 1950s.
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There was a small shopping centre near Mere Street. At Highfields, there were only 1 or 2 Asian shops. I used to go to town to buy my clothes. We could not get the Asian spices from here. Somebody used to come from Coventry every Sunday with the spices. Everybody would buy from him.

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Councillor Farook Subedar came to live in Highfields in 1972.
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But I remember the riots exactly, most of the effect and damage was done near this library, in actual fact. Near all these shops. Shopping precincts were looted and even the shops in front of the house, the electrical shops were looted so many times.

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What about shopping and halal foods?

Yes, when we came there were only three halal butchers. One was in Berners Street, Mr Khan, and there were two others – one in Laurel Road and Ismail Food Store in Duffield Street, there was three or four halal butchers. People used to struggle to have halal foods, not just the meat, even the biscuits and other foods. We had to be careful because none of the breads and things like that were halal. There were no ingredients displayed on those items, so we had to be very careful what we ate. We were lucky in in Highfields. There was a Moslem businessman who started some bakeries, like the Leicester Bakery, Sabat Bakery and others. This is how we got most of the halal items and even the groceries and shop keepers now they make sure that they supply mostly the non-animal fat products, they know the local residents only want halal foods.

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Mrs Nora Swift was born in Highfields.
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After moving to Garden Suburb we used to walk from there as children (it must have been at least a four mile walk) to visit my aunt at the shop in Bakewell Street, which sold everything from fuel lighters to lovely big square boxes of biscuits, what a sight and smell!

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Mary Thornley came to live in Highfields in 1912.
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And my grandmother used to go to Grices and Cordells in High Street. They were just past Lloyds Bank, I think Grices is there now but I don't know what it's called. I remember them putting money in little boxes and pulling a string and it ran along the to the cash desk in the middle, it was rather fun!

It was always draper's shops that had those wasn't it?

That's right yes.

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Mr Eric Tolton was born in Highfields in 1916.
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Could you remember where you used to get the gas mantles from?

No, because there was a number of shops in Bonsall Street. There was another shop in Egginton Street but quite honestly as a young boy, I wasnt interested in the shopping side of things so Im not sure where anybody got the gas mantles from.

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Did the Boys Brigade march through the street then?

Oh yes. I dont know whether it was once a month that we had a parade to Wesley Hall, we used to meet in Asfordby Street. You wouldnt know Adcocks the Tripe Shop, corner of Asfordby Street and Green Lane Road. We used to meet there, because both Adock boys were in the Boys Brigade and. Occasionally there was a battalion parade through the whole of the city from the different churches.

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Can you remember, did you have groceries delivered as well?

Yes. Now Bodicoats, now where were they, they were somewhere off the East Park Road. You see, when my mother and father had the Tailors Shop like still today, nowadays, the small traders, they all work in one with the other which is far enough you know, trading with one another, thats how Bodicoats came to deliver. Yes, they used to come round one day and take the order and a couple of days later they would bring the stuff.

Did he have a horse and cart or did he come on a bicycle?

I think he came on a bicycle, dont remember a horse and cart.

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So where did you shop for your aunt then when you went shopping?

Oh, there were some shops in Dronfield Street, the Greengrocers, Timsons, the Paper shop, Mrs Weston, the Chemist shop, she was cross-eyed, it was most disconcerting. There was a sweet shop on the corner, Winterburns I think there name was ..... there was a pork butchers just inside Donnington Street. They were quite good local shops. The nearest Co-op I would say was in Conduit Street. There was one in Chandos Street because my pal who lived in Bonsell Street used to go to Chandos Street for his mothers groceries, but I dont think from where we lived on the Mere Road that thered be much in it really. You didnt think a lot about walking to places you see.

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What did you spend your pocket money on?

Sweets, gobstoppers and the like.

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Mrs Muriel Wilmot came to live in Highfields in 1927.
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There was a grocers, Simpkins James, rather a classy shop, like Waitrose, they all use to wear black overalls

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my mother took me to get my first job at Freeman Hardy Willis, a shoe shop in Granby Street. A very nice shoe shop. I started there as a Junior at half a crown a week.

You liked it?

I liked it because I had to do everything. We had to scrape clean the carpet every morning. We scraped on our hands and knees the whole of that big shop. I had to arrange all the chairs, polish them all once a week. I had to get the meals, get the morning break, get the manager's dinner. I used to have to take all light fittings down they were screwed on four screws, take them all down and wash them all and put them all back. When the stock came in I had to fit it into the existing stock. I had to do that all on my own, and I made a good job of it, I loved every minute of it. I used to come home and I was so tired.

What time did you work, can you remember?

Oh the shops had long hours then. We worked until 6pm Monday and Tuesday, 7pm Wednesday,Thursday half day and Friday 8pm, Saturday 9pm. All that for half a crown a week until after three months it was raised to 5 shillings

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Mrs Dorothy Woodford was born in Highfields in 1921.
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My mother was a house-proud woman and I can still see in my mind's eye the newspaper laid in front of the back room grate, and my mother on her knees with the orange & black 'Zebo' striped tin polishing the steel fender until it gleamed like silver. Often, she would send me to White's hardware shop in Conduit Street for a penny 'Dolly Dye' with which she would proceed to give curtains, tablecloths and serviettes a second and more attractive lease of life.

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Every week, Mr Johnson called from Vickers Mounts to take our grocery order – this usually came to well under £1, but it was quite lengthy, and I can still hear my mother saying, "A 4 and a 2 of Gram (Sugar), 1/2 of Typhoo etc etc. On one of Mr Johnson's visits he asked how old I was and I remember saying "3 1/2" – "Oh", said he, "3 1/2d", which at that time I thought was rather silly!

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My mother, without a sewing machine, made all our clothes, often going to W.A. Lee's store (then situated at the corner of Humberstone Gate and Charles Street) to pick up remnants for herself and us girls.

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At the bottom of Sparkenhoe Street there was a row of small shops – Bamfords the butcher, Whittakers the green-grocers, Halls fish shop, Coles bakery, and opposite, Gearys the chemist, whose windows were resplendent with large bottles filled with brilliant jewel coloured liquids.

Upper Conduit Street was another source of interest. Mrs Smith ran an off licence at the corner of Gartree Street where customers took their jugs to be filled with ale. Opposite was Goodalls the grocer. My favourite shops were the sweet shop run by Mrs Norman, a large rosy cheeked woman with black hair and a jovial manner, and Mrs Markham's general shop on the corner of Framland Street.

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Our Saturday pennies were spent at these two shops. For 1/2d. we could buy an ice-cream cornet from Mrs Norman liberally sprinkled with ruby red colouring. Mrs Markham's small shop was to a child, a veritable Aladdin's Cave – cards of 'jewelled' rings 1/4d, necklaces, beads etc for 1/2d. Novelties galore, and Mrs Markham, a small shrivelled old lady had endless patience whilst we tried to make up our minds what to buy.

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Mrs Joan Hands came to live in Highfields in 1940.
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There were two grocery-cum-greengrocery shops in Derwent Street, both too expensive according to my mother to shop at regularly, but handy when supplies of essential items ran out. The one near the corner of Derwent Street and Mere Road was on the same side as our house, at No. 39 and was the more ‘old fashioned’ of the two. It was a real ‘gossip shop’ and service was slow. I remember buying a bottle of Camp coffee there once, the wartime substitute for the real thing. The one lower down on the same side was a newer, more ‘with it’ establishment and the one preferred by my Mum. I was often sent there when she had run out of something and the young son was the same age as my brother, so they sometimes played together in the street. On occasions, a van came round the streets selling fruit and vegetables too.

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