Shops:then and now

CAROLINE BLOMFIELD

In June 2003, after selling our bookshop by Station, we set up an exhibition celebrating one hundred years of shopping in Kew. The exhibition was held in a historic venue, the old workshops of Station ROYAL Avenue. They had just undergone complete renovation as a stylish studio 'So.,.Afo..,) \<;. complex, and the owners kindly lent us a large ground floor space. The ....ls exhibition was open to the public for just two days, and to our amazement we had almost 300 visitors. In view of this unexpected response, we are publishing our findings, in the hope that others may attempt something similar - and ideally even more wide-ranging - in their own communities.

For most of the 20th century there were four main shopping areas in Kew: the original Kew village around the Green and along Terrace; the full length of Sandycombe Road; the west side of the station, known today as 'The Village'; the east side of the station at the top of North Road, part of which has now been landscaped and pedestrianised as 'Kew Plaza'. (Until 1920 there was also a further small row of shops along the Lower Richmond Road, between the south ends of North Road and Dancer Road, called North Parade: these were demolished when the A316 was widened around 1930.) We decided to research these four areas and to try to establish how shops and shopping have changed in Kew, and to what extent premises that were retail businesses one hundred years ago were still operating as shops, and to what extent the goods and services demanded, and thus provided, have changed over the years. We included cafes and restaurants in the research, although they are not shops, as the changing eating-out pattern over the century is of parallel interest. )0\0 T. 1= : HoR 1 \'!Ot"M'loN We used Kelly's Directories as our main source of information from 1900 i'Nt,Al>E' to 1971 (when Kelly's ceased publication) covering twenty-year spans: J 1900, 1920, 1940, 1960 and 1971. Obviously there would have been ) changes between these dates, but these milestones provided a reasonable 4:"'(bc,'rt""21 HJ) overview for the first three-quarters ofthe century. Post-1971, however, we 10 Lowt:"R R,C. rIlC.> had to rely on less rei iable sources: our own memories and those of other long-term residents, notably Miss Pat Thomas, who has lived all her life in The main shopping streets of Kew Kew and has been a mine of information about the shops around the Green. Her father was the pharmacist on Mortlake Terrace for over 50 years, and Pat grew up living above the shop. A professional photographer, she has produced a small book, Kew Through My Camera Lens, which gives a gves a unique photographic picture of Kew's recent history. Our Shopping Trends in Kew, 1900-2003 exhibition, and this article, have benefited hugely from her contributions, Table A indicates the growth and decline of certain key retail businesses. and those of many of her contemporaries. We also owe much to the We have not included the numerous small businesses such as plumbers, pioneering work of Kew resident, David Collison, who recorded the history carpenters, builders etc, who often worked from small retail premises. of the shops in Kew's Mortlake Terrace in his TV series 'Talking Shop'. There have been some changes since we did our survey in 2003, and we did not include the Kew Retail Park, as it was a separately developed site within Kew rather than an existing retail area. Table A Shops in Kew 19'00-2003 / Kew's shops have always arrived, spread, and adapted - as shops do 1920 1940 :1971 2003 1900 everywhere - in response to demand. We carmot blame Sainsbury's, Tesco Total shops 140 154 159 .- 155 . . 93 Express and the Retail Park for meeting our demands today, much as we 4 '- 3 . I mourn the closure of Kew's last greengrocer in 2003, and note Baker 5 7 r, , 3 1 .. ; 3 I nostalgically that there is now just one butcher where fifty years ago there Bank i 3 -, ' Butcher 7 T 9,_' 6 ' , • ': 1 were nine, and one baker where even as late as the 1970s there were three. Boot repairs 7' 8 .4 ;, 3 _ I 2 1 u 2 Books .0 '2 In the 19th century, the earliest, very small, shops in Kew were around the Chemists 3 4- 4 3 2 Confectioner . '9-" 7' - 6} Green. There were also tiny shops at the south end of Sandycombe Road. Tobacco k , $' 3.} 11 CTN 7CTN It was not until the 1880s that the flIst recorded shops appeared in Station Newsagents tv, lv, 2} Approach, strangely some fifteen years after the arrival of the station. Clothing' 5 I 5 7 1 These were the small, single-storey wooden buildings that still stretch from Dairy 9. 6 7 3 ,0 Drapers Kew Bookshop to River Traders. Large, brick-built 'parades' of shops, with !Haberdashers- 4 3- 3 v 2 2 two storeys of residential accommodation above, arrived around the turn of 11 7 19 Eating Out the century. The first were Mortlake Terrace, Royal Parade on Station Estate Agents 1 L 2 3 6 Electric81 . o o 3 3 3 Approach and Station Parade, with its date (1895) still recorded on its Fish (fresh) 2 4 3 2 0 nameplate above Victor Lown estate agents on the corner. On the east side Furnishing of the station, on North Road the slightly smaller brick parade was named IAntiques -2' 5 7 2 Grocer 8 14' 10 3 West Park Exchange (there are no Kelly's entries here for 1900, but the Greengrocer 'f 7 7 0 shops must have come very soon after), next to a further cluster of small HairlBeauty 7' 5 6 6 single-storey shops around what is now Kew Plaza. In Sandycombe Road, 4-- 4 2 J Hardware the first tiny businesses at the south end were in the front rooms of LaundrYlettes/ Dry Cleaners 2 2, 3 5 cottages, with the proprietors living above and behind the shop. Further up Post Office 4 3 -'" 3 1 the road another row of large red-brick buildings, Victoria Parade, went up Stationer.· 2 3 . --7, 0 0 .',\'; in 1899, also showing its date high up on the corner ofthe row. Watch IJewellery 3 1 1 0 WineIBeer 4 5 7 • 1 Most of the very small shops in Sandycombe Road have now been converted to attractive residential properties, many of them still recognisable as shops of long ago as they retain their pretty bow windows. Elsewhere, most of the premises around Kew that were trading as shops 100 years ago are still trading as retail businesses today, albeit of very different kinds. of tradesmen plied their wares from door to door. Greengrocers, bakers, muffin men, rag & bone etc, all with horse and cart drawn vehicles.'

Shops in Kew peaked in numbers through the 1940s to the 1960s. 'There would be so many people in Sandycombe on a Saturday morning they'd be walking on each other's heads,' says Peter the window cleaner, still a familiar figure in the village, who grew up in Sandycombe Road. The small shops at the south end of Sandycombe began to change to residential use during the 1970s.

Butchers, Bakers, Candlestick Makers and the rest In 1900 there were no fewer than four butchers in Sandycombe Road and some half a dozen more spread among the other1fl1\in shopping areas of Kew. Now there is just one left - Pethers in Station Parade. Keith Thomas remembers Kelland the butcher on the parade of shops on , now part of Brown's restaurant, where you can still identify the original wide entrance that led to a yard behind the shop. Not long before his time he tells us that 'live beasts were brought to the shop and driven in there prior to slaughter.' In 1971 there were two butchers' shops, almost opposite each other, towards the south end of Sandycombe Road, run by Mr Masters in a minute premises at 199 and Mr Sibthorp at 216. Both had gone by the mid- 80s. Advertisements from the early part of the last century reveal that chicken, an expensive option until the growth of intensive farming, could have been bought from a 'fishmonger and poulterer'. Until the 1980s you could always buy fresh fish somewhere in Kew: there have been fishmongers in Sandycombe Road, in North Road, and at 8 Station Approach where River Traders gift shop is today. Now fish lovers queue eagerly in the Station forecourt on Wednesdays when Ken from Whitby arrives with his van, and there are two fish 'n chips shops, the Garden Fish Bar in Sandycombe Road, and the Kew Fish Bar on Kew Plaza, which opened in 2005, since our survey. In 1900 the local 'fried fish shop' was further along at.207 Sandycombe Road.

Newens bread delivered by handcart Bread would always be bought fresh from a baker. Several in Kew baked on the premises, notably at 1 Station Parade, where Henry Lotz had a For a large part of the 20th century, everyone's daily needs were within bakery in 1900. By 1920 until the early 1980s this was the Osborne walking distance. Until self-service stores began to appear, leading to the Bakery. Then for a few years it was a dress boutique, before becoming the giant supennarket chains of today, shopping would have been done almost Greenhouse Cafe of today; the old baker's oven is still there, down in the daily in many different shops, as not many households had a fridge. Many basement. Until the 19705 the baker at 103 North Road still baked on the shops would deliver at the beginning of the 20th century, certainly to the premises as well. Now the only real baker remaining is Newens' Maids of larger houses: delivery boys with handcarts, or on bicycles fitted with large Honour, on Kew Road. front baskets, were a familiar sight around the streets as were horse-drawn drays. Michael Jackson, who grew up in Kew around WW2, told us, 'A lot A candle (and candlestick) to light you to bed would have been essential at By 1970 this was Squires Stores, now run by the Patel family, worthy the start of the century, as most houses only had gaslight or paraffin lamps. successors to the friendly local grocers ofearlier times. You would have needed to go no further than your nearest ironmonger/domestic stores, or the whitesmith who in 1900 was at 226 Milk and other dairy products would come from a dairy of which there Sandycombe Road (he worked in tin mostly). 12 Station Parade has been were several around Kew. In 1900, 16 Station Parade, now Pethers the an ironmongers ever since the Parade was built in ]895, selling every kind butcher, was a dairy. The present owner of Pethers has been told that they of hardware, tools, pots and pans and other household goods; used to keep their horse and cart for deliveries behind the shop. There was A.&E.Robbins must be one of the few shops left in the country where you an Express Dairy in North Road in 1960, and a United Dairies, a - can still buy nails by weight, a single washer, or indeed whatever you need wide business which, like most of the Express Dairies, also sold groceries, in the amount you need, not prepacked in inconvenient quantities. Miss on Kew Green during the middle years of the century. By 1920, 7 Station Robbins, who was born above the shop over 90 years ago when her fami Iy Parade was Hornby & Clarke Ltd., a large local dairy, with shops all over owned it, still lives in Richmond. Her father was an assistant to the original south and west London. Michael Jackson remembers' ....deliveries of milk owner; he married his daughter and took over the shop. (See the article on from Hornby and Clarke using the old hand pushed cart. 1 cannot imagine Ebenezer Robbins on page 46.) The business is now owned by Mr and Mrs it was pushed each day from Richmond, so I imagine it was stocked up Burke, but they have retained the name of A.&E. Robbins. In 1900 Kew from a local point before the round was started....' They kept their cows on still had a working blacksmith's forge, just beside the bridge, run by Mr Petersham Meadows iTom 1870 until 1935, when the farm was taken over Attfield the blacksmith. Many older residents, ourselves included by Express Dairies. By the mid-60s 7 Station Parade itself was an Express remember his son, Jim, who carried on the blacksmith's trade from his Dairy. After a spell as Hobson's Bakery, it is now Starbucks. forge in Brentford. Jim, a leading light in the Kew Horticultural Society, died in the 1980s. Cycle shops were also an important feature in the days when cars were a luxury. A favourite one was called Ayres & Parks in Sandycombe Road. Michael Jackson says: 'My first cycle came from Ayres and was one of his rebuilt jobs - it cost 12/6d old money, 62Y2 p today. A fairly good new cycle would cost £3 and a Claude Butler racing ' "; .• '.;: " :: l' l' I, I 'I-t ( .. ' .. cycle £9. All old money of course.' And Keith Thomas still rides the 1947 Raleigh he bought there in that year.

At the beginning of the century grocers' shqps, or provision merchants, catered for all kinds of goods: tea and coffee, 's...ugar and spices, flour, rice etc. You could buy broken biscuits by the ounce, weighed out and bagged, for a few pennies: prepacked goods were unusual. At the start of the 20th century, Kew had plenty of grocers' shops, ranging from tiny ones at the south end of Sandycombe Road to larger stores such at Teetgen's on the comer ofLeybome Park and Royal Parade (now Featherstone Leigh estate agents). There were particular problems before the days ofchill cabinets. Keith Thomas remembers' ....the foul smell from the back yard of the grocers' next door to our pharmacy in a hot summer around 1930 - rancid bacon and butter, also exploding eggs were thrown out and made the place hum.' As freezers and chill cabinets arrived in shops and domestic freezers and fridges in the home, grocers' shops evolved into today's self-service '\ stores, selling almost everything that before would have come from a ",,"'- '1\ ...... specialist supplier. No.4 Station Parade was a grocer in ]900: it is now part of Tesco Express, which opened in 2004, taking up three units. 1n]960 a Station Parade in a quieter age grocer called L.HLawrence & Sons traded from 299 Sandycombe Road. There were always a few laundries before the days of washing machines, to Kew must have been full of healthy eaters of fresh fruit and vegetables in look after those who could afford to have their washing done for them. 1920, for there were then no fewer than ten fruiterers or greengrocers. Now Then from the '60s and '70s launderettes appeared: their life-span was there are none. The last one, the much-missed Yeoman's of 9 Station limited as soon most people had their own washing machines, but there is Parade, closed in 2003; it had been a greengrocer's from the time Station still one, at 296 Sandycombe Road. On the other hand, there are now five Parade was built, and the Yeoman family had been there since the '20s. dry-cleaning establishments in Kew. Until well into the second half of the century the fruit 'n veg on sale would have been very different from now: it would nearly all have been seasonal Drapers and haberdashers are hard to fmd anywhere these days. In Kew and mostly British-grown, as very little was imported. Avocados, there was a draper at 5 Station Parade from 1900 till after 1960. This aubergines and courgettes were almost unheard of, as were strawberries in became the Wool Shop, which was beautifully fitted out with wooden winter. Mushrooms were expensive seasonal treats before they were drawers and units. It was still there in 1971, but not for very much longer. commercially grown on today's vast scale. You could buy just the heads; Now A Stitch in Time caters for needlecraft in Sandycombe Road and the stalks were often sold separately and more cheaply to add their flavour Fabrique on Kew Green sells elegant furnishing fabrics at 10 Kew Green. to soups and stews. During the '70s the small shop next to the station steps (The French Impressionist, Camille Pissarro lived for a time above this on Station Parade was a fruiterer. Once it was a furrier, and later a tiny shop.) cafe. Now it houses The Kew Gardener, and the land behind, once a nursery garden and then an allotment, once again displays lovely garden Confectioners and tobacconists were usually listed separately during the plants. first part of the century, as were newsagents, although advertisements suggested there was considerable overlap even then. Nowadays these three For over fifty years a much-loved figure in Kew was Mr A.B. Thomas, the are invariably combined, known in the trade as CTNs (Confectioner, chemist at 3 Mortlake Terrace, Kew Green, the father of Pat Thomas. She Tobacconist and Newsagent). In 1900 there were as many confectioners or remembers filling packets of Epsom Salts for her father, weighing them out sweetshops as any other kind of shop. In Sandycombe Road alone in 1900 very carefully. Mr Thomas would pay her 2d. pocket money for a dozen there were no fewer than five, all on the east side ofthe street. These must packets. The window displayed large glass 'carboy' full of coloured liquid, have been real treasure houses with large glass jars filled with all sorts of that Pat assures us was just water. As well as Mr Thomas's shop, which sweets which would be sold by the ounce; now they are only available had been a chemist back in 1900, Kew always had several chemists in the preweighed and prepacked. In 1920 there was a Mrs Barrell, confectioner, earlier part of the last century: there was at least one, and for many years at 6 Mortlake Terrace. By 1940 the shop was being run by her daughter, two, in Sandycombe Road. By the 1970s they had gone. During the '40s Miss Barrell. For many years around 1940 there was a confectioner at 318 and the '60s there was also one at 110 North Road, on Kew Plaza, where a Kew Road, owned by Mrs E. Horwill. Her daughter, Miss Horwill, who collection of vintage vehicles is now hOl,lsed. Kew's prescriptions are still lives in Kew, lent us a photograph for our exhibition, showing the fulfilled today at Q Pharmacy and Lloyds jri Station Parade, or at Boots in family standing outside their shop, with herself as a little girl in the front. the Retail Park. Until the '80s, 15 Kew Green was a little sweetshop caHed The Chocolate Box. It is easy to picture how it would have once appeared, with its bow In the earlier part ofthe 20th century no one in Kew had to go far to post a window filled with jars of brightly coloured sweets. parcel or to collect their pension. There was a Post Office on Kew Green, as well as one on Mortlake Terrace, one in Kew Road, and one in the More adult requirements were also catered for in Kew. In the early years Station triangle - first, until the '20s, at 6 Station Parade and then in there were few tobacconists as such, but advertisements suggest that some purpose-built premises in Station Approach, now the Ma Cuisine of the smokers' basic requirements could be bought at a confectioner's. restaurant. It closed, in spite of great opposition, in 1990. There was also a Certainly it was a more specialist trade: far more loose tobacco would have Post Office in Sandycombe Road for over 50 years, :&om before 1920 and been sold, by the ounce, than it is today, along with all the associated into the 1970s. It was in a draper's shop at no.241, now the Kew Gardens paraphernalia such as pipes, tobacco pouches, matches, pipe cleaners and Health and Beauty Centre. Both the Post Office at the end of Marksbury so forth, and also snuff, as well as cigarettes and 'roll-your-owns', which Avenue and the one on Kew Green were closed in the face of furious must have been readily available from somewhere, maybe from the pubs? protest early in 2003. Kew's only Post Office today is in Sonya's Newsagents on Royal Parade. among these large houses there were four refreshment rooms, one boarding There were a few wine merchants and 'beer retailers' around Kew, peaking house and a temperance hotel. By 1920, Will Evans, the best-known of all in the 1970s. We have not discovered just how beer retailers operated: of all Kew's caterers, had arrived. He had a restaurant at no.63 and a maybe as well as bottles of beer over the counter, you could bring in your boarding house at no.81. By 1940 he was running three restaurants, at own jug to be filled with stout or ale. Later came off-licences, as we know nos.59-61, no.63 and no.75 and a boarding house at no.81. By 1960 all them now, on Kew Green, in Sandycombe Road, and on both sides of the these large houses were residential properties, probably the most expensive Station. Gough Brothers, who for a time renamed themselves Yin Gough, in all Kew. replaced Teetgen's the grocers on the corner of Station Approach in the 1960s. The supermarkets have seen them all off, and now only Oddbins in In 1900 there were also tea rooms in Thetis Terrace and Willow Cottages, Station Parade is left, although Squire Stores, Tescos, and the Kew by Westerly Ware, and at 20 and 21 Watcombe Cottages, beside the river. Convenience Store in North Road are also licensed to sell wine and spirits. Visitors might have been seated at little tables overlooking Westerly Ware, or on the grass between Watcombe Cottages and the river, enjoying tea and Nothing illustrates the changing needs of people over the past 100 years scones before returning to town, maybe by boat from Kew Pier. One Kew more than the declining number of boot makers and shoe repairers. Leather Green tea shop remained as late as 2003 - the Kew Tea Rooms, almost was expensive, and 100 years ago many people could not afford more than beside the bridge; this has since closed. But the most famous of all Kew's one or two pairs of boots or shoes. You did not chuck your shoes out and tea shops is very much still there: Newens Maids of Honour came to buy another pair as soon as they became a bit worn. So skilled boot makers 288/290 Kew Road in 1887; it is still owned and run by the Newens family and repairers were kept very busy. At the beginning of the last century as a restaurant and baker's. there were four in Sandycombe Road, and two or three more around the other areas of Kew. Michael Jackson recalls 'the little cobblers near the old If 'tea rooms' were what was wanted in the north of Kew near the main King's School, whose owner also re-charged the old type glass radio access to the Gardens, in the south of Sandycombe Road in the early part batteries for those wealthy enough to own an electric radio set as opposed of the century there were a few 'dining rooms'. These - and we are to the crystal set and earphones.' The last specialist shoe repairer in Kew, guessing here - might have provided breakfasts and mid-day dinners for the at 245 Sandycombe Road, fmally closed down as recently the late '90s. workers in the market gardens and the gasworks. However, you can still get basic shoe repairs done in Kew, strangely at a florists, P&M Flowers in Station Approach. Children's shoes are sold at At the beginning of the 19th century there were few restaurants, as we The Shoe Station, at 3 Station Approach. In 1940 Albert Cowdery, would now recognise them, in Kew, and eating-out establishments declined bootmaker, worked at 58 Kew Green. We, and many other older residents, from a peak of 22 in 1900 down to just 7 by 1971. Now our modern culture well remember his daughter Miss Peggy Cowdery, who lived in Gloucester of dining out in the evening has led to 19 restaurants and cafes and you can Road and was 'Correspondent to the Managers' (i.e. secretary to the eat your way round the world in Kew, including Greek, Italian, French, governors) of the Queen's School. In 1900, and through into the 1920s, Chinese, Nepalese, Thai, Indian as well as British. There are two fish 'n 211 Sandycombe Road was a Bootmaker. Its more recent owners have chips establishments, and the popular 'all-day breakfasts' at the Cafe clearly done their research: it is now named 'Cobbler's Cottage'. Pagoda on Kew Plaza. We did not include the pubs in our figures, as the good food that is expected there nowadays is a fairly recent phenomenon. Eating Out in Kew If you include the pubs, our total reaches 24 places where you can have a The thousands of visitors to Kew Gardens at the beginning of the 20th good meal. Of the historic inns on the Green, the King's Arms has become Century who were in need of refreshment before embarking on their return an Ask Pizza; however the Rose and Crown remains, along with the journeys to London were well catered for around Kew Green. For several Greyhound and the Coach and Horses all serving food. In Sandycombe decades at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Green had many tea Road there is the Kew Gardens Hotel, recently refurbished as the Inn at rooms and restaurants, accounting for most of the 22 eating-out Kew Gardens, which includes a fine restaurant, and the old Station Buffet, establishments in Kew - more than at any time, even now when there are next door to the station, was converted into a pub in the late 80s. It is now 19 cafes and restaurants. These were housed both in the fme Georgian called the Railway (until recently the Flower and Firkin). There was once a houses and in the smaller cottages on the north side of the Green. In 1900 pub called the Beehive at the south end of Marksbury Avenue. This was demolished in the '70s and the site was redeveloped as flats. For many years following the Second World War, one of Kew's favourite Books in Kew cafes was Mario's, a popular Italian in the prime corner position in Station Until Kew Bookshop opened in 1989, readers were sparingly catered for in Parade, facing visitors as they emerged from the station; it is now occupied Kew. For about 25 years in the middle of the century there was a by Lloyd's Pharmacy. The owner was Mario Aequati, who after retiring in WHSmith bookstall on the Station, and that was about it. However, the '70s, continued to live above the pharmacy until his death a few years antiquarian and secondhand books could usually be found: Lloyd's ofKew, ago. (Mario's son, Peter, runs AI's Clip Joint, the barber's in Station on Mortlake Terrace, has been there since the '80s, and still has a fine Approach.) Another much-missed European restaurateur was Jean-Marie specialist botanical section, in spite of several changes of ownership Rapel, of Le Provence at 14 Station Parade: the menu never changed, but (though not name). In 1920 and 1960 a bookseller is listed in Kelly's at 301 'today's special' was always excellent - and you could 'bring your own'. In Sandycombe Road (oddly, in between in 1940, it appears to have been a the mid-90s it became the Michelin-starred Glasshouse restaurant. Victor chemist's). It now houses computer equipment and services. Many people Lown, the estate agent on the corner of Station Parade, operates from a still remember with affection Ian Sheridan, one of the more colourful of shop that was once a small cafe much patronised by the drivers ofthe buses Kew's shopkeepers, who for several years sold antiquarian books, along that terminated in Kew. with some antiques, at 3 Station Approach, now The Shoe Station. Ian was responsible for putting up on his shop's gable a [me 19th century ship's figurehead (removed by a later occupant of the shop, greatly to everyone's regret). Dr (10.1. W'ALKER • . BUTCHER, In 1964 a Robert McFadden attempted to turn Kew into the Soho of West 3, West Park Exchange, London. Bob's Bookshop on Sandycombe Road, just south of the comer of BEST of CHOCOLATES. Windsor Road, displayed in its window books featuring scantily-clad KRW and Pure ladies, much to the dismay ofthe then vicar ofSt. Luke's, who campaigned to have the shop closed down for fear of corrupting the children of nearby Cigars, Cigareues, Pipes, Best English Lamb Any joinIs ... \Old. per lb. Fore IIU4U'(Cf:oi 9<.1. •• St. Luke's primary school. Did it close due to the vicar's campaign, or was Tobacco, and Minerals.. Hind \Ojd... it for lack of custom? Maybe Kew was just not ready for such steamy stuff, =0= Enlollish and Scotch ned :ll I)opular prices. Prime umb now in Seotson. although it probably wouldn't even make it to the top shelves of the T. WITHERS, newsagents today. 15, KeW' GI'een. ((JPlmsitt!. Chun·"). = PITT'S = Conclusion Olde Tea Gardens, Kew is luckier than most small communities: there are still three self- K.EW GREe.... service stores - plus Marks & Spencers - that stock most of what would lUNCHEONSfrom1 .. AFTfRNOONTEMU-.1 "',). once have been bought from the grocers, the greengrocers and the dairy; in A SPECIAL--- addition, the newsagents, Elliots, on Mortlake Terrace carries a few 1/6 Table d'hule Tea 1/6 essentials for people in the historic Kew Green area, who are quite a .. ClI: Pot 01 Tlr. AaloOt'tu Caklrw _.-..ad &JUf lhanu P.....trica distance from what is now called 'Kew village'. So Kew is virtually self- Lcthl('eOll'Cfe.. Jaa\ sufficient for food, while the Retail Park supplies a wide range of clothing, which is invaluable as the seven clothing shops in our table, such as Oloe ENCLISH GARDEN Lnd_ RIVERSIDE lERRACE. .... Weather Vain (rainwear), which occupies two shops on Sandycombe Road, sl,.."... •.,dCn:'."·... I.·.... ,\Ii"...... 1 Ch":IJn, CloIn' l'.... s.."obc. de., as do the combined Larger Than Life (outsize) and Mums 2 Be (maternity .I'd c...... be.. Co5d Ro..w: John. SaU4 wear) on Mortlake Terrace, do not pretend to be old fashioned outfitters.

!AU). DM/es, PARTIES. Wf,OO!NCi BREAXfAST5. klVH TRIPS. FETes. Sp.tciIJiry. Kew's shopping patterns may have changed, but on the whole things are healthy. Visitors from around the country, indeed from all over the world, Early advertisements in Kew remark on the ambience of the 'village'. We started our Kew Bookshop in 1989 and it continues to flourish under its new owners. People come from far and wide to shop at Oliver's Wholefood Store, which won Richmond's 'Independent Retailer of the Year' award in 2003. Oliver's has just opened Therapy Rooms at no.4, which was for many years Brandwares, another Kew retail legend which until it closed in 2005 was basically an electrical store but provided a far wider service, solving everyday problems such as changing fuses in plugs and replacing fiddly watch batteries - try getting that service in Homebase.

'Kew village' has been enhanced in recent years by the growth of the pavement cafes, along with such attractive and interesting shops such as River Traders, The Kew Gardener and Mia Wood, an upmarket gift shop on Station Parade in the old Yeoman's shop. Tripped Limited carries a large range of cards and gifts on Kew Plaza. There are several hairdressing salons and a couple of health and beauty centres. Also there is a Ceramics Cafe on Mortlake Terrace where you can decorate your own mugs or dishes. Reflecting our more leisured lifestyle, we can eat out in style without worrying about having to drive home.

1,00, 1920 i9.4(f," ' i9:6Q .1971' -')003 . ' 5 Total number of , '37...:; '47. - ' ':4'4' , ,:' 31 food shops .. _ -..c...._ .!.''.:,' " Food as q " ' , 26%'," 30% 21%' 2$% ' j.2% ' . '5% percentage of total : .; ", '.' Il; no. of shops .. ':,-:' ," -' ,

Shopping in Kew has certainly changed with the times - most significantly there is now a huge Sainsburys at the end of Sandycombe Road, and the Kew Retail Park, on the old industrial site just off the Mortlake Road, which houses Marks & Spencer, Boots, Mothercare, TK Maxx, Next and Gap. These, and other supennarkets before them, have driven out nearly all of the traditional Kew shopkeepers. Yet what is most surprising isjust how many small shops remain. The big change has been so much in the number of shops - Kew still has 93 retail outlets, two-thirds the 140 it had in 1900 - but in the type of goods they sell. It would be interesting to know whether this pattern is true right across the borough.