Manor Park Parade – Late Victorian Shopping, Part 2

Last week’s post looked at the history of Manor Park Parade focusing on both how it initially developed as well as numbers 1 to 9. Logically, we should start where we left off, but as the middle of the Parade has been dominated by a chemist’s shop which started at 11 but has expanded into the premises either side that seems like a sensible place to start.

11 Manor Park Parade had been empty in 1896 when first mentioned in Kelly’s Directories,, but its first tenant seems to have been the ‘surgeon’ George Bryce who was there by the time the 1900 Directory was compiled, presumably it was more of a GP’s practice rather than carrying out significant surgery. In 1901 he was living there with his wife Sarah. The Bryce’s had moved on by 1905 and the name over the window was Charles Fairman, a chemist – a business that has continued in that shop for 115 years at the time of writing. Unlike most of the other shopkeepers of the era on the Parade, the Fairmans seemed relatively well to do being able to afford to employ a servant in 1911. The Fairmans stayed there more than a decade.

The tenancy was taken over around 1920 by a dispensing chemist called Victor Reed who would have been in his early 30s; Victor and his wife Ethel were to stay at Manor Parade until around 1950. Victor seems to have stayed in Lewisham until his death in the mid-1960s.

The new owner of the business was Charles Latimer from around 1950, he almost immediately expanded into 10. The Latimers stayed at Manor Park Parade until the mid-1960s when the Baum’s took over – they expanded into 12 by the mid-1980s. It was probably the only shop on the Parade that I used with any regularity – often dropping off prescriptions on the way into Lewisham knowing that they’d be ready when I walked back, it felt like a more personal service than Boots in the town centre. It was a mixture of pretty standard pharmacy fayre along with a large range of ‘gifts’ with a friendly couple running it. The Baums were fondly remembered by several on a Facebook thread in 2019 – one person described them as ‘the nicest, kindest couple I have ever met.’ They have probably retired although whoever is running the business now has retained the family name, no doubt like Wallace Pring in Bromley.

Returning to 10 Manor Park Parade, it was one of the shops that often seemed to be empty. The first occupant from the late 1890s was George Venning a cycle dealer, who lived behind the shop with his wife Nellie. The Vennings had gone by 1905 and the shop was vacant. Reginald Wade, a house agent, had a brief sojourn there but the shop was empty again until Frederick Dunk opened a Spice Merchant around 1925. The shop had closed by 1930 when a Valet Service, presumably some form of laundrette, was there.

As noted in relation to No 2, during World War 2 Frank Feltham was living at 10 Manor Park Parade, letting out the top floor of the maisonette behind. Douglas Feltham was running the shop as a Florist in 1945, but as noted above the expanding chemists, initially Charles Latimer, had moved in by 1950.

On the other side of the chemists, 12 Manor Park Parade started life as a watchmaker run by John Perse – he was there when Kelly’s Directory of 1896 was compiled. In 1901 he was 55 and lived above the shop with his wife Emily and 4 grown up children. A decade later he was widowed but also there were adult sons Harry, Arthur and Herbert 37, 34 and 28 respectively. Like Charles Fairman next door, he had a servant. John died in 1912 and it seems that none of the family took on the business; the shop was empty in 1916.

The next incumbent, should have been contented, to paraphrase the 1960s and beyond advert -‘Happiness is a cigar (seller) called Hamlet’ – John Hamlet, to be precise, who took on the tenancy around the end of World War 1. He was to stay until 1930 when Lewis Carter took over and was to run the business for around 30 years.

It had a series of brief interludes initially as a florist run by Douglas Feltham, see number 9, a car accessories shop and an electrical appliance repairer before becoming the last bit of Baum’s chemists to be acquired around 1985.

Like the Chemist at 11, 13 Manor Park Parade was more or less the same type of business for most of its history – a Post Office. In its early years none of the Sub Postmistresses and Sub Postmasters lasted that long – Mary Llewellin was there in 1896, Louisa & Maude Pyle (1900), Kate & Augusta Lydall (1901) and William Hurn who was there between 1905 and 1911. In the census in the latter year William was listed there with his wife, Alice, along with a couple of adult sons, one of which was working in the Post Office.

It was all change by 1916 and Oscar Lewis had arrived, at what was described as a stationer and Post Office. The name was to be one of the longest lived on the Parade, remaining there until the early 1950s. It was presumably a father and son, although it is unclear as to who held the Sub Postmasters role. In 1939 Oscar Lewis (born 1914) was living there with his wife Francis (27) and an assistant in the shop Margaret Etherington; Oscar (born 1874) was to remain in the area, passing away in Woolwich in 1958.

R D Barnett had taken over by 1960 followed by ‘Andrews’ in the 1970s; it doubled up as a travel agent during this period. Thereafter, Kelly’s Directories just referred to it as a Post Office. It stayed like that until around the millennium when it was empty for a while and then a short-lived carpet shop before being empty again. The only evidence of the long tradition of being a sub Post Office is the pillar box outside – as it is an Edward VII post box, it is possible that this is the one that the Lewisham suffragettes attacked on Lee High Road.

14 Manor Park Parade started its ‘life’ as a retail outlet aiming at the population of what was then a very well-to-do neighbourhood; it was a ‘Pianoforte Warehouse’ run by William Sanderson who advertised his wares in the local press too. The business had been taken over by Sydney French by 1905, but Smart Brothers were running a furniture dealer’s business by 1911, although not living over the shop in the census.

There seems to have been a steady flow of business that struggled to build a successful trade at no 14 over the next few decades – in 1920 it was Henry Slade, a musical instrument maker; Belmont Wine Company (1925), another off-licence (1930), and Stevens Valet Services in 1940.

By the end of World War 2 a niche market was found – wireless repairs, known as Lee Radio Services run by Albert, known as Bert Allen, pictured above with his wife Betty and eldest son Derek. Bert died in 1972 but the business continued, run by Betty, and an engineer who eventually bought out the business. Betty continued to live behind the shop until she passed away in 1984. The property was sold at that point and around the same time the name caught up with technology and became Lee TV Services. Most of this century has been spent reverted to a previous trade – an off licence, a combination of Manor Park Wines and Cost Less.

15 Manor Park Parade was empty in 1896 but then had a short-lived milliner called Madame Anita in 1900. The owner, in 1901, at least , was the far more prosaic Susan Capon, whose husband was a sawyer. A more exotic name was above the window in 1905, Emellie & Co, a draper. However by 1911 the shop was empty and remained so until the mid-1920s.

The hairdresser, William Mercer, had arrived by 1925 when he would have been in his late 30s. He was to remain there until the late 1940s – there with him in the 1939 Register was his wife Annie. The French style naming of the shop-front’s early years re-emerged with the hairdressers that took over from William Mercer around 1950, Maison Miller. It was a name that was to continue at number 15 until the late 1970s. The shop remains a hairdresser – Just Us in the late 1970s and as Minos for most of the present millennium.

16 Manor Park Parade went through several early iterations Water Weiss, a printer in 1896 and two hosiers, Walton Bros by 1900 but the following year Phillip Bates from Bedfordshire was carrying out the business. While he was still there in 1905, by 1911 the Bates’ had moved on. Like lots of the other shops on the Parade, it was empty in 1911 and remained so in 1916 and 1920 – it was a pattern repeated throughout the Parade with 7, 9 and 8 shop-fronts being empty in those years. In terms of empty shops, other than towards the end of during World War Two it was the period that the Parade struggled most.

Arthur Emanuel Howard, from South Shields took over the shop as a grocer in more favourable times around 1925, by that stage all the shops were let again. Arthur came from a family of seafarers; his father was a Master Mariner. He worked for the Marine Police Force, part of the ‘Met.’ before retiring early and taking over the shop – Arthur would have been 53 in 1925. Arthur had married Elizabeth Evans at Mile End in East London in 1901; Elizabeth came from a family farm in mid-Wales. The decision to open a grocer’s may well have been influenced by Elizabeth as several of her brothers were successfully running grocery shops in London.

The link back to the family farm was maintained with her father putting fresh farm produce on the train in Aberystwyth, and his sons collecting it at Paddington for distribution to the London groceries. The Howards stayed at 16 until the end of the war – they had a near miss with one bomb which fell on Patterson Edwards toy factory behind although that showered the maisonette behind with shards of glass – but like the rest of the Parade it remained largely unscathed by bomb damage.

Rose Bland took over the business after the War, with the same trade continuing under Dennis Taylor in the late 1950s and early 1960s; at some point the business expanded into 17. The Pikes continued the trade until the mid-1970s, when Kelly’s started referring to it as ‘Food Stores’ run initially by M Z Abydeen and then R W Patel from around 1980. It had become a Sandwich Bar, split from 17 by the early 2000s, variants of which continued into the second decade of the millennium. It is currently (early 2020) a ‘Grill’ called 2 Flames.

17 Manor Park Parade started out as a tobacconist initially run by Luigi Norchi in 1896, but had been taken over by Charles Marshall by 1900; he was still there in 1905 but the shop was being run by John Hills in the 1911 Kelly’s Directory. The shop may have undergone a business change in 1911 as in the census Hills is listed as a butcher – this may have been due to new competition from tobacconist Janet Wood further down the Parade at Number 3. Alternatively, in an era when passing names down through generations was common, it could have been a father running the business and the butcher son living over and behind the shop. Either way, it was a business that didn’t continue much longer with the shop empty in 1916 and 1920.

Like many on the Parade, there was a new name over the window in 1925 with Mrs H Conn, a hosier, who was to remain there until the late 1940s. There were suggestions that Arthur Howard took over 17 as well before he moved on from the Parade in the late 1940s, sometimes Kelly’s Directories are a little behind what happened on the ground. A photographer, trading as British Technishot Pictures, was listed at 17 in 1950, however, this could easily have been from the maisonette behind.

Until the early 2000s the story of 16 and 17 is merged but the shops were split and 17 became Maishia Park which still offers African and Caribbean Food (and music).

18 Manor Park Parade started life as a confectioner, initially run by a Mrs Graff (1896) then Charles Larwood (1900), but by 1905 Ellen Coombes was trading from there, although Kelly’s Directory omits her business. Pickfords had bought Lee Lodge behind the Parade around 1896, it may even have been them that sold the land to allow the development of the Parade. They initially used the Lodge to carry out their business but they moved their operation into 18 after the demolition of Lee Lodge just before the outbreak of World War 1, presumably when they switched to motorised transport. Pickfords were to remain until the 1950s.

Drakes Office Supplies moved in after Pickfords departed and remained until the early 1970s. It was home to a firm of glaziers from the mid-1980s. For much of this century it has been home to the Ghanaian takeaway, Imma Kandey Restaurant.

19 Manor Park Parade started life as an ironmongers run by Charles Morris; Alfred Torr had taken over by 1900 but he died in early 1901 and the business was run by his widow and mother for at least a decade, although like many others the shop was empty during World War 1 and in the early 1920s. Hardware dealers C W Hughes and Sons were then from at least 1925, but like many others on the Parade struggled during the war and the shop was empty in 1945. By 1950, the export arm of toy manufacturer Patterson Edwards had moved in – it was the shop by the entrance to their plant behind, no doubt selling their rocking horses (below) abroad. They remained until the firm’s move to Orpington in the early 1970s.

After a long period empty at the end of the 20^th century, the 21^st century has seen it home to various property based businesses, including the estate agents Prime Properties and currently (2020) Element Roofing.

As a whole, the shops appear somewhat on the margin, frequent changes suggesting a precarious existence for many (although certainly not all) – this has been a pattern throughout their existence. The need for a little tender loving care seemed more evident than at Market Terrace further up Lee High Road. The vacant units, very noticeable in certain periods were more common here than at Market Terrace and 310 to 332 Lee High Road – perhaps the proximity of Lewisham town centre has had an impact on this. It always lacked the full range of traditional shops though – there never seems to have been a baker, there was no butcher between 1900 and 1960 and there was a period without a grocer from around 1910 to 1925 so in the pre-supermarket age locals could never do all their shopping on the Parade.

The ‘story’ of the Manor Park Parade has been pieced together using Kelly’s Directories held by the Lewisham and Southwark Archives – generally looking at every 5th year since the Parade opened for business around 1896. These Directories go up to the mid-1980s. More recent jogging of memories has been via the ‘back catalogue’ of Google’s StreetView which has passed Market Terrace several times since 2008.

If you think that I have got anything wrong or have memories of any of the shops please use the comments field below or in Facebook thread or Twitter post you reached here from. I’ll include some of them when I update the post.

Picture & Other Credits

The Kelly’s Directory data is courtesy of a mixture of Lewisham and Southwark Archives
Census, 1939 Register and related data is via Find My Past (subscription required)
Thank you to Dick Allen, son of Bert and Betty at 14 for filling in some of the detail about his family’s time there and letting me use the photograph (which remains his family’s copyright).