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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: kob3203 on Monday 16 November 09 01:59 GMT (UK)
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Seeing the responses to the recent posting about the Café Royale, I thought I'd try my luck with this one.
I've already discovered that there was indeed such a place (Hamleys now stands on the site). However, it appears to be totally unrelated to the Parisian department store. Maybe somebody trying to cash in on the name?
Do any of the older Londoners on this board remember the place (it was still around in the 1960's I believe), or know anything about it?
My interest? There's a story that a great grandfather was born on Regent Street "at the site where the Galeries Lafayette later stood".
Pete
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It's in the phone books from 1927 to 1966 or thereabouts, at 190 Regent Street.
I don't know if there was any renumbering but 190 was part of Swears and Wells in 1905.
In 1880 the occupier was Alfred Townend, Hat Manufacturer. Swears and Wells was next door at 192. I can look up more directories ,,, but what name and approx date are you looking for?
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Hi
There certainly was such a place - at least until the mid 1960s.
I bought a gorgeous dress from there and some ladies underwear ;D
I think it was on the curve of Regent Street - on the East side towards the bottom end. Memory plays tricks though. It was a lovely store.
Gadget
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They had the "New Look " range around 1947 .
I bought a fine wool skirt. Dark red , very full and flared ,Great for dances and parties.
Took quite a few clothes coupons, and I had it for years.
Spring
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I well remember going to the Galeries Lafayette in the early 60's - it was near Hamleys, i.e. as Gadget has said, on the east side of Regent Street. I have the vague impression that a lot of the staff were French. It was a lovely shop.
Jennifer
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Thanks ShaunJ,
I should have mentioned that I did a lot of (mostly internet-based) research and found no evidence to support the story of my great grandfather's Regent Street birth.
The story is that he (Edmund Browne) was born (c1860) in Regent Street "on the site where the Galeries Lafayette later stood", but that his family returned to Ireland soon after he was born.
We've now found birth/baptism records for siblings from 1867 onwards in Co Tipperary and are assuming that his birth wasn't registered in England, and that he was baptised in Ireland.
The story may still be true, but I don't think we'll find any documentary evidence.
Pete
P.S. I was in the UK in Jun/Jul this year, and checked the original London Directories for 1861-1864 at the TNA. The block covering 172-206 Regent Street was between Chapel Court and Foubert's Place. Hamleys is now at 188-196, in the block between Foubert's Place and Tenison Court. The numbering seems to have stayed the same. (Foolishly I didn't look at the 1920s-1960s directories to confirm the exact location of the Galeries Lafayette!).
This contradicts Gadget's recollection that it was "...on the curve of Regent Street - on the East side towards the bottom end...". Is it possible that they had two shops on Regent Street?
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This contradicts Gadget's recollection that it was "...on the curve of Regent Street - on the East side towards the bottom end...". Is it possible that they had two shops on Regent Street?
Well it was certainly on the East side and memory recalls a longish walk from Oxford Circus tube and possibly picking up Piccadilly for the return journey :)
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This contradicts Gadget's recollection that it was "...on the curve of Regent Street - on the East side towards the bottom end...".
It contradicts my memory of its location as well.
as Gadget has said, on the east side of Regent Street.
In the 1960's it was definitely on the east side of Regent Street, and certainly lay between Hamleys and Piccadilly Circus. I would say it was nearer Piccadilly Circus than Oxford Circus.
Jennifer
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Hi Jennifer
Glad you agree with me - I didn't think I was suffering from memory loss just yet.
I recall there were arches or a slight covered part along the frontage as well.
Gadget
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Proof positive! Take a look at this.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/711206
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Apparently it was caught on film in 1924 - "London's Contrasts", shown last year on the South Bank I think?
Check here http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1344569/index.html and click on the "Show Full Synopsis" link in the middle of the page.
If you're in "...registered UK schools, colleges, universities and libraries..." (that rules me out then!) you can view the 12 minute movie online for free.
Pete
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Do any of the older Londoners on this board remember the place (it was still around in the 1960's I believe), or know anything about it?
Well, I think we have partly answered your question, and hopefully you've found the information of some interest.
Jennifer
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Thanks Jennifer and Gadget,
I can assure you that the information you've provided is most definitely of interest to me.
Apologies if my previous post may have given any other impression - I started typing it after seeing your post of 08:54:56, but got sidetracked.
I've only just noticed that you'd already added a couple more posts before I finished typing
That photo you linked to is marvellous - it's exactly what I've been after.
Thanks again,
Pete
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I'm intrigued by your recollections that Galeries Lafayette was closer to Piccadilly Circus than Oxford Circus - because memory doesn't usually play the same trick on two different people...
So I'm thinking that I may well have overlooked something - perhap Galeries Lafayette moved in the mid/late 1960s?
If this turns out to be the case, then I may have been looking in completely the wrong area for my great grandfather's birth.
Any thoughts?
Pete
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I think my first big shopping spree to GLaF was in about 1964-5 (big student grants in those day ;D ;D ;D :-X :-X :-X ) and, given the photo that Jennifer found does show the view down to Piccadilly Circus, it must have been not that far from the Regent Street curve.
Many of the shops on that side of the street were quite large, so their addresses would take up a whole lot of numbers.
I can still smell the wonderful perfumes :)
Gadget
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You might be interested to know that Galeries Lafayette appears in the 1963 British film "Live it Up!" Very fleetingly, about ten minutes before the end.
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Thank you Anita9659 - I just did a search online for references to the film and found a website called www.reelstreets.com which matches up film locations with real locations.
And they actually have the picture of Galeries Lafayette from the film - bottom right picture on this page
http://www.reelstreets.com/index.php/component/films/?task=view&id=2216&film_ref=live_it_up&start=10
Caption to the photo - "The taxi passes Galeries Lafayette on Regent Street, London W1. The French department store traded on the street for 52 years from 1920. The site is now occupied by Hamleys."
Mouse over the picture and you get a 'now' shot of Hamleys.
So that all seems to fit together nicely with what we have so far. :)
Thanks again,
Peter
I also found a few more pictures that seem (from the captions) to indicate that it was next to Liberty & Co,although I can't make out Galeries Lafayette on either photo!
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-regent-street-london-1970-the-street-deorated-with-national-flags-32784822.html - "Regent Street London 1970 . The Street Decorated With National Flags... Galeries Lafayette Store. Liberty & Co. Jaeger."
http://www.pickmix.co.uk/199844840-bw-print-colin-tait - "Liberty’s department store and the Galeries Lafayette are on left hand side of the road"
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I bought a gorgeous dress from there and some ladies underwear ;D
I think it was on the curve of Regent Street - on the East side towards the bottom end.
Gadget
Ladies underwear- bottom end ;D :D ;D :D ;D :D ;D :D
That did make me laugh!!!
Carol
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And if you want an idea of what life was like there as shop assistant before the war try & get hold of a book by Mrs Robert Henrey called "Julia" published in 1971. (ISBN 0460 039202).
It is part of her long sequence of autobiographical books about her life in London and "Julia" covers her time working in the store for a while in the late 1920s.
Sydenhamer
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Hello again. By an astonishing coincidence, i was watching a truly dreadful British film from the early 70s on the "Talking Pictures TV" channel, and there was Galeries Lafayette again in glorious Tecnicolor (or the 70s British equivalent). If you can track it down, the film is called "Cool it, Carol" and the sequence is about 50 minutes in. Don't bother with the rest of the film, though!
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Hi, my unmarried aunt was a buyer at Hamleys and we used to go and visit her in the shop when taken to London. That would have been during the 1960's so don't think the Galeries could have occupied the position that Hamleys is in now back in the 60's.
Us 3 children also used to get first tryouts of any crazes that were being launched if she wanted to check if they would be good for children - an enormous life size plastic racing car turned up as a parcel one day for us to try out to see if we could pedal the thing!
Pheno
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It certainly didn't occupy the Hamleys site.
If you take a look at the postings Gadget and I made about this (back in 2009 ::) ) we both observed that it lay between Hamleys and Picadilly Circus.
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I was lucky enough to work in Galleries Lafayette in Regent St, in the 60s. I worked displaying windows and interior. The store was connected to the Paris and Nice stores at that time. It was a delightful place to work and I have happy memories of what I achieved there and the people I worked with. I. still have a postcard of the exterior. As much as I love Hamlets, it is sad to see the interior as it is now.
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I worked at Galleries Lafayette during the sixties, it was definitely where Hamleys is situated now. We had 13 windows and showcases which were walked between to enter the store. I worked in the display department. Assessories on the ground floor. fashions on the first floor which was galleried, now Hamleys escalators. There were a further 3 sales floors, the fifth floor was for alteration and the staff canteen was on the roof. Offices and our display department was in the basement.I still have a picture of the store.
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I haven'tlogged in here for quite a while, so I've just had a fresh look at this.
ShaunJ said Galeries Lafayette was in the phone books from about 1927-1966 at 190 Regent St, and this 1928 newspaper ad for Galeries Lafayette states 188/196 Regent Street (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bradford_timeline/20690549191 ). So the Galeries Lafayette seem to have been at the same address (around 190, plus a few numbers either side) for that whole period.
Current address of Hamleys ( http://www.hamleys.com/explore-stores.irs ) is 188-196 Regent Street. Unless street numbering changed that's exactly where Galeries Lafayette was in the 1928 ad.
I just found a few photos of Regent Street in 1952 at WestminsterMemories.org.uk:
200-206 (http://www.westminstermemories.org.uk/page_id__10_img__40.aspx):
- Jaeger House
- Hamleys (so in 1952 Hamleys was in a slightly different place, a few shops north of it's current location)
188-198 unfortunately no photo, although Galeries Lafayette should be here.
176-186 ( http://www.westminstermemories.org.uk/page_id__10_img__39.aspx ):
- Kodak
- Boots
- Richard Shops
- Ciao(?) Pearls
- Imperial Fur Store
I also (thanks to Anita9659) found the Galeries Lafayette bit in an Indian cut of the 1970 movie "Cool It Carol" (one of those awful Robin Askwith movies!) on Youtube. Around the point that Anita mentioned there's a shot up the street from Galeries Lafayette, but I can't make out the shop names (nothing that immediately strikes me as being Hamleys). And then when she walks south from Galeries Lafayette the next shop is definitely a Kodak shop (assuming no jump cuts), and the next could be Boots?
So it seems fairly likely that Hamleys (guessing 200-202) and Galeries Lafayette (188-196) were actually neighbours (maybe with something else in between at 198?) for the whole of the 1960's, and after Galeries Lafayette closed Hamleys moved a few shops south and took over the Galeries Lafayette premises.
I think this would mean that everybody's correct to some extent !
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Here's the clearest screenshot * I can get of the view north from Galeries Lafayette in the late 1960s. We can clearly see Galeries Lafayette, but can anybody identify the other shops
Just in case anybody wants to investigate further, here's the YouTube URL (you have been warned - it's an Indian (censored) cut of an awful 1970 Robin Askwith movie called "Cool It Carol") https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANW9-6mtG7s
*Moderator comment: removed
Following the moderator's removal of the screenshot (I assume potential copyright reasons?), for anybody who's interested it was at about 47:10 into the YouTube video. Looking at the video again I'm now wondering if the red splotches near the top of the frame could be Hamleys flags, and whether the red sign on the shop just north of Galeries Lafayette could be the same sign shown at the far right of the black and white 1952 print of 200-206 (remembering that red appears black on monochrome prints)
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And here are the two shops to the south of Galeries Lafayette assuming no jump-cut (unfortunately there's no frame with both Galeries Lafayette and Kodak) - Kodak, then Boots
*Moderator comment: removed
Following the moderator removal of those two screenshots (I assume for potential copyright reasons?), if anybody's interested they were at about 47:46 into the video at the URL mentioned in the previous posts. I'm now fairly sure that it is the same Kodak shop as in the 1952 photo, given the shopfront layout, and that it is Boots next door, which also matches the 1952 photo, although the Botts shopfront has changed significantly)
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Some interesting architects photos of Regent Street in 1910 just before the 1910's-20's redevelopment. Of the even numbered buildings shown it says only 180-186 survived the redevelopment.
http://archive.historicengland.org.uk/results/Results.aspx?io=true&l=all&pe=bedford%20lemere&t=advanced&page=1025
Hamleys is there at 200-???, but it's too early for Galeries Lafayette.
From Hamleys history ( http://www.hamleys.com/explore-life-history.irs ) it says they faced hard times in the 1920s and the (Regent Street?) shop closed in 1931, but was back by 1938 with a royal warrant.
I also read somewhere over the last couple of days that the Galeries Lafayette Regent Street store finally closed in 1972, but I can't find the reference for that, so it's just hearsay for now.
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I'm still trying to confirm beyond reasonable doubt that in the late 1960's Hamleys was at perhaps 200-204 Regent Street and Galeries Lafayette was at 188-196. I'm sure that a 1970 London telephone directory, or similar, would be the easiest way to confirm this, but not having access to one...
I've taken another screenshot of that YouTube video at around 47:10, and cut just a portion of it showing just the shop signs that I'm puzzling over. I've annotated it too with my queries.
I assume that there will be no copyright problems with this, and no reason for a moderator to remove it?
This annotated picture makes me chuckle as it puts me in mind of people's annotated and selectively highlighted/sharpened/modified NASA Mars images showing 'clear evidence of life on mars'. I make no such claims here - all my annotations are just educated guesswork, except for the Galeries Lafayette sign which is 100% certain for the reason stated.
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Per the 1968 phone book, Galeries Lafayette was at 190 and Hamleys at 200.
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According to The Times of April 17 1973 (page 23), Waring and Gillow moved into the building on Regent Street vacated by Galeries Lafayette.
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Hamleys moved to the former Waring& Gillow/Galeries Lafayette premises in Regent Street in 1981 (The Times, September 16th 1981, page 18)
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My mother worked at Harrods; left there in 1924. On the back of her Harrods employment record is a note saying 'Hamleys 200-02 Regent Street, May 1928' I'm guessing it referred to an employee reference.
However, I do not recall her talking about Hamleys, but she often mentioned Galleries Lafayette.
She left Harrods, according to their record, to join Peter Robinsons. Not sure this helps much
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Twelve and a half years after asking the question I've finally found a photo ! Galleries Lafayette just left of centre, you can't miss it. Photo title "Regent Street, London. Circa 1950 P000151"
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-regent-street-london-circa-1950-p0001511310-20319083.html (https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-regent-street-london-circa-1950-p0001511310-20319083.html)
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It still brings back happy memories of London in the 60s
Thanks for the photo link :)
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Lovely! Happy days.
Hamleys on the extremes left of the photo.
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Shopping in Galeries Lafayette is one of my enduring memories of the mid sixties. I remember buying an amazing pair of tan shoes with a shaped heel, they were made of such soft leather. I also bought the iconic keyhole gloves from there in the softest kid leather. I wish I had kept them!
My friend and I would travel to London at the weekend from Brentwood Essex to shop in Carnaby Street and stop for coffee in a great coffee bar (Wardour St I think) which was dark and dingy with skeletons and other macabre items hanging from the ceilings. The tables were made from coffin lids. How cool we were sipping our "frothy coffee" from smokey glass cups.
Does anyone remember the coffee bar?
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Le Macabre at 23 Meard St https://londonist.com/london/history/londons-1950s-coffee-house-craze (https://londonist.com/london/history/londons-1950s-coffee-house-craze)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nsRHHcq1P8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nsRHHcq1P8)
Just search for "le macabre meard st" to bring back some ghoulish memories !