In the wall opposite the bus, is a doorway. This used to lead to a dairy store and milk bottling room which my father, Percy Lander, used when he worked first for Cowley's Dairies and later for Filkins' Ovingdean Dairies.
I seem to remember that the shop on the corner of Bennett Road, above the doorway, was a Dairy. Can anyone confirm this, and was this originally the Cowley Dairy.
What a nostalgic photo of somewhere dear to my heart. Looking at the lampost and the ladies hat and the bus coming up Bristol Gardens it seems to have been taken in the thirties, before I lived in the area. Just past the shop blind on the left is where I lived in Bennett Road from 1944 until 1964. The lady is walking past George Boxell's shop which was a greengrocers when I was a kid, that is where we shopped for our veg. I don't know what the Elise shop sold. The next shop down was Mrs. Alderton's wool shop. On the corner of Bennett Road was Smiths sweetshop. There was a parrot in the shop, and it was always outside on nice days. On the opposite corner was an ice cream factory. We kids were treated very well by the girls in the ice cream shop. Many times on hot days the girls would bring us little kids out a lump of ice cream. On the corner of the next road down (Rugby Place) was a wet fish shop (Campbells) which sold fish and chips at night. They had a little Jack Russell dog that would sit up and beg with Mr. Campbell's pipe in his mouth. The shop opposite the fish shop was a bakery run by Mr and Mrs. White where lovely fresh warm bread could be bought every morning before school, absolutely never forgotten taste of warm bread with butter. The very last shop down the hill on the left on the corner of Whitehawk Road was a grocers and post office. On the opposite corner by the bus stop was Moppets, another greengrocer.
George Boxall's shop was, originally, in Whitehawk Road. His shop, next to Cracknell (another greengrocer) was opposite bus garage.