Where Is This? No.144

Published on: 21 Jan, 2015
Updated on: 21 Jan, 2015

By David Rose

The Fox pub at Fox Corner on the edge of Worplesdon, but just inside the parish of Pirbright, was the subject of last week’s vintage mystery picture.

Thanks to all who replied with the answer.

I recall that the landlord back in the 1980s (he may have been there earlier) was an interesting character. I think his name may have been Alf?

He liked to play jokes on his customers and had a strange habit of ringing the bell and calling time at any given time during an evening session. This was, of course, in the days when pubs shut at 10.30pm on weekdays.

After calling ‘time’ he didn’t actually kick anyone out – maybe it was a ruse to get the punters to order more drinks.

One time, when a new variety of crisps came on the market – sausage and tomato, he carefully opened a packet and slipped a real sausage in it and carefully re-sealed it.

When a particular customer who was partial to eating several packets of crisps ordered one of the new variety, the landlord sold him the one with the real sausage in. The guy couldn’t believe his luck!

It seems a mild joke now, but at the time the other regulars thought it was very funny.

I also recall the separate brick-built outside gents loos by the car park – never heated and freezing cold in winter.

One cold night after a visit to loo and walking back to the public bar, I looked up and saw some beautiful coloured lights shimmering in the sky above. I thought it must have been the effects of a few pints of Courage Directors’ ale. But it was none other than the Northern Lights. A very rare occasion when they could be seen this far south.

Last week’s quirky photo showed a part of the Cloth Hall – now the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop in North Street.

Some of you gave extra details about the building and its history. See last week’s post and all the replies at the foot of it here.

Moving swiftly on to this week’s images.

Where is this then?

This is the vintage picture – dating from about the early 1960s. Where was it taken from and what can be seen?

Where can this be found?

The quirky photo shows a decorative feature on a building in Guildford town centre. It is now a fashion store, but many will remember it as once having a novel feature inside connected with cash payments. Children loved seeing it in action!

If you think you know the answers, and may be able to add some extra details, please leave a reply in the box below. The answers, along with the next pair of images, will be published about the same time next week.

Responses to Where Is This? No.144

John Lomas Reply

January 22, 2015 at 3:20 pm

I think that is the construction of the Yvonne Arnaud theatre with St Mary’s church tower in the background.
Photo presumably taken from a car park on Millmead on the other side of the river.
The modern picture is now French Connection, previously the premises of Gammons with the overhead cash wires.
Marian Fripp Reply

January 23, 2015 at 12:35 pm

First picture is Plummer Roddis being built at the side of the river, later to become Debenhams (and get flooded to half way up the ground floor windows in 1968).

The picture is taken from Wells & Philpot (solicitors) which were at 1 High Street. Now a pub I believe.

The Jaguar belonged to Mr Philpot, senior partner.

I worked there for a few months in 1964. Lovely old creaky building just opposite the bus station – which was handy.

The noise from the pile driving was awful and went on the whole of the working day. I remember the poor office junior being run ragged.

Haven’t been back to Guildford for years.My brother ran the fish and chip shop in Park Street for about a year in 1961 for Mr Stevens.
Linda Jackson Reply

January 25, 2015 at 3:03 pm

The first photo may have been taken from the White House side of the river.

On the right of the picture could be building of Plummer’s department store, which is now Debenhams.

Looking from across the river are houses which have all gone, but you can see St Mary’s Church tower.

Could be totally wrong but it had us guessing.

The second photo could be on the corner of Market Street and North Street, which was once Gammons deptartment store.
Chris Townsend Reply

January 25, 2015 at 5:29 pm

The vintage picture was taken from Millmead. On the left is the car park of offices on the site of the present White House. Across the river are the backs of cottages on Mill Lane, with St. Mary’s beyond. The construction is of Plummer Roddis store (“Plummer’s”), now Debenhams, on the site of John Moon’s timber yard. Moon’s moved to Walnut Tree Close about 1960, and the new building was mid-’60s, I’d say.

The quirky photo shows the building designed by Henry Peak for Gammon’s, on the top corner of North Street and Market Street. As with so many of Guildford’s shops, it’s worth looking up above the shop-front!
Brian Holt Reply

January 26, 2015 at 12:04 pm

1: This picture was taken from Millmead, next to today’s White House pub and is looking across the River Wey to the framework of the building of Plummers’ new department store in 1967, which was opened 1968.

Later that year the basement and ground floor was flooded. The store was rebranded as Debenhams in December 1972.

By 2014, the only Plummer Roddis stores that operated as Debenhams still open were in Guildford and Hastings.

You can see St Mary’s Church, Quarry Street, parts of which are the oldest building in Guildford. Below the church are the buildings in Mill Lane.

2: Gammons department store on the corner of North Street and Market Street, where the shop assistant put your cash in a capsule on a rail that went around above you to the cash office, and you waited for your change to come back again.
Sheila Atkinson Reply

January 26, 2015 at 10:50 pm

Was the first photo taken when the flats were being built on the site of the old Trades and Labour Club?

My parents and my husband were members of the club and my father used to hold meetings for the AUBTW there for many years.

There was a hall at the back where I attended several wedding receptions and many parties. An uncle moved into the flats in the late 1980s.
Doug and Bill Staniforth Reply

January 27, 2015 at 3:04 pm

The first picture is Plummers under construction, St Mary’s Church and the multi-storey car park in the background.

The Jaguar in the foreground almost certainly probably belonged to John Thor before he became ‘Sargeant’ Morse.

The other picture is above FCUK in North Street, which used to be Gammons.

[Ed: I’m glad you got the spelling of FCUK right!]