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Where Is This? No.149
Published on: 25 Feb, 2015
Updated on: 25 Feb, 2015
By David Rose
Shalford’s parish church of St Mary the Virgin was the vintage view featured here last week.
Some of those who replied gave extra details about its history, so click here for last week’s post and the comments at the foot of it.
The quirky picture of the zebra can be seen in Walnut Tree Close near the entrance to the railway station. Again, some good replies about that and the printers Billings who once occupied the buildings in which the zebra can now be found.
You will note that our good friends the Staniforth brothers are still after that speedboat as a prize! Keep the pleas and links to the pictures coming.
Here we are with this week’s then.
Do you recognise this view?
Anyone who remembers Guildford as it was more than 50 years ago will surely recognise this vintage view. Can you add the name of the tailors and perhaps say who was on the other corner? Both buildings still stand, but those in the road they border have much changed.
Where is this church?
The quirky view is one suggested by reader John Lomas, formerly of Guildford, but who now lives in Lancashire. It’s another church with a small steeple. It is located on the outskirts at a place I won’t name, but which sometimes gets labelled as being a part of ‘North Guildford’. It can be found at the junction of several roads.
If you know the answers please leave a reply in the box below. All replies will be posted at about the same time next week, along with a new post with the answers to this week’s photos and the next pair of images.
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Responses to Where Is This? No.149
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James Dix
February 26, 2015 at 12:47 am
Hi David, another great photo – the top one is the corner of Friary Street and the bottom of the High Street.
The building on the left is now Wagamama, and was, I think, originally the offices of one of the major Surrey newspapers – but I can’t remember which. The Surrey Comet or the Surrey Mirror?
The other building is Whibley’s the jewelers – possibly most recognised for the giant bow they wrap their building with at Christmas time.
The second image is Stoughton Methodist Church – I used to walk past it almost every day when I lived near there.
Alan Cooper
February 26, 2015 at 1:04 am
Friary street junction with High Street about 1967. John Collier now Wagamamas
Bernard Parke
February 26, 2015 at 3:30 am
Friary Street, the shop was at one time The Fifty Shilling Tailors who then became John Colliers (John Colliers john Colliers, the window to watch).
They produced two affordable budiness suits. However, the seams were not that generous.
On more than one occasion when picking up a heavy bag of coins when I was working as first cashier at Lloyds Bank Ltd in Weybridge, the back seam in the trousers would split open.
It was a case of backs to the wall in those days as it was not easy to leave the counter area.
Bernard Parke
February 26, 2015 at 3:31 am
The Methodist Church in Stoughton.
Ray Springer
February 26, 2015 at 10:52 am
This is Friary Street in the 1950s.
The tailors were the 50 shilling tailors (John Colliers) known as the window to watch. I bought a suit there once.
On the opposite side was the tobacconists Harts, The Cigar Stores.
Ray Springer
February 26, 2015 at 11:21 am
The church is the Stoughton Methodist Church on the junction of Stoughton Road with Grange and Manor Roads.
Vic Moseley
February 26, 2015 at 12:18 pm
This is Friary Street before it was pedestrianised and before Millbrook was built as a through road.
To go to Shalford area you turned left at the traffic lights up the High Steet a short way before turning right into Quarry Street.
I believe the tailors on the left-hand corner of Friary Street was John Collier.
Linda Jackson
February 26, 2015 at 3:03 pm
1. This is the Friary Street junction with High Street. On the left is the tailor John Collier and on the right-hand side was a tobacconist and confectioner, but I cannot remember the name.
2. Could this be the Methodist Church in Stoughton on the corner of Grange Road?
John Lomas
February 26, 2015 at 9:51 pm
I’m back after a couple of missed weeks, though I had guessed the early Friary centre, if only because of that arched doorway, but I couldn’t find any pictures to back up the theory.
This week is the High Street end of Friary Street.
This was part of my driving test route, I turned left out of Quarry Street and then the examiner said: “Take the first available turning on the right.”
Fortunately I knew about the no entries at Friary Street, the bus station exits and the lower part of Farnham Road.
Martyn Pryce
February 26, 2015 at 11:23 pm
Is the first picture friary Street from the High Street end?
Not 50 just yet, so don’t know names of shops!
The second picture is Stoughton Methodist Church, on the corner of Grange Road and Stoughton Road?
David Staniforth
February 27, 2015 at 6:48 pm
The first photo is the start of Friary Street where it joins the High Street.
The second picture is of the Stoughton congregational church at the crossroads of Grange Road Stoughton Road and Manor Road.
Carol Norris
March 1, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Picture 1: Friary Street. 50 Shilling Tailors on the left.
Miss Downes, who later became Mrs Dray, had a wonderful florists and fruit and vegetable shop in Friary Street.
Chris Townsend
March 1, 2015 at 6:13 pm
The vintage view (late 1950s?) shows the entrance to Friary Street from the High Street, with “John Collier, John Collier, the window to watch!” on the left.
On the right was once The Cigar Stores, a tobacconist and confectioner’s. Numbering of the High Street was changed in 1961, and number 78 predates that. After redevelopment of Friary Street in the early 1970s, little is left of the street as it was except the facade of what was once the Bear pub.
The quirky view is of Stoughton Methodist Church, on the corner of Stoughton Road and Grange Road.
Doug and Bill Staniforth
March 3, 2015 at 10:50 am
Picture 1 is Friary Street shown from the High street end probably before Millbrook was opened.
During the 1960s this area was flooded and was an ideal place for boating.
Our great grandmother had a grocers shop in Friary Street. Does the editor remember it? He’s probably old enough.
Picture 2 is Stoughton Methodist Church at the junction of Stoughton Road and Grange Road.
{David Rose: No, I don’t recall the grocery shop. But see Marian Fripp’s comment as she names it as Sid’s Stores. Is that the shop you are thinking of?]
Margaret Cole
March 3, 2015 at 1:29 pm
This is Friary Street, before Millbrook was completed.
The building on the left is John Colliers or Fifty shilling Tailors.
I think I read somewhere it’s the only building remaining at the lower end of the high Street.
Wagamama Japanese restaurant now fits the slot.
Friary Street was a busy street with lots of open fronted shops, two lane one-way traffic and very narrow pavements – accidents did happen.
The Church steeple this week belongs to the Methodist church on the corner of Grange and Stoughton Road.
Judy Oliver
March 3, 2015 at 6:15 pm
The first picture is of Friary Street taken from the High Street end.
I cannot remember the name of the tailors but on the opposite corner was a tobacconist where my mother used to work. Can’t remember the name of that either!
I think the second picture is Stoughton Methodist Church.
Brian Holt
March 3, 2015 at 8:15 pm
1: This photo taken from the High Street, and looking down Friary Street.
I knew the tailor’s shop as Fifty Shilling Tailors, a British chain of shops selling men’s clothes, mass production meant that the price of a suit at 50 shillings.
Founded in Leeds in 1905, by Henry Price, the chain expanded to over 399 stores across the country.
In 1958 the company was sold to UDS which renamed it John Collier, it continued to trade within the UDS empire until sold in 1983 to Hanson PLC.
Today it’s Wagamma – a cafe type premises.
2: This is the side view of Stoughton Methodist Church, taken from Grange Road. The church stands on a corner of a busy cross roads, the front is in Stoughton Road.
Built in 1895.
Marian Fripp
March 4, 2015 at 7:32 pm
Is that Friary Street? Yes of course it is. At least that is what is printed above the picture if you click on it! Oops.
Having said that I am now probably wrong. However, if I am correct, I will go down memory lane and say I remember a shop my mother took me to in Friary Street called Sid’s Stores. During the war she used to swap our chicken eggs for sugar. I think that’s what was called black market.
Sid’s wife was called Maisie and the shop was a general grocery store with lovely cold meats.
Also down that street I believe was a slaughterhouse. Must have been close to the river bank as it was a left turn from the High Street end and busy on market day.
From an upstairs window in Sid’s Stores we watched a carnival go along that street. I’d love to know when that was – I believe I was very young, maybe three or four.
The street looks wider than I remember, but I was little.
Chris Townsend
March 8, 2015 at 11:10 am
We too shopped at Sid’s, after rationing ended and we were free to shop where we liked.
Sid’s was best for bacon; a piece of bacon, not too fat, was chosen from those shown to us, then rashers were sliced to our liking on the bacon-slicer. I remember the sound of it. From the opposite (right-hand) side of the shop we bought tea and other packeted or tinned goods.
About the slaughterhouse: in the 1950s, my mother pointed out to me a tiny cottage where an uncle Amos Ede had lived for many years. I find from census returns that Amos was there as early as 1901.
A butcher’s horsekeeper, he gave the address as Colebrooks Yard, Friary Street. He was still listed at stables there in the late 190s.
Further down the yard, I recall, in the 1950s was a large building, the Furniture Mart, backing right on the river, filled with secondhand furniture. Was that once the site of the slaughterhouse and stables?
Colebrook’s was once a well-known butcher’s in the town.
The carnival was memorable, and I watched from the corner of Bridge Street and Onslow Street, possibly in Coronation year. Can you confirm the date, please, David?
[David Rose: I think the Guildford carnivals started up again in 1952. There was a special one of Coronation Day in 1953.]
Linda Fowler
February 26, 2016 at 11:07 am
Sid’s Stores was my uncle’s shop and my dad, named Albert but known as Bert, worked in the shop. I lived in a flat over Sid’s Stores from 1954 to 1964.
The entrance to our flat was down the Furniture Mart yard. I was only four-years-old in 1954 but I remember it all like it was yesterday. You could get all provisions that you required in Friary Street without going anywhere else.
Good old days.