Where Is This? No.295

Published on: 7 Oct, 2018
Updated on: 7 Oct, 2018

By David Rose

What you have all been waiting for…. the answers to the previous post! The vintage picture, looking up North Street, was taken from what had been the Royal Surrey Militia depot, but by the time of this picture (around the 1910s) had been converted into housing with some shops and businesses.

Tom Picken’s general stores (no relation to Slim Pickings as far as it’s known) is roughly where the North Street entry to the Friary Centre is today. The spire of the Methodist Church on the corner of North Street and Woodbridge Road can be seen, while the in the foreground, just creeping into the picture, was a hut that was next to a public weigh bridge.

The quirky picture of a road sign covered with ivy can be found on the corner of Sydenham and Jenner Roads.

Lots of extra details supplied by readers in their comments at the foot of the post. To see them, click here.

On to the next pair of images, and the vintage view is from the fantastic collection of photographs at the Guildford Institute. Click here for its website for details of its huge archive of all manner of pictures, documents and books relating to Guildford. Better still, drop by and call into the library!

Where is this building in Guildford town centre and what is its name? Click on pictures to enlarge in a new window.

This image shows a building still standing in Guildford town centre – but the occupants have changed!

Do you recognise this building?

The quirky picture shows a building with some weatherboarding in a ‘fairly quiet spot’ a few paces from Guildford High Street. Weatherboarding, sometimes called clapboarding, is not particularly common in West Surrey.

If you know the answers and can supply some additional details, please leave a reply in the box below and remember to add your full name. The answers will be given fairly soon with the next pair of images.

Responses to Where Is This? No.295

C Barker Reply

October 8, 2018 at 10:46 am

The first picture is the building opposite the toni and guy hairdressers in upper high street. I only know because I walked past last month and noticed a painter doing an awfully shoddy job of painting the railings leading up the steps to the shop. There’s more paint on the steps than the railings. Personally I would have made more of an effort on such a lovely building!
Les Knight Reply

October 8, 2018 at 1:38 pm

295 = Upper High Street, opposite which was the old council building. I think Upper High Street was called Duke Street at one time. I have just got back to reading The Dragon.
Carol Norris Reply

October 8, 2018 at 7:50 pm

Picture 1 : The shop in the centre with the grand steps is as shown, “Elaine” a dress shop run by a lovely lady, Gwenda Hattersley. My mother bought her clothes there and was photographed for Harpers magazine in the shop. She was driven there in a glass delivery lorry belonging to my father’s Guildford Glass & Metal Works because the photo call was on the day of the flood in the 60s and cars couldn’t get from where we lived in Bury Street to the top of the town because of the depth of the water.
Spooner’s Florists was very well known in the town. I was at school with Gillian Spooner.
John Lomas Reply

October 8, 2018 at 11:39 pm

The old photo shows 222 High St in the Upper section, Streetview shows it occupied by (L to R) Rohan, Strutt Parker and Oxfam.
The photo was taken before the High St re-numbering as it shows the number as 166 and an 1871 1:500 oldmap shows it as Somerset House.
A 1903 Francis Frith photo gives the impression that it might have been a residence at that time..
James Davey Reply

October 12, 2018 at 5:28 pm

This building is in the Upper High Street, a few doors up from the Royal Grammar School. Originally built for one of the dukes of somerset and called “Somerset House”.

The weather-boarded house is the side of No 16 Trinity Church Yard, next door to The Royal Oak public house
Chris Townsend Reply

October 21, 2018 at 7:50 am

The vintage view shows Somerset House, High Street, at the top of the town. I remember Jones (shoes), Elaine (upmarket ladies’ wear) and Spooner’s the florists from the 1950s, when the space to the right was occupied by Biddle’s bookshop.

What fun it used to be, to run up one flight of those steps and down the other!

The quirky building is at the top of Trinity Churchyard, next to the Royal Oak pub and the footpath leading to Sydenham Road.
Aubrey Leahy Reply

October 21, 2018 at 8:28 am

Top one. Top end of the High Street. Close to the grammar school.
Jean Leroy dressmakers were in there, I think.
Doug and Bill Stanniforth Reply

October 30, 2018 at 12:42 pm

Somerset House, Upper High Street.

The building is by the Royal Oak on Town path at the rear of Holy Trinity Church.
James Davey Reply

December 1, 2018 at 2:03 pm

The first picture is of Somerset House in the Upper High Street. Originally built for The Duke of Somerset in the 1700’s.

The second picture is of a dwelling on the south western corner of Trinity church yard, next to the Royal Oak pub.
BJ Riley Reply

June 13, 2023 at 12:45 am

Was that the (abrupt) end of the series? I have been having great fun ploughing though the almost 300 entries and remembering my years in the county town. Thanks to all involved!