Where Is This? No.61

Published on: 11 Jun, 2013
Updated on: 18 Jun, 2013

By David Rose

It’s lovely when an old photo really sparks off a good deal of memories, as did last week’s that showed Ayers’ bakery and shop in Woodbridge Road.

Lots of great replies, click here to see all of them at the foot of the post.

Brian Holt, who beat Bernard Parke by replying first, worked at Ayers’ bakery as you will read. He has also emailed me some further details that I will use in a future Through Time story.

Thanks to everyone who replied, and especially to those who are still after a prize of some kind – namely Doug Stanniforth of Pedal Pushers cycle shop, and the Clitheroe Kid, who resides in sunny Eastbourne!

Several of you recognised the statute as being The Seeds of Hope, in the Children’s Garden at Guildford Cathedral.

Where is this and what was being built?

Straight on to this week’s mystery vintage photo and one supplied by regular correspondent to this column Chris Townsend. Although she obviously knows where it is, I hope she can supply some extra details… Your knowledge of our local history is second to none!

As a clue, it’s Guildford High Street. So what’s the building under construction? It’s a well known shop.

Do you know where this piece of public art is?

Another piece of modern art as photographed by Peter Bullen. Any ideas as to where it can be found?

If you know the answers to this week’s, and perhaps have some comments to make, 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 vintage photo and sculpture / statue picture, and the next pair of images.

And finally, hope the men among readers have seen the story about my showing of vintage pictures from living memory at the new men’s group being set up in Park Barn on Thursday afternoon, June 20. All welcome. Click here for details.

Responses to Where Is This? No.61

Bernard Parke Reply

June 12, 2013 at 8:11 am

1) Sainsbury’s.

2) University.
Norman Hamshere Reply

June 12, 2013 at 8:34 am

It must be Sainsbury’s at 143 High Street.
Julia Funnell Reply

June 12, 2013 at 8:38 am

I think Keen’s in the photo is now Molton Brown, formerly La Boulangerie, with the Tudor Rose Restaurant above. The building behind the scaffold must be the White Hart Hotel, now Sainsbury’s.

The sculpture is at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.
John Lomas Reply

June 12, 2013 at 9:00 pm

I think that is the Sainsbury’s store.
The Keen’s building 140 and the ones below it 138 and 136 were Grade II listed back in 1988, this site is looking for photos of them: http://tinyurl.com/pnllbj8
Ray Springer Reply

June 13, 2013 at 11:09 am

The shop being built in the High Street is Sainsbury’s. The site was originally the site of the White Hart which was demolished in 1905.

The sculpture is again in the Royal Surrey County Hospital grounds close to the entrance road.
David & Ann Bailey Reply

June 13, 2013 at 3:06 pm

The picture shows the construction of Guildford’s first Sainsbury’s, on the site of the White Hart Hotel.

We think the statue is on the Surrey Research Park.
Chris Townsend Reply

June 16, 2013 at 9:04 pm

The building under construction was Sainsbury’s, at that time numbered 143 High Street, which took the place of the White Hart, demolished in 1905. That Sainsbury’s shop was rebuilt in 1963.

In 1871, at 141 High Street, lower down the street, were confectioners G. and H. Keen. In 1881, George Keen was described as a baker employing 3 men and 4 boys, and living with his family over the shop. Beside the shop was Milkhouse Gate, and living next to a bakehouse there were John Reffold, aged 22, a baker’s foreman, with 4 other young bakers. By 1901, John Henry Reffold, baker and confectioner, was himself an employer, and living with his family over the shop at 141. His young brother, Wilfred “Billy” Reffold (1872-1955), was a journeyman baker, and is the small man on the right of the photo. In 1905 Keen & Co., pastrycooks and confectioners, were listed at 140-141 High Street, as shown in the photo, having a “Wholesale Department” on the right, but by 1911 John Henry Reffold was retired, and died in 1929.

Clifford Dale, gents’ outfitters, had replaced Keen’s by 1929, and remained for decades. What I knew as the Tudor Tea Rooms on the first floor is now the Tudor Lounge, above Molton Brown, the present occupant of Keen’s shop.
Brian Holt Reply

June 16, 2013 at 11:26 pm

I think it would be Sainbury’s shop being built, in in the photograph it shows the address on the Keen Shop as 140 and 142 High Street, Sainbury’s central is number 148 High Street.

The shop was built where the White Hart Inn was, which was pulled down in 1905. There is a plaque between the bay windows above the shop which is a reminder of when the building was a coaching inn.

The piece of art is outside the Royal Surrey County Hospital, it’s as you turn from Gill Avenue into the road which the buses use to go to the main entrance of the hospital.
Peter Bullen Reply

June 18, 2013 at 9:53 am

Would it be the old Sainsbury store in the High Steet being constructed?