Memories - early or general

Hi Dreamtime You`ve just bought back a childhood memory with the brown paper parcels tied with string I`d forgotten all about them till I read your comment.

And wasn't the brown paper almost shiny and it sounded super-crinkly? I always wished the package was a present.

Hi all Memories come flooding back on this. Mr Andrews's sweet shop in Sewall Highway (one time lending library) was the local pic-up point for London Laundry which my mum used.

I was born in Coventry in 1954 and in my early years lived in Stoke Aldermoor, it was a brand new estate then and I was sorry when we moved to Holbrooks when I was 10. I can remember the Alpine pop man, the baker van, the fish van and 'John the Bus' who came round the estate twice a week in a big green lorry that was fitted with shelves full of groceries. He sold just about everything, but I think went out of business when the Co-op opened on Acorn St. I can also remember someone selling ice cream from a kind of trailer on the back of a bike. Happy days I don't live in Coventry now, but I sometimes go back to visit friends and I'm always amazed at how things have changed.

Morning everyone, I hate to admit it but I have only just wondered - why LONDON laundry ?

We used the Kensington Laundry ourselves, based in Kensington Road. Perhaps the London Laundry was based in London Road? By a quirk of fate a friend's dad was a driver for the Kensington and it turned out our parents knew each other long before we did! There was also a King's Head Laundry to the rear and side of the Plaza cinema.

Hi all, there was a laundry on the Stoney Stanton Road near by where the cash & carry is now but I can not recall the name, but I think it was either the Kensington or London laundry I am sure someone will enlighten me.

The bagwash that we were familiar with collected and delivered,bwhich was obviously the attraction for us. As others have said, it was all packed in a pillow case. Reference Philip's post about shops at Sewall Highway, by the Devonshire Arms. We were very well served, as I am sure many other areas were too. We had a shoe repair shop, a good sized Pearks (grocery & provisions), Andrews, the shop that Phillip mentioned. A sweet shop, tobacconist, also housed a private lending library, which my Mum & Dad used. Although he could be a bit grumpy with children. Next to Andrews was a pharmacy/chemist, then finally a bike sales and repair shop. Across the road, we had a chippie, a wool/sewing shop, a paper shop, which I think was called Downes, next to that Reveres, a delicatessen/cake shop/bread etc. Then we had the gents hairdresser, my abiding memory of that is hearing the theme tune to Housewives Choice, presume I must have been there at 0900 or maybe 1000. Next we had a butchers shop and an ironmongers, so we really were very well served. Of course we also had the Devonshire Arms across the road, which in those days would have had an outdoor (is that what it was called)?

It was the London Laundry on Stoney Stanton Road.

Hi all, I believe that the company was a hotchpotch amalgamation of London Dry Cleaning & Kensington Laundry (originally London based companies) who spread their business all over the home counties as far as roughly the A5. They had businesses in Birmingham, but the Birmingham Coop swallowed that operation up just after the war.

Thanks Philip. Fancy me having to be told the origin of the London Laundry Co after all these years. It really is an education on the forum, who knows what trivia you learn.

I have an old laundry box which bears the legand 'Property of The London Laundry Coventry' and inside the lid a label from the makers 'The Enfield Box C., Ltd.' which guarantees the box to 'remain good and sound for FOUR YEARS from the date of delivery'.

Hi Harrier Enfield Box Co. Ltd. in Bury St Edmunds IP28 7AY, is still trading.

Just a gentle reminder, as this thread has been revisited, that its creator, Peter Walduck, sadly passed away in 2012

My favourite way of remembering old Coventry is going back to Leicester Causeway to the house that I was born in, park outside and let my mind drift back to the days when I was a kid. There were two shops that are not there now, one was Coopers wet fish shop and on the other side of the road there was Mrs Lees she sold general provisions, mum would send me with the ration book to get stuff. Then there was the time I hung on to the back of a coal lorry parked at the top by the bridge, I did not think he was going to go that fast and I let go right outside our house, I remember rolling over and over, I didn't break any bones but lost a lot of skin from various parts of me.The coalman had no idea this had happened and turned right into George Eliot Road, if I had hung on a couple more seconds he would have been going slow enough for me to let go without hurting myself. There was great excitement when the breadman came down, we would run up to stroke the horse, mum always said "don't go round the back of the horse". And there were some ladies who would scrub the doorstep every day can you imagine anyone doing that nowadays? We knew where all the apple trees were, and we did a lot of scrumping, one day I had my jumper tucked into my trousers and full of apples when a Policeman on a bike stopped me and escorted me to his police box on the Foleshill Road inside he had a desk with a lift up lid and told me to put all the apples in it, he clipped my ear and said "if I catch you again I will take you to the station". I bet he enjoyed a few apple pies out of them. We was caught actually up a tree in George Eliot Road, the owner said "come down here" we wouldn't at first because we were frightened of what he would do, after a while we came down he took us in his house and took our photograph and said "I know what you look like now so don't come back again, so we gave that one a wide birth. Yes we had some bad times but mostly they were good. Do I like our city? of course I do.