Shops of yore

Can any of you shop experts remember the name of the stationery/toy shop that used to be between Shelton Square and the Arcade. I think there was a chemist shop on the corner of Shelton Square next to it and a pub over the top which I think was the Standard. We used to go in there for a couple of barley wines before going to the Locarno on a Friday night. I seem to remember that this stationers had a good selection of craft stuff as well.

Wasn't it Midland Educational? I remember getting a standing tapestry frame for a friend from there and then having to carry it all the way hame as it was too big to go on the bus with. If memory serves correctly (and it doesn't always) it had some connection with Barnbys toy shop.

That's it, it was the Midland Educational It was the sort of shop you could browse for ages, 1960's Hobbycraft! Thanks for that.

I loved Phillips in Hillfields I remember going there in the 80's with my dad and remembering how smart the staff looked in their coats and the smell of the sawdust, metal and paint, I miss it

I doubt anyone here is old enough to remember it but Phillips replaced the rather ornate school building seen on the right of this postcard after it was destroyed in the war:

Oh wow I didn't know that, my nan would have known it as she lived in Hillfields for most of her life

Brookes Sempar Limited. Household goods and Furnishers. Someone would have brought something from them in the past.

Thanks Baz For anyone who is baffled this is a view from the north end of Queen Victoria Road looking southwards to the junction with Corporation Street. Neither of the buildings in the picture exists any longer.

Thanks Dutchman. I was thinking that Iceland is in that other building, but it would have been one up from that. Same style building. Brookes building is now where the car park is, and the other building would have had our own round market close behind it. There was a gap (if memory serves) that you could walk through to the outer stores of the market. Shoe sales, and a sweet counter.

The two buildings aren't as close to each other as it first appears. This is a prewar shot from a different angle showing the relative position of the two:

Where's the gap gone? You are so right in stating about the distance. Although looking at the three storey building, it does look wrong. The ground floor as like where Iceland is today, has a covered part (as like in my pic, with a canopy style). This one has windows straight to ground level. My pic also shows five full sets of windows. This pic only shows three full sets. The roof is the same but I have 90 degree corners, and yours has windows at 45 degrees making up the corners. I think at some stage, more than likely late 40's, 50's it was re-built into a modern, post war building. I am not sure when Brookes Sempar building was knocked down, but if this building was up-dated into the 50's, then Brookes would have gone after that???

It became the junction with the extension to Corporation Street which is now often mistaken for Queen Victoria Road. The prewar buildings were the entrance to the Rover Works either side of Garfield Road. They were replaced with new blocks which occupied the same floor plan. The gap in-between was then renamed Rover Road but most people know it as the entrance to the market.

Is that where the Alps restaurant was (I think it was called that) on the left side of the entrance near to the C&A building? This is taken from G**gle and edited to show location.

Rover Road was between the Victoria and Albert buildings as shown here:

"Swiss Alps", I think