High Street, Gosport, before out-of-town shopping and the internet | Nostalgia
Last Monday I published a photograph of pre-war Fareham because I knew little of the town and area and wanted your help.
Here is another street – High Street, Gosport – I do not know that much of and ask readers for their assistance once again.
On the left is a branch of Woolworth &Co (Woolies as we all called it) and next door is a commercial vehicle body builder. They also did car and motorcycle servicing. In the distance can be seen the rear end of an open stairway bus.
The overhead lighting is a feature I have seen in several photographs of the time.
The women on the left are wearing what my late grandmother would have called ‘sensible’ shoes.
Please let me have your comments on the photograph. Thank you.
• A one-time feature of Hayling Island funfair was the boating lake with Monkey island in the centre. Here you could hire a motorboat (called pop-pops) or paddle a canoe. Sadly this attraction has now disappeared and replaced by modern rides.
I like the sign in the background that says you can ‘drive your own car at 100...’ One hundred what? Surely not 100mph?
PALMERSTON ROAD REBUILT AFTER THE BLITZ
Palmerston Road, Southsea, when it was open to traffic. The woman on the left in the dark dress gives us a 1950s’ flavour.
On the left is a window display in Handleys. The store is now empty after Debenhams closed in January. The whole length of the original Palmerston Road was destroyed in the blitz of January 10/11, 1941, so all the buildings here were new. St Jude’s Church spire overlooks the scene as it had done for more than a century.