37 Gardner Street

Image: © Simon Carey Taken: 25 Sep 2011

Beginning its life as a hairdresser then toy dealers the shop was acquired by the national grocer chain Pearks in 1902 and they and their successor company Maypole, who had also traded at Image, continued until the early 1970s when they and Home & Colonial, who had a store at Image were bought out by the Caversham food group and eventually subsumed within the Safeway brand. The shop had actually expanded next door to Image in 1964 and these two units would remain together during duration of Cleaner Homes tenure eventually splitting back into two separate units in 1987 which has remained the case ever since. A brief foray as a bookmakers then leaves a large gap where I have yet to discover who was there. The trail returns in 2001, being briefly home to Velvet who began at Image then moved to Bond Street where they still trade today. The current occupants are Noa Noa a Danish company. OCCUPANT 1877: TAILOR: H Early 1881-96: HAIRDRESSER: Sydney Welling (1881-91), J Payne (1892-96) 1899-1901: TOY DEALER: F Clarke (1899), M Myers (1900-01) 1902-73: GROCER: Pearks Dairies Ltd (1902-64), Maypole Dairy Company Ltd (1966-73) 1975-86: ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES: Cleaner Homes 1987-88: BOOKMAKER: Victor Chandler 2001: MENSWEAR: Armadillo 2002-04: FABRICS; Velvet 2005-11: LADIESWEAR: Noa Noa

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