Redgates loved that shop

[dawn19run]

My mum worked there in the sixties,on the top floor, Bikes, Rocking horses,pedal cars and custom built dolls prams,I used to pray that i would get a Rocking horse for Xmas but they were far too expensive,I remember seeing a Rolls Royce pedal car priced at 10 guineas,(well over a hundred pounds in todays money) I did get a custom built pram-much to my horror,I hated dolls.I also remember the helicopter ride downstairs that seemed to go way up to the ceiling on an extendable arm for 1d Health& safety would have a fit with that today...I loved it Redgates had its own wonderful smell as you went in,a mixture of the varnished rocking horse wood,leather,and joy,it was paradise for children and sadly missed.

[westmoors]

RED GATES Every saturday with my pocket money to buy a stars wars toy or matchbox car

 

Christmas time brings back many childhood memories ,I remember Redgates at the top of the Moor in 1938/9 before it got bombed,as a child occasionally I was allowed the very special treat of visiting the shop on a Saturday. The Hornby Doublo had just come on the market and they had a fantastic display in the basement, with several layouts interwoven in quite a large display, tunnels, cuttings, mountains, stations etc. to a small child a real wonderland.

 

Of course we could only look, the prices were too high for us but it was still a treat just to watch all this happening and dream.

[Westonfront]

Used to buy all my Action Man kit from Redgates

Happy memories

[trackrunner]

My favourite was Wilson Gumperts, I would try to get my parents to spend their money there.

 

Was that in Fitzalan Square?

[stpetre]

Wilson Gumpert's was in Fitzalan Square, part of the old Marples Hotel building. They and Redgates were the same company. I had a teacher at Burngreave-1958-62- Mr. Nunn, I understand that his family had something to do with them.

[willybite]

Wilson Gumpert's was in Fitzalan Square, part of the old Marples Hotel building. They and Redgates were the same company. I had a teacher at Burngreave-1958-62- Mr. Nunn, I understand that his family had something to do with them.

 

hiya my memory of gumperts was in the early 40s it was in fitzalan square but it was between marples which was wrecked, and the elephant pub there was a dry-cleaners next door and a flower shop the other side, and redgates was at the bottom of ecclesall rd with i think franklins next door with a wide goods entrance in between, had my first thee wheeler bike solid rubber tyres from redgates it had a red five barred gat painted on the front fork

[hillsbro]

As echo beach wrote, Redgate's originally sold furs, and the 1905 directory describes the Nottingham-born Edwin Walters Redgate (1839-1909) as a "furrier and perambulator manufacturer" at 19 Fargate. Earlier census returns show Edwin variously as a "watchmaker" and "sewing machine manufacturer", with a business in Church Street in 1881. The 1925 directory (compiled in 1924) describes the firm as "Furriers, blouse & coat specialists & perambulator manufacturers; children's chairs, cots & every nursery requisite", still in Fargate. The following year they moved to 5-7 The Moor, and by 1936 "toys" was included in the description of their business. They were bombed out in 1940 and moved to temporary accommodation at 10-12 Ecclesall Road. By 1953 they were at 11-13 The Moor, near where they had been before, and in the late 1960s moved around the corner to Furnival Gate.

 

I once did some research into Wilson Gumpert's. In case it's of interest, here are some notes based on what I wrote on a different thread. The firm was founded in 1911 when J. Wilson & Son, toy importers and dealers of Snig Hill and Fargate, went into partnership with Ernst Gumpert. He had been a representative of a German firm of toy manufacturers whose products Wilson's had imported. He settled in Sheffield and in 1901 married Francis Wilson's daughter, Eleanor. The firm prospered, despite some anti-German sentiment during both World Wars. It was not ideal to have two separate shops and in 1935 the firm obtained a long lease on part of the "White Building" in Fitzalan Square. I would guess that the shop closed in the mid-1960s. Ernst Gumpert died aged 83 in 1950; the last local member of the Gumpert family, Ernst's son Dr Traugott Gumpert of Ranmoor, died in Sheffield in 1992 aged 88.

Edited February 20, 2017 by hillsbro

[maryjane]

A magical place.

[stpetre]

Yes; Redgates was a magnet for kids of a certain age. I was always drawn to Gordon Joel's on Church St. as they had loads of Hornby Dublo electric train stuff that I couldn't afford.

 

Mike, I don't remember a toy shop on Church St. and I was a kid in the 50's. Could you, or someone could you enlighten me?

[victormh]

I also remember Redgates - and yes, it was a magnet for kids as well as some grown ups. The same day/night Redgates was bombed, my parents had been in their to buy a Silver Cross pram. Not sure if it was before or juat after I was born - that was July 01 1940

I also remember Wilson Gumperts, but not too well

My main memories as a child and even early teens was the Hobbies shop on the walkway at the side of the Peace Garden. I remember that the ex Army Shop was at the bottom.

Model planes and gliders were the things to make then

 

Victor Hutchinson - Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia