Stewart & Stewart

[CHAIRBOY]

Whilst explaining to someone, the various, fascinating topics about this page of the site and quoted a few examples of shops etc. my friend mentioned Stewart & Stewart which was on Pinstone Street and as she said, it was from where you got your school uniform in the 50's/60's.

It is thought that they used to have sawdust sprinkled on the floor to prevent people slipping. I'd forgotten all about it but remember it now. Anyone got anymore to add?

[docmel]

My only memory of Stewart and Stewart is going there to have my hair cut when I was a toddler.

 

My old Mum has just told me it was the only place she could take me without me screaming the place down - for some reason I used to hate having my hair cut but the hairdressers in this shop used to have a pedal car on a pedastal so I could pretend I was driving while the barber snipped away

[docmel]

Just had a chat with Mum, now in her late 70's and although she can remember the shop she cannot remember sawdust on the floor.

 

The only retail establishmets that she was aware of that did that were butchers shops and the 'tap' room of some pubs

 

From what she can recall Stewart and Stewart were slightly 'upmarket' so they were more likely to have carpet.

[hazel]

I to shopped at Stewarts and Stewarts but can't remember sawdust on the floor. It was quite a " posh " shop, I bought my babies first outfit from there.

It was in line with Cockaynes, Coles and Robert Brothers, all decent department stores. Robert Bros had a floor manager who used to walk around more or less saying "Are you being served" and directing some one to serve you.

 

hazel

[CHAIRBOY]

Interesting, I'd forgotten Robert Brothers but we mentioned Cockaynes in the conversation. As for S&S I think it was that the wooden floor was so polished, the sawdust was there to temper it in case someone slipped - it was what the lady said without prompting - but I know it wasn't a 'spit & sawdust' place. Sorry if that was incorrect. Did they close or move on and at a guess, what year?

[Puffin4]

I rather fancy that Woolworths in Haymarket also used to apply sawdust to the floor. I was only a kid at the time but I don't think it was there all the time and it seemed to me that its use was part of the cleaning process. Cleaning equipment in those days was not so sophisticated, comprising mainly of wide brooms.

[hazel]

sorry I have no idea when they closed down but have an idea that it must have been after 1963 because that was when my son was small and I didn't shop there in 65 when I had my next child.

Can't remember them elsewhere either so think they just closed.

I remember being sent when young by the Matron who ran the nursery I worked at to Robert Bros to return a blow up bra on which one side had a puncture. When I think back it was just like the sitcom of Are You Being Served, except everybody was so serious and nobody dare laugh.

 

hazel

[crookesey]

My only memory of Stewart and Stewart is going there to have my hair cut when I was a toddler.

 

My old Mum has just told me it was the only place she could take me without me screaming the place down - for some reason I used to hate having my hair cut but the hairdressers in this shop used to have a pedal car on a pedastal so I could pretend I was driving while the barber snipped away

 

Don't remember it having a hairdressers, could your mum have confused it with Austin Reed on Chapel Walk who has a traditional barbers shop on the top floor?

[docmel]

Don't remember it having a hairdressers, could your mum have confused it with Austin Reed on Chapel Walk who has a traditional barbers shop on the top floor?

 

No mate - when I first saw the thread it stirred a memory in me, cus I had a strange picture in my head of me sitting in a little car having the barnet chopped. I called my Ma who, despite her aging years has a long term memory like a computer (you ought to hear her tales of the blitz in London before she was evacuated) - she confirmed that it was Stewart and Stewart - she also told me, which has already been said in another post, that it was a little 'posh' - not that we were, but as I said earlier it was the only place she knew that she could get my haircut without WWIII breaking out.

 

Now I put my mind to it I can just remember climbing the stairs to the hairdressers, so it must have been on one of the upper floors

[helbco]

yes - agree it was a bit 'posh' and definitely had a ladies hairdressers - with private cubicles - I remember my mother taking me there as a 6 year old and having my beautiful long hair lopped off - never forgive her for that - and she knows it! Disappeared early 60's.