The Chapel Street Market branch of Woolworths closed
down last month, and thus another part of my landscape
history disappeared along side of it.
I have a strong memory of being outside of the store while I
was four years old – over 50 years ago.
Places change, buildings come and go.
What used to be slum areas turn in to fashionable parts.
Fashionable areas decay and turn in to slum areas.
It’s the old saying:
‘What comes around goes around’.
What used to be the premises of C & W May ( theatrical
Costumiers ) has changes a lot.
I worked for the company in Covent Garden from 1968 to
1972.
My how things have changed in the area since then!
I would go to work while the Fruit and vegetable market
was in full swing.
In the evening I might sometimes have a beer in the Essex
Serpent – another one of the areas historical watering
holes.
What was the C & W May premises on King Street is now an
HMV record store.
In the time I worked for Mays it moved to Garrick Street.
Those premises are now a Waterstones book shop.
Yesterday I went shopping in Covent Garden,
and punched a couple of DVDs in the King Street store.
Both the King Street & Garrick Street premises have a very
different layout to what they had while I worked in them.
While visiting these stores I use my memory map to work out
on just what spot I’m standing upon in terms of the old Mays
premises.
It can be very strange and very disconcerting to be at the
same place which is not the same place as one remembers.
Part of my own radical walking tour covers this part of
Covent Garden.
I can point out the former headquarters of the CPGB
( communist part of Great Britain) on the corner of King
Street, and which is now a bank.
or
Where I once saw the great Actress Sybil Thorndyke being
taken in to a restaurant along King Street.
or
The former offices of the Left Book Club in Henrietta
Street.
&
I’ll even show you where I used to work.
Just come with me for a stroll around Covent Garden
sometime:
Along with my historical memories of the area.