Forum Topic

Can anyone remember this

My daughter cant believe that I cant remember this. A wine shop in that stretch of high road with Devco and the old Waitrose, next to clothes shop called Jaska. She says it had hanging sign outside with painting of purple dangling grapes, and (this bit I just cant see) a spiral staircase outside leading to the basement. Any ideas?

Stephen Gould ● 2355d39 Comments

I remember Jaska. A blonde owner, she sourced great children’s clothes, but I remember Waitrose where Carpet Right were and Devco only in Fauconberg Road.

Vivienne Cox ● 2355d

My wife says she can remember the old Waitrose and there was indeed a Devco next door in the High Road.  This was about 40 years ago. She thinks the Devco was also previously or latterly called Shepherds.  Can't remember the wine store though. Didn't the old Waitrose become Bejam?

Brian Coyle ● 2355d

Jaska  was on the corner of Duke Road, where the Eye studio now is. Waitrose was up the other end where carpet right and blockbuster were.The sign of purple hanging grapes rings a bell though....

Rebecca Hobson ● 2355d

Waitrose was indeed near Carpetright.  I thought it closed more than 40 years ago. Used to shop there with the family in the 60's/70's. Sign jerks a memory but afraid it's gone after all these years.

Jeffrey Cope ● 2355d

I think it was called Hanson Wines,a really quirky shop😁

Chris Pease ● 2355d

I’m sure there was an off licence up that end near Waitrose

Rebecca Hobson ● 2355d

I thought Waitrose was just over the traffic lights going west, perhaps where The Italians is now. It became Iceland. What about Cullens which was something else before that (it's Tesco Express now).

Joanna Biddolph ● 2355d

Does anyone remember the great little curtain shop run by a very nice tiny Asian lady, somewhere around the site where Dyas is now?  Really pretty curtain material and beautiful net curtains which they did made to measure. Kitted out the first place I bought in Chiswick, a little ground floor flat in Duke Road, thanks to her.  Sad that it closed down, it was a little gem.  Can't remember the name now.

Claire Moran ● 2355d

I think Cullens was where Costa is now. There was a shop before that, I think called Liptons?

Rebecca Hobson ● 2355d

Just had a look in Gillian Clegg's book, Chiswick Past, Joanna.  Waitrose pictured in the '60s at the zebra crossing by Town Hall Terrace. As for Cullens, my wife says this may have been Home & Colonial stores (this was the '50's)! Quite likely though some other incarnation between that and Cullens!

Brian Coyle ● 2355d

There was Rebecca ,it was an Oddbins where I had a Saturday job.

Ben Gemmingen ● 2355d

If anyone uses Facebook, there's a section on there called Chiswick Kids 1980 - 95.  Several of them have posted photos from over the years of various shops which aren't around any more.

Micki Hawkes ● 2355d

I believe Cullens became Tesco Local

Guy Lambert ● 2355d

Thanks, Brian. The Waitrose I remember was in the 80s - from 1983.

Joanna Biddolph ● 2355d

My memory of the old Waitrose was that it was more or less in the same place as the present one, and it was where you went for your Saturday morning shopping. When Sainsbury's opened, with its vast car park, I assume they lost so much custom that they decided to close down. But then, a couple of decades or so later, their market research showed them that Chiswick had reached such a level of posh middle-classness that it would be worth their while to re-open, and so it came to pass.

Colin Jordan ● 2355d

Current Waitrose is on the site previously occupied by Woolworths. The old Waitrose was where Daniel Beds and Iceland followed. That site was also a trendy furniture shop for a while (name escapes me).

Karen Foster ● 2355d

There was a shepherds in Long Acre as well in the early eighties

Fiona Bell ● 2354d

Jim Lawes is the one to ask - he should know.  Come on Jim!

V Killick ● 2354d

We moved to Chiswick in 1980, and on the day of the move, we ate a meal from Shepherds,and it was vile. Not surprisingly, the place was  given low ratings for hygiene and closed quite soon after. The small Waitrose  was there for a couple more years, but was not very good. For example, the shelves were cleared of meat products and bread early on Saturday afternoons, long before closing time. Do you recall the fishmongers, Portsch or some such name, ust by the bus stop on that row of shops? Our daughter has a horror of fish, and hated having to be so close to a shop window full of them!Further down  CHR, about opposite the Catholic church, there was an early charity shop, where I bought a very nice Norfolk jacket. And does any one recall the patisserie on that same row, very expensive, and known for the owner's reluctance to accept any criticism of her product or prices. All gone with the wind, now, of course.

Arnold Saxton ● 2354d

Yes but what about the spiral staircase to the basement. My daughter thinks it was on the outside. We were having a lockdown reminisce, and walk down late 80s High Road trying to remember missing shops from the Old Cinema when it still had the sloping cinema floor, past Fouberts and Mrs Fouberts kids shop, a butcher?, across terrace to Benettons, Windmill, A big Pine furniture shop, McD, Cullens, Currys, Quinns the butcher Newspaper shop, Burger King, Our Price, Woolies, Argos, Fishmonger, another butcher? Then Jaskas, this wine shop???, Waitrose, Blockbuster, and Devco. You could buy everything. Proper high road. We're still trying to fill in some gaps, but not with shops that still exist.

Stephen Gould ● 2354d

Gone with the wind indeed. Let us all hope that after the current emergency is over, that high streets all over the country can re-open and recover to some sort of normality, and not be semi wastelands.I think it will be a big ask for many towns.

Keith Iddon ● 2354d

The furniture shop ... Lombok.

Joanna Biddolph ● 2354d

It was an excellent little independent that closed - obviously - shortly after Waterstone's opened.  I was there on May 29th 1986.  I know this because I still have my treasured copy of the fabulous 'Midsummer Morning Jog Log' signed and dated by both the author, Michael Horovitz and the illustrator, Peter Blake.

Alastair Banton ● 2354d

It was a great little book shop on the opposite side of the high road. Such a shame when it went.

Fiona Bell ● 2354d

Cullens was definitely where Tesco Express is and the manager from Cullens was still there recently.I think Tesco bought the Cullens chain.

Chris Lucy ● 2354d

I’m sure Cullens was a bigger store then the current Tesco?

Rebecca Hobson ● 2354d

Devcos and Cullens were your Sunday shops. Cullens were one of the first to do spit roast chicken I think

Stephen Gould ● 2354d

I remember the curtain shop Claire she used to sell duvet covers as well I think it was near a jewellers and I used to live in Duke Road too.

Barbara Dudley ● 2354d

Probably Tesco have more storage at the back than Cullens did.

Chris Lucy ● 2354d

Cullens was our go-to grocer for freshly baked sourdough bread - way ahead of its time and knocked today's overpriced Gails into a top hat. Devastated that it was replaced by a boring Tesco express.

Kevin Mitchell ● 2354d

Was there a Bejam's in Chiswick?  If so, anyone remember it..

Stuart Kerr ● 2354d

Stephen. I think the pine shop you mentioned was called 'The Pine Shop' and it was at no 256-258.....I know this because I've still got the receipts for furniture I bought there in 1994!

Cindy Carloss ● 2354d

Does anyone remember a lovely shop called Chicane in TGT which sold cane furniture and all sorts of decorative things, chinaware etc.  I found something I could not live without every time I went there!

Cindy Carloss ● 2354d

Valerie you called! How can I help? My memory is fading.I've just remembered the Heidelburg Coffee Shop..and "Helsinki" which was far from exciting as the Finnish capital itself.But no staircase.

Jim Lawes ● 2354d

There was, for a time, in the late 60's/early 70's a butchers shop named Andre's. It claimed to be French inspired with meat cut in the French manner. It was based somewhere between American Pie and Carvosso's.

Jeffrey Cope ● 2353d

Yes Chicane was a lovely shop. Still have an image of the owner, a very distinctive man with beard but no moustache, which is unusual.

Stephen Gould ● 2353d

The only patisserie I can think of in the '80s more-or-less where you describe is The Old Heidelberg. Next door was a butcher, J. Quinn. As you might expect, Irishmen all, and lovely fellows who used to give away meat to little old ladies at the end of the day.

Robert Fish ● 2353d

We still have the wicker cat carrying basket we bought in Chicane. As you say, a lovely shop.

Gail Busza ● 2353d

In the early 60s you could get spit roasted chicken from Jollys which I think was a butchers

Bernadette Paul ● 2353d