Can I ask any Sydenham long term residents if they recall the lovely shops called Parkers and Boags.
Parkers was an old fashioned sweet ship just north of Newlands Park on the High Street.
Boag's an old fashioned iron mongers the other direction from Newlands Park.
Mrs Boag was an amazing charachter. By the way it is pronounced
Bo ags not Boge's
Parkers and Boag's
I remember these shops.
Parkers smelt sugary and had big shapely glass jars of colourful sweets on shelves behind the counter: I can recall the sounds of their lids being unscrewed and the sweets tumbling out into the scales.
Boags had a splendid fascia 'W. BOAG'. Inside, the high shelves stacked with hardware seemed to ramble on into an infinity of darkness and ancient oily aroma.
Few shops now remain to suggest the character that Sydenham High Street once had. Buik's jewellers has gone recently, though Machray's chemists retains its distinctive (1930s?) front and hopefully this will survive.
Near where I live now, Malpas in Cheshire is a town retaining a number of characterful Victorian & Edwardian shop fronts: it reminds me of Sydenham as it used to be when I grew up there in the 1950s-1960s.
Nick
Parkers smelt sugary and had big shapely glass jars of colourful sweets on shelves behind the counter: I can recall the sounds of their lids being unscrewed and the sweets tumbling out into the scales.
Boags had a splendid fascia 'W. BOAG'. Inside, the high shelves stacked with hardware seemed to ramble on into an infinity of darkness and ancient oily aroma.
Few shops now remain to suggest the character that Sydenham High Street once had. Buik's jewellers has gone recently, though Machray's chemists retains its distinctive (1930s?) front and hopefully this will survive.
Near where I live now, Malpas in Cheshire is a town retaining a number of characterful Victorian & Edwardian shop fronts: it reminds me of Sydenham as it used to be when I grew up there in the 1950s-1960s.
Nick