Shopping in Hitchin in bygone years.

I recently found this photograph of a basket full of goodies bought in Hitchin many years ago. No plastic in those days.

It made me want to have a little look through some of my old photos and postcards of  shops and the way people used Hitchin town in years gone by. I also came across this little booklet with the prices for Perk's Lavender. Inside it told me that Prize Medal Lavender Water can be bought as cheaply as 1shilling and 1penny - which is about 51/2 pence in today's money.  And Lavender Bloom Bath Power (in boxes) were 1 shilling - which is about 5p.

Perk's Lavender Distillery - High Street, Hitchin just after it closed.

I've always loved this picture from the 1960s which shows not much has changed along Bancroft, apart from the fashions and the cars. The little white car was my dad's. :-)

A great deal of change has happened with the post office. This is John Beaver (postmaster) and staff in 1880, when the post office was situated in The Market Place. Beaver was a grocer who is said to have a good sense of humour. One story about him relates to him standing outside his office listening to the Salvation Army Band, appealing for pennies on the drum and urging 'only 2 pennies more to make a shilling' He would wait until the shilling target was reached, and would then throw a couple of coppers on, as the process started again.

Vegetables are on display outside Nicholls' shop in the High Street in 1922. They were a high class fruiterer and florist. East variety of fruit would rest on a napkin in a separate basket, shown off to its best advantage and lit by gas in the winter evenings.

A great photo of The Market Place 

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The Regal Cinema, Hitchin

I recall The Regal Cinema in Bancroft with affection, despite some calling it the 'flea-pit'.

I remember going there in the 1960s and 70s for the children's adventure films on Saturday mornings with the playscheme.  I recall too being asked my age, in 1971, when I tried to get into the AA film, Love Story, when I wasn't yet fourteen.

Wallace sold the site of their dairy in 1932, and The Regal Cinema was built on the land and opened in 1939 and could seat 1055, and closed as a cinema in 1977.  There was a car park out the back, I remember, and my dad had his car broken into and 2lb of sugar stolen from the from seat. The Hitchin Gazette must have been short of stories that week, as they printed an article about it.

In 1980 the building re-opened as a concert hall and recording studio.  I went to see Judie Tzuke perform there.  Remember her?  She was best known for her song, Stay with me till Dawn which reached no. 16 in the UK charts in 1979.

There were applications made to have the building listed, but eventually it was demolished in 1985, which I still find sad to this day.

It was replaced by Regal Chambers, a doctors surgery, which opened in 1987.



Amanda Brittany 
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My best selling ebook Her Last Lie is available HERE  All ebook royalties go to Cancer Research UK in memory of my amazing sister. Her Last Lie is a psychological thriller, with a  chapter devoted to Hitchin, and the main character lives in Letchworth.