NOW AND THEN: The corner of High Street and Griffin Street in Newport

 

LAST week we featured a photographicture of Griffin Street in Newport.

THIS is the corner of High Street and Griffin Street. On the left is British Home Stores that used to be the Great Universal Stores which was built in 1934.

On the right hand side is Cecils the drapers. Cecils had a wonderful till system, sales staff placed the customers' money into canisters which were then attached to overhead wires.

A pull of a handle sent the canister whizzing along the wire to a central cashier who sent the change and receipt back along the wire.

On the left hand side of the GUS was the Crown arcade with government offices and the entrance to the market. In the 1950s Griffin Street used to be full of horse-drawn carts offloading at the market. British Homes Stores has relocated to Commercial Street next door to Barclays Bank. The photo looks to date from the early 1960s.

Dave Woolven, Newport

THIS picture shows High Street at the junction with Griffin Street in the 60s. Look how busy it was! BHS was in the Market Block and buses used High Street! Even Griffin Street was busy with Cecils outfitters and further down the Co-op Bank.

Jim Dyer, Newport

THE Now and Then is of Griffin Street. Cecils is now a hair dressing salon. Opposite used to be British Home Stores. Next to the market which is now a curtain shop across the road was Specsavers which has now moved to the new shopping centre. Also McDonalds is nearby. The New Hands/ Rail leads to the market that has a nice sitting area out side.

M Reardon, Newport

THE then photograph features the Hopkin Morgan bakery van, outside the British Homes Stores, in High Street, Newport, in May 1959. Newport Market existed behind this store. The Austin motor car in Griffin Street is parked alongside a limited parking sign. Who remembers Hills and Steels, the predecessor to British Home Stores? Here as 10-year-old boy in 1953, I cycled every Saturday morning to purchase tea in theire downstairs basement when tea bags did not exist. 

As young children we would visit Cecils on the opposite corner, to watch the shop assistant place cash into a mental container, and project it along fixed metal wires, to the office at the rear of the store, a few doors along was Hodges menswear, where I purchased my first made-to-measure suit.

Keith Wood, Newport