~ Gallery - Shops ~
Park Road, Lower Gornal
A row of six shops at the end of Park Road, built in the late 1950s by Tomlinson Bros of Sedgley.
Serving the Stickley Estate, these shops were once thriving with fish & chip shop, butchers, hairdressers, hardware, grocery and a clothes shop, they had become neglected by the 1990's and an eyesore during their later years.
New bungalows that replaced the shops in Park Road
Photo CDM 2014
During the 1960s, the clothes and wool shop at the near end was run by the parents of the BBC reporter and presenter, Sue Lawley.
Above the shops were Council owned maisonettes, the entrance to the maisonettes was at the rear of the building in Park House Gardens.
The shops were demolished in 2008 and the plot was vacant for a couple of years, in 2011 work started on redevelopment.
Six modern one bedroom bungalows now occupy this site, the red post box has also gone.
The Ellowes pub - later renamed The Spriggers Arms, once stood opposite and suffered the same plight, the pub was built in the early sixties and demolished by the end of the century.
Applications were invited by the Council in 1962 for the tenancy of one lock-up shop known as No.3 Park Buildings at a rental of £126 per annum, the five shops were already taken and trading:-
[1]: Ladies & childrens outfitter, drapery, linen, haberdashery and soft furnishings.
[2]: Newsagent, tobacconist, stationery, toys, confectionary and sweets
[3]: -
[4]: Ladies hairdresser, cosmetics and ladies toilet requisites.
[5]: Pork butcher and cooked meats.
[6]: Wet and fried fish.
c1960 - just after completion.
The following businesses were trading in the block in the 1980s.
[1]: Clothes & wool shop.
[2]: Arthur Turley, groceries.
[3]: Hardware & video store.
[4]: Hairdressers.
[5]: Don Lloyd, butchers shop.
[6]: Bill & Mary's fish & chip shop
The above photo looks along Park House Gardens off Ellowes Road, all residents had been removed and the building is getting ready for demolition, the road has also now disappeared.
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