The Orkney Image Library
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Date estimated. This is the picture referred to in Peter's comment today on picture #62.
The view is looking up Bridge Street, with Stevenson's at the end, and Garden's having the two buildings nearest on the left, where the open square is now. Why the open square? See picture #1683.
The sign on the nearest building says 'Shop at Garden's Drapery', but the further away sign is harder to make out.
It is believed the photographer of this and the next picture was the late J.W. Sinclair.
Picture added on 25 August 2006
It says drapery on the bottom of the sign Peter
Added by Liz Firth on 28 August 2010
Part or all of the two buildings on the left were the Kirkwall Hotel up to 1890.
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Added by Bruce Gorie on 11 June 2023
Kirkwall
" I joined Garden's as the "Office Girl" aged 15, in 1935. At that time the complex included a China shop, Grocery, Drapery and a Household Dept. that sold rolls of linoleum and everything else required by the average home owner. There was also a Bakery and an Agricultural Dept. where fleeces were bought from the farmers, at sheep shearing time, and packed in giant bags to be shipped south. In the spring seeds and fertilisers were sold, and Garden's competed with J. & W. Tait to supply the best grass seed mixtures.
There was also a Lemonade factory, and a Tweed- producing mill.
Later, during the war, Navy bakers were conscripted into Garden's bakery to help the local bakers cope with the huge quantities being ordered by the Fleet lying in Scapa Flow. I happened to be on Garden's telephone switchboard at that time, and was flabbergasted at the huge orders for cigarettes also from the Navy. I took the orders but never understood why they should be buying cigarettes from us in such vast quantities when Navy cigarettes were Duty Free.
Before the fire all the shops were several storeys high, and level with the street."