Orkney Image Library

Was one of the shops in the photo Miss Foulis china shop? She was agent for Goss China. I am a member of the Goss Collectors club and would love to know.

The former Co-op building in the centre (Chinese restaurant/ bookmakers) replaced buildings called Craigie's Close demolished in 1882. If this is in the same album as the Town Hall pictures (I'm going on the identical damage to the bottom right corners), presumably it dates from the mid 1880s. Pity it doesn't show the Garden's building on the other side of the street, which at that time was still in its old condition as a town house/hotel.

Yes, Miss Foulis shop was where Bill Spence had his office. My family lived at the back of it during the war years. Entry was the Burn Lane and our garden was the Albert Car park which had Air Raid Shelters at the botom.

Is Bob Gardens shop to the left or was it further up?

first shop was Bob Gardens, then a hairdresser, above lived Miss Harvey a dressmaker, thencoop buther shop, next was the old cc-op, then Miss Foulis, then a SLATER family lived above what is now Scott and Miller it was on off licence shop. them Geo Arthur baker and then Foulis buther, next was Leitches flower shop or may be Glues with a boarding house above then Scotts Fish Shop,
think this is how it was

Thanks Norma. I lived above Jolly the coal merchants up until I was 7 and then I lived in East Road until I was 17. I couldn't remember all the various shops. It all came flooding back to me when I read the above. Great - thanks again.

George Macgregor Jr., writing in 1893, after describing Robert Garden's premises, says, "Then a few paces further up, and on the right, is a Green-grocery Shop, managed by Miss M. Foulis, a young lady of excellent business taste." Peace's Almanac at that time gives a W Foulis as a grocer and a china merchant in Bridge Street, and the name is still listed in the thirties. The next shop up, later the Co-op, was Gibson & Halcrow, drapers, then came "a handy Second-hand Book Shop, kept by Mrs J Leonard." Was that the beginning of Leonards? Macgregor does not mention the second small shop on this side of Gibson & Halcrow, only the large premises next the camera, which were Malcolm Heddle's grocer shop.

To avoid confusion, in my last comment I should have said that by Robert Garden's premises I meant what became R Garden Ltd on the east or, in this photo, right side of the street, not Bob Garden's electrical shop on the left mentioned by Barbara and Norma. And Macgregor was working his way up the street towards the camera, so his rights are our lefts...

My g grandfather William Shearer had a hairdressers in Bridge St. Will that be his shop you are referring to and if so exactly where was it?

Bob Garden's shop was butcher G Graham.

If I remember correctly Bob Garden's business was called 'Orkney Radio & Electrical'
The Slaters actually lived in the whole building next to Jolly's and John Scott's, as it was, occupied the next building down. When the Slaters moved John Scott's built a new shop on the ground floor of the building and created a flat above. This was in the mid 50s, at about the same time as the firm became a Limited Company and changed the name to 'John Scott & Miller Ltd'

My grandfather was born on Bridge Street in 1893 and apprenticed as a baker with a James MacGilvary (spelling varies in our records) who had adopted him after his father drowned in the gale of 1894. I have a photo of the bakery and the men/boys who worked in it. It would be interesting to me to be able to identify the street upon which it was located (your reference to Jollys maybe being a bakery piqued my interest). The men in the aprons certainly look like the men in my photo. How do I submit a photo to you? [Just use the form further down the page, and follow the instructions...- Steven]

From what remains of the inscription on this print it would seem to suggest the photographer here is T.S. Swan(along with picture #28448 and presumably also picture #3727 )