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| © Martin Hulbert |
Is there anything guaranteed to make the pulse quicken faster than the sight of an old newsagents, with the prospect of a spinner rack inside containing new American comics?
When I grew up, all newsagents looked like this photo from 1974, taken by Martin Hulbert and posted on the Memories of Bygone Portsmouth Facebook group. The shop in question was in St James Street, Portsmouth (close to the Dockyard), and is one of 100+ newsagents in Portsmouth in that period. Strangely, I cannot remember ever visiting the newsagents in the photo, an area redeveloped shortly after this photo was taken.
Where have the newsagents gone? When did they stop looking like the shop in the photo?
For a bit of time travel, take a look at this video from December 16th 1969, courtesy of BBC Archive. It's a clip from Tomorrow's World featuring James Burke. Freeze the video around the 40-second mark and look at the new comics in the rack on the wall. Takes you back, eh? I can make out both an ATOM and Captain Marvel.
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| James Burke - Tomorrow's World © BBC Archive |
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| © BBC Archive - see Comics on the Wall |
Here's the link to the video https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1074333330269704193
Newsagents in my town used to have a bit of character once upon a time, before they were updated around 1977. If you read the description of some of the old sweet shops (one owned by Mr. Moss if I remember correctly) in Richmal Crompton's William books, that was what a few of the newsagents in my town were like. That one at the top of the post could easily be the '50s or '60s.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to break out the old William books, Kid. I think Mr Moss featured in Just William (which I still remember reading with painfully suppressed laughter at school when I was 9 or 10, and the headmaster was supervising our class reading in silence) as well in William the Fourth, the first William book I was given sometime around 1965.
DeleteThe William books are excellent, B - probably the funniest books ever written. And although kids love them, the stories were originally written for an adult audience and serialised in Home Magazine and, later, Happy Mag, before being collected in book form.
DeleteWhen my family started moving houses around 1970 (4 times) moving from about 3 miles outside Glasgow to gradually be about 15 miles South of the city I envisaged the newsagents being poor. However to my surprise they were better loads of them were packed with UK and US comics and merchandise. Many looked like the one in your picture ( maybe not as "cute" as that one ) until as Kids says then they were stripped of any character I late 1970s. I've been trying to track down old pictures of Glasgow and Lanarkshire newsagent from Kate 60s to 70s but can see just about every other type of shop from that period but very few old newsagents from that period on the web
ReplyDeleteI do believe that my comic-collecting pals and I were lucky to grow up in Portsmouth, a port in its own right and close to the port of Southampton, in that there were so many newsagents. I wonder if being a port (like Glasgow) had an impact on comic distribution? It would be interesting to learn details of Thorp & Porter’s distribution network.
DeleteLike you McScotty, I’m always on the lookout for photos of newsagents from the late 60s and 70s. I’ve had most success locally on a “Memories of Bygone Portsmouth” Facebook group where newsagent owners or their descendants have posted family photos of the shops. Of course, these groups are usually closed groups, so a Google search won’t pick up anything.
My knowledge of Glasgow and the area is rather limited. First visit was to a wedding of a cousin in Gourock in 1980, and then a few business trips in the 1990s, driving up from Southampton. Two years ago I drove up from Portsmouth to Glenfinnan, and stayed overnight at a delightful village of Eaglesham. Also visited the Glasgow Transport museum. I hope to get back one day.
A bit late to the party here, but I've fond memories of weekends and school holidays spent on tubes and buses in the East London / Essex area going from high street to high street in search of more spinner rack jewels. I vividly remember finding Savage Sword of Conan #8 in a newsagent in Elm Park....I didn't even know Marvel did B&W mags at the time!
DeleteWere you going from place to place on your own, Vince? Or did you have pals who were also collectors? Savage Sword of Conan #12 was on sale in the UK in June '76. I was collecting them down in Portsmouth at the same time. The B&W Marvels that stick in my mind are issues #4 and #5 of Savage Tales with the Adams covers.
DeleteIt's amazing after all these years that we can link a comic to the place we bought it.
Ha ha, yes, I have very distinct memories of buying lots of comics in various Newsagents... X-Men #96 ('what, who are these characters?'), Howard the Duck #1, the list goes on. As you say, you see the cover and you're transported back to that time/place. Most of my weekend / holiday treks were done on my own. I had a friend I used to go to marts with, but he didn't want to put in the spinner rack train/bus/legwork :-)
DeleteEaglesham is right next door to my town - only several minutes by car. Small world.
ReplyDeleteYes - small world indeed, Kid. It was exactly two years ago today that I stayed overnight in Eaglesham. I remember a beautiful long summer evening wandering around the village.
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