Down to the Shops
- GVHeritage Groups
- Dec 4, 2024
- 2 min read
by the First ResidentsBS3 Heritage Group for Futures Past
As we’ve discovered, for many centuries, Bedminster’s principal route and retail street had been East Street with its mix of houses, shops, pubs and industrial premises.
When adjoining streets like Little Paradise, Leicester Street and Stafford Street came into existence, more shops had opened to cater for this new community on the doorstep. By the 1920s our residents would find on East Street a range of shops offering the essentials like fresh food, clothing, footwear and even fuel.
There were several grocers and at the corner of Mill Lane, Hodders Chemist shop treating the many ailments. Demand meant that shops even appeared on our local streets as well, two on Stafford Street in the twenties with another on Little Paradise. Many residents of Stafford St, Little Paradise, Leicester Street and Mill Lane would have visited them for their everyday groceries. With the lack of refrigeration, daily shopping became a necessity for fresh food, particularly dairy products, fruit and vegetables. At number 34 on Stafford Street, Miss Emily Bidgood was behind the counter in what was described at the time as a ‘general shop’. Throughout the twenties her shop would have been a key part of the community.
At the start of the Twenties a little further down, at number 43 Stafford Street, would have been a shop owned by James Moffat, a longstanding green grocery business on the street for several decades. One source tells us he was also a ‘frost salesman’, producing and delivering ice to help residents keep their food fresh and palatable, particularly during the warmer months. However, Moffat’s business was struggling by 1923 and his shop closed down leaving him to continue his trade on the road as an itinerant hawker. James Moffat is pictured here in happier times. Little Paradise also had its own local retail outlet. At number 34, the Coleman family were running their general shop, Bernard Coleman had taken charge at the start of the Twenties and was succeeded by Mrs Lily Coleman.
For those with a thirst, particularly after work, there was also the Adam and Eve at numbers 14/16 on Little Paradise. James Henry Greenwood living there in the early twenties is listed as a beer retailer, not a public house. Apparently, by serving slightly smaller portions a beer retailer could become exempt from many of the tax and other requirements that public houses faced, while still being a place where people could ‘come and relax’. Unfortunately for the people of Little Paradise, Leicester Street and Stafford Street the pleasure was short lived. According to the Western Daily Press, the beer retail business was sold off by the landlord, Bristol Brewery, George and Co Ltd, for the princely sum of £255 in the middle of 1922.
