Dunstable Yesteryear: Sea Cadets parade brings back memories of lost shops

The photo would have been taken after the town’s civic service in the Priory Church. The parade is emerging from the narrow entrance to Church Street, seen on the left.

Older readers will have pangs of nostalgia as they recognise the once-famous but now-vanished shops in the background.

On the corner is the Home and Colonial tea store, alongside the Freeman, Hardy and Willis shoe shop.

The Foster Brothers clothes shop is next, alongside the Gibbs and Dandy hardware business whose showrooms extended through to the store’s other entrance in Church Street.

F W Woolworth’s store has been replaced by an attractive new building whose ground-floor windows today display Hello Beautiful’s glamorous array of party dresses.

The distinctive roof of what was once the International Stores is best remembered today as the William Hill betting office but has now been converted into the Dunstable Mini Market convenience store.

The old Church Street corner is unrecognisable today as the buildings on either side were demolished to make the road wider.

Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.