author logo, Florence Cole
Florence Cole as a child

An ironmongers shop in early 1900s Edmonton, north London

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The hardware shop /ironmongers, known as the 'oil shop' in Silver Street, old Edmonton, early 1900s

The hardware shop / ironmongers in Silver Street Edmonton, early 1900s, provided by Cliff Raven, courtesy of Enfield Local Studies and Archives. Note the tin baths hanging up that would have been used on washdays. Larger versions would have been used for bathing. Detail of a larger photo on old Edmonton page.

The hardware shop or ironmongers was always known as the oil shop in our family. It was owned by Mr Bryant and was on the corner of Sheldon Road and Silver Street. It sold all sorts of household goods but it was for oil (actually paraffin) that my mother mostly used it. She would have to take a special can with a long spout along and buy the oil by the pint.

I particularly remember the firewood, which was stacked against the counter like a small wall. The sticks were about eight inches long and tied bundles.

The gas mantle was bought from the oil shop in a little cardboard box.

The shop had a smell of its own. It also sold firewood. This was stacked like a wall in front of the counter in bundles, about a dozen in a bundle, about 6-8 inches long, half 1 inch thick.

The 1911 census shows that my mother's memory was absolutely right: It shows that Alfred Bryant describes himself as an oilman. He was living at 77 Silver Street, probably above his shop, with his wife Catherine, 56, who assisted with the business and his daughter Mabel, 17 born Bethnal Green. He, like his wife, was born in Stepney.

  

  

 

According to Doreen Buckland, there was a hardware shop called Eaton's on the corner of Warwick Road and Silver Street in the 1930s.

 

If you can add further information or a photograph, I would be pleased to hear from you. Pat Cryer

   

 

 

 

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.

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These are recollections of the  local ironmongers, seen through the eyes of a child from a working class family around the time of the 1911 census in Edmonton, north London (then Middlesex). They were written in the 1980s by my mother, Florence Edith Clarke (born Cole), and are here as a tribute to her memory and to shed light on the history of the early years of the 20th century.