Category Archives: Shops

Grand Parade, Streatham Road

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1949 OS map and 1920 ads/1925 street directory

1949 OS map and 1920 ads, with 1925 street directory

Parade of shops on the east side of Streatham Road consisting of eleven shops between Caithness Road and Park Avenue, and four more from the southern corner of Park Avenue.

Mentioned in 1920 adverts as ‘Grand Parade’, the numbering was from north to south, 1 to 15, which was then numbered as 121 to 93 in the 1925 street directory. In the OS map of 1949, the numbers are 221 to 193, as they are in 2016.

This ad for J Brewer at number 217 shows that the final renumbering occurred between 1925 and 1938.

1938

1938

Merton Memories photo of 1930 shows the parade from corner of Caithness Road looking south.

Occupants from 1911 Commercial Directory

Number Occupier Trade
1 Percy Beard wine & spirit merchant
2 Thomas James Mills laundry
4 Jas. Benj. Austin grocer,& post office
5 Thomas George oil & color man
6 James Pigg dairy
9 Edward Huntley & Sons house & estate agents
10 Edward Arthur Jesson newsagent
12 Albert Keirle baker
13 Thomas George Humphrey Palmer ironmonger
14 Miss Babette Reiss confectioner

In the 1915 directory, Raoul Chabauty is listed as a draper at 11, Grand Parade, and in the 1925 director as draper at 101 Streatham Road. This implies that the first renumbering was between 1915 and 1925.

World War 1 Connections
Able Seaman Walter Thomas Edmonds

Private Peter F Lawton

From a postcard posted in December 1932. Note that all but two of the gables are left today.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Deseret House

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288 London Road, north of Glebe Court estate.

A building of three floors of flats above shops on the ground floor. According to the Royal Mail postcode finder website, there are twelve flats numbered 1 through 12, with the address 288A London Road, all with the postcode CR4 3NB.

The name comes from Deseret, the provisional name for the state of Utah, according to wikipedia.

ad from 1967

News Articles

Mormons open a local bookshop

DESERET Enterprises Limited, which is owned by members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, opened their first bookshop in England at London Road, Mitcham, on Tuesday.

The building houses a great variety of books not necessarily associated with the church, and is Mitcham’s first shop specializing entirely in reading matter.

The building “Deseret House” has three storeys. The ground floor, is composed of a library of books and shelves of stationery. At the rear of the main room is the manager’s office and a smaller book room containing books mainly connected with the church.

CEREMONY

The storeys above contain 12 self-contained flats which will be let to local people. Elder Spencer Kimbal, a member of the church’s Council of Twelve, carried out the opening ceremony by cutting a ribbon across the door.

Before the doors were officially, opened the general manager of the new shop, Mr. Derek A. Cuthbert, welcomed members of the Mitcham Council and the Chamber of Commerce. He explained that it was hoped the premises would not only serve members of the Mormon Church in this country, but also the people in Mitcham.

Deseret Enterprises Limited was first registered in September and all the shareholders are members of the Mormon Church although not necessarily Americans.

SEPARATE

The church has always had a book department for members but as the church has developed the need for a separate organisation has been felt.

The company shareholders decided the new shop should serve the general public. This is, in fact, the first commercial activity of the company in this country. They are the leaseholders of the premises.

The shop will be staffed by English members of the church and the general manager, Mr. Cuthbert, comes from Nottingham.

The ceremony was attended by a second member of the Council of Twelve, Elder Howard W. Hunter.

Source: Mitcham News & Mercury, 26th January, 1962, page 1. For photos, see Merton Memories. Mr Cuthbert died in 1991, see obituary in Deseret News, which says that this was their first commercial venture in Europe.