Thank you. I've seen this picture previously, but not such a clear re-production. If anyone is interested (If not, desist from reading any further) I can sketch in a few details about how the above scene looked when I was growing up during the late fifties until the mid sixties. The shop on the near side corner of Flora Road, after the war, was a grocers run by my grandfather, who, I was told, had a reputation for refusing to serve anyone using even the mildest form of bad language. Later on, the shop was taken over by Youngs who appeared to sell just about everything from nails to paraffin and petrol. The shop closest to the lens. also, later, became a grocery store. There was no metal fence when I was young, only advertisement hoardings, beyond which was a small apple orchard owned by The Welfare on the corner of Gladys Road. As for the shops on the far side of Flora Road, going by (unreliable!) memory, the first one was (again) a grocery store ran by a brother and sister, named Derby. There was a wool shop; a confectioners( owned by a Mrs. Maudsley (a big Blues supporter, whose husband was a gravestone engraver and dapper dresser) Post Office; Redhill Cafe; furniture store, then, tucked away in the far corner, a chemist. In the picture, to the left of the trees, can just be seen the house belonging to Doctor Blackstock, the front of which, as others have commented, was used for his practice. Like them, I too well remember the waiting room with its arch of chairs and gas fire, the piles of women's magazines. Someone mentioned his habit of smoking whilst examining patients: I can't comment on that, but i do know my mother spoke highly of him, virtue of his willingness to visit the unwell all weathers and all times.
On the other side of the Coventry Road, down from the two cottages, there ran a long, thin strip of waste-ground, into which Saturday mid-days, we ABC minors would pour in order to re-enact scenes from some B movie western we'd just sat, open mouthed through, curtesy The Adelphi's matinee. Simple days!
