From easter eggs to paper mache dustpans

In our Drawings for Stories exchange last December I met Marion who has sent some descriptions of Lancasters traders and the market. Like many people she remembers a time when you could find all kinds of unusual and specialised things among the traders.

When we came to Lancaster, we only went to independent traders, and I was pleased to see, for example, that Galbraith’s features in one of your pictures.   Gorrills had two shops, and there were about four that sold nothing but birthday cards and Easter eggs. Postlethwaite’s, the baker, was also a favourite destination, in premises now occupied by Gregg’s. An important feature of the Covered Market before the fire was the fish market, but upstairs on the balcony was a treasure trove of interesting things, particularly several traders who sold old postcards (all of which got burnt),  and even the kind of brush you use for sweeping crumbs off tables which, with its paper mache pan, I still have. On King Street there was a wonderful toy shop for some years, as well as one for jewellery and ceramics, both of them owned by  people with links to the university. The Rocking Horse Shop, near to C. E. Barrow, was much loved by everyone.  We still use as many as we can of such traders, including for meat, flowers and even our pharmacy.

Remembering Record Shops

A friend of mine who is a Librarian in Kent sent in his memories of Lancaster traders:

Lancaster is my home-town. I spent most of my teenage years (and most of my pocket money,) in the town’s independent record shops- notably ‘Ear ‘Ere & Hedgehog Records. By the 1980s ‘Ear ‘Ere was in Penny St, (but I think it started out as a market stall?) You needed faith & persistence to ensure that a record, ordered at ‘Ear ‘Ere, would materialise. Hedgehog Records was a second hand specialist in the market ‘though, for a brief, thrilling period, it had another branch on Brock st(?) A friend of mine was especially dismayed by the Market fire of 1984 because a staggeringly rare record, put by at Hedghog, was now melting behind the counter. (We could hear explosions way up the hill at the Grammar School on Dale St. ) Of course, since the advent of digital music, most record shops, independent or otherwise, have vanished. All those mysterious orders & fabulous rarities are a couple of clicks away on a laptop. Oh wasted youth. Amazingly, Lancaster Public Library is now a music scene focal point. http://www.getitloudinlibraries.com/content/about.
Perhaps there’s a demented Muso inside of every librarian?

As It Comes moves

Yesterday we installed the As It Comes work in another empty unit in St Nicholas Arcade as it was intended that the project tour to different empty units in Lancaster.  It will be in this site till the end of June.

Its the knowledge

For everything we sell we provide a back up service which isn’t what many people do nower days… but at the current time its very hard…Independent shops are going to be a thing of the past and I think everybody, once they are gone, is going to realise how important they are but its going to be to late.

The third of my posts on the things that local people and traders told me about is on knowledge and skills, with quotes from traders in the Lile Tool Shop, Fabrix, R&P Shaw the Fishmonger.

Whilst I was drawing I tried to work out what were the tools of the trade, and what were the unspoken skills of the independent traders. I surmised that the obvious tools were not necessarily the only or main ones, and that there were many unspoken less obvious tools – things about how people talk to customers, their body language, how they use their hands, their knowledge of the tools, food and produce they sell and their experience.

Its the knowledge, you go to B&Q and you just pick it off the shelf but if you come here you can ask and we’ll tell you about it… you can come here with a description of what you need and we will disappear into the back shop and reappear with one single screw.

There’ll be a shop full of people laughing their heads of cos of something we’ve said to one of the customers…its an important part of business, you’ve got to bring out the sense of humour sometimes.

We had a lovely hardware shop but he has gone. They cant compete with the chains, but you go into those places (chains) and ask for help and they are running away from you, they don’t want you to ask “what size screw?” or “what kind of glue?”..

He’d go, “Just a minute…” and he’d go in the back where he had hundreds of drawers and then he’d come out with it and you’d go, “Thank you so much how much?” and he’d go, “5 pence please”.”

Lancaster’s old market hall

It was absolutely phenomenal in the old market (before the fire) you couldn’t walk through the aisles and get past people, there wasn’t a supermarket.  Lancaster itself, the town, was where all the food was; in the market and around about. It was so good to go to work there, it was really busy, people could by fresh all the time and you didn’t overbuy what you wanted.

We have survived through the loyalty of customers buying local produce, its the quality of cheese that we sell. We sell Lancashire off the truckle and you don’t normally get that in a supermarket.

The second in a series of posts recounting the things people have talked about during the project is about the old Lancaster covered Market Hall and the quotes and images in this post come from Ron Wood, the Marsh History Group and traders in Burgess Cheese, The Bacon Stall, Bebe Babette and D Gregory the butcher.

There was a single floor victorian market hall that tragically burned down in 1984, a new market was built and opened almost 10 years later but it has been a controversial venture as its architecture is very different (on two floors, with steps up to most entrances and defined stalls rather then flat and open plan) and its new position takes it away from the natural flow and movement of people through town. Far fewer people pass through its doors than did in the old market, as someone said to me;  If it was all on one floor and we were all together it would be a much better market. But despite this there is a great rapport between traders and customers, an a real sense of care about the produce traders sell. I always came home with a huge bag of market purchases from homemade ham, to local honey, Lancashire cheese to local kippers, and I wish I was much closer to use the market more often.

The market has been threatened with closure to which many people have reacted strongly, participating in protests that raise the issues of how important a community, social and civic space the market is. People I spoke to remembered that because the old market hall was on ground level they often walked through the market on their way somewhere, something they would be unlikely to do now.  The market now faces financial difficulties that must be exacerbated both by the aftermath of the fire and by radical changes in shopping habits, however in many of my projects people have told me that it is the more informal, ‘human’ scale places like markets (rather then chains or superstores) that give them a sense of community. It seems also to be one of the places where people feel they can easily find out where their food has come from, and markets are often one of the places where food can be bought economically and with waste rather than in set packages – so if you only want one tomato, you need buy one tomato.

The Markets are meeting places for people, so long may they reign – the  big chains and supermarkets are making the high streets like ghost towns.

A lot of the customers rely on us and without the market there would be a lot less character in the town.

On his blog, Ronnies Rambles you can see some of  Ron Wood’s films about Lancaster local life, the market, the protests against the threats of closure and the fire including his films:

From Out of The Ashes about the fire in 1984 and

The Stall Holders of Lancaster Covered Market March to Lancaster, about the recent protests against closure – below

There will always be a place for independent traders…

We’ve talked a lot about independent shops and this is the first of a series of posts recounting some of the things that both traders and shoppers have said to me during the project. This post has quotes from members of the the Marsh History Group, and traders in D Gregory Butcher, R&P Shaw Fishmonger and Fabrix.

You could go in and you could smell what kind of shop you were in, with your eyes closed you could tell what kind of shop it was, the cobblers, the grocers, the coffee shop…

When it was independent shops you went in and you picked what you wanted and how much you wanted, not all in packs that have to be sold within a certain length of time, and there was more variety, you could pick and choose between shops as well.

People will come and buy one or two slices of meat at a time cos they don’t want to waste any money…. Its local producers selling to local retailers, the people who come in are regulars, they know the traders and its more of a partnership than just a commercial transaction, they are not just coming to buy their meat off me, they are talking to me about their family, I’m talking to them about my family, community… there is a rapport between the customers and traders that you just cant get in a supermarket, and I think that is why there will always be a place for independent traders.

We can keep our things a lot fresher than supermarkets, because we are buying direct we know when they’ve come in, how many days we can keep them. They (customers) trust us with our knowledge of fish… you’ve got to know where it has come from, how it was caught, how to cook it…

I think you get honest advice… because they (independent traders) are interest in what they are selling…

In the old shops life was a far far different pace… a different pattern…

As It Comes moves to St Nicholas Arcade

We’re delighted to say that from Thursday 24th February 2011 the As It Comes artwork will be up in St Nicholas Arcade, in the unit adjacent to Argos.

Drop by to take a look at it if you haven’t already seen Alice’s beautiful work, which depicts the trades and skills of Lancastrian independents and market traders.

Lucy Green,
Talking Shop Project Coordinator

Feedback wanted…

We’re really pleased to say that the artwork is remaining  up in the windows of 18 New Street  until the end of Jan 2011 now. We’re hoping it will then move to a new home in Lancaster, to brighten up another shop window elsewhere!

If you’ve seen the work in Lancaster or been have following  the project online it would be great to hear your thoughts. You can post in response to this, or alternatively go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8CXMDV3

Tell us what you think and we’ll send the first twenty people to reply a free copy of the As It Comes project publication that Alice has created.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

Lucy

Sketch and Stories at the Vintage festival

This Saturday we’ll be hosting a stall at the Vintage and Handmade Market at Storey Gallery in Lancaster from 11am until 6pm. Instead of a financial exchange for one of my drawings (and a brew and piece of cake) I’ll be asking for your memories about independent shops in the city. So bring me a memory and I’ll provide a drawing and some tasty  refreshments.

Also 1pm I’ll also be doing an informal talk about the work and weather permitting we will walk down to see it and talk about Lancaster’s independent traders.

We will also have copies of the project publication and storycubes and some of the large scale drawings made for the project will be for sale.

Directions are here.

Hope to see you there.

As It Comes, publication

Very excited to see the project publication just back from the printers, we will have copies at our story and sketch exchange stall the Vintage and Handmade Festive Market at Storey Gallery this weekend. The publication is a record of the project and will soon also be available as a download. Let us know if you’d like a printed copy. It was created and printed using bookleteer.com