When I was a child, a department store was, without doubt, the worst place to go shopping with my mother ……. especially when it came to going to buy clothes for me.  I suspect that my horror stems in part from the first store that I can remember going to …….  Dawson’s on City Road.  The mere idea of going to Dawson’s sent shivers down my spine.

Dawson’s Department Store once stood majestically at the junction of the City and East Roads, in what I thought was Borough of Islington, but later learned was on the Hackney side of City Road.

Dawson’s Department Store on City Road in the mid-1950s
This photograph appears with permission of Ms Maureen Halliday

I hated – really hated – visiting this store as a child.  I disliked everything about it: the wooden floors, its staff and its overall gloomy atmosphere.  The walls were decorated, as I remember, in beige and all wooden structures were covered with a dark brown stain.  The lighting, what there was of it, was very poor, and its dimness gave the whole place a dreary look.

The staff was even more gloomy to look at than the decor.  Every sales person, be they man or woman, was old.  But not just old, but ancient.  I never heard one of them laugh or saw one of them smile.  They were like zombies.  Each had problems with walking and coordination, which was readily seen when one attempted to ring up the cost of a sale on the antiquated cash register that held prime place on their counter.

I remember going with my mother to Dawson’s on a number of occasions.  Each new visit proved more grim than the last.  What made the jaunts even more miserable was that my mother only bought the most boring of goods, which always included new school clothes for me together with new and uncomfortable shoes that had to be cleaned before being worn.  Clothes for men and boys in the 1950s were amazingly dull.  They lacked colour.  Garments were either in white, black, grey or brown with occasionally something in navy blue.  I don’t recall ever seeing any bright colours in the store in any of the departments.

Shopping for me at Dawson’s meant being pulled in all directions by loathsome members of staff and my mother once she chose something for me to try on.  My mother insisted on my making endless walks up and down to show off whatever it was that she insisted I model.  I was exhausted by the time she and the staff member had finished flinging me around like some rag doll.

After an exhausting afternoon shopping for the dullest of garments and other assorted boring commodities, we pushed our way out of the store and into the cold dark evening.  I can never remember shopping at Dawson’s in the spring or summer – only during gloomy winter days.

Now loaded with carrier bags, we trudged along following the majestic sweep of City Road until we reached Old Street where we joined the enormously long queue of people waiting for the 555 Trolleybus.

Class K2 Trolleybus, No. 1253

It was now Rush Hour and so we had to wait an age for a bus to stop and pick us up.  During our wait, many Trolleybuses passed us without stopping since they were already jam-packed with working people wanting to get home.  Eventually one stopped and we squeezed into the lower deck.  Being but a mere child, I was not allowed to stand, but was forced to sit on my mother’s lap with the horde of carrier bags around me.  There was no indignity too terrible for me to suffer during a trip to Dawson’s!

Rush Hour Today and in Days-Gone-By

Once we arrived at the crossroads of Hackney and Cambridge Heath Roads, we got off, or alighted as London Transport liked to say, and after gathering ourselves, we crossed the road to wait for the 653 Trolleybus to take us to Mile End Gate and home …….. at last!

But being home did not bring me sweet relief for I had to put on all purchased garments once more on the pretense of showing them to my father, who I am sure, had as much interest in them as I had!

Class L3 Trolleybus, No. 1417 at Aldgate Bus Depot during the 1950s on the 653 Route

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I recommend that the reader continue while listening to this piece of music by Erik Satie (1866-1925) entitled Gymnopedie No. 1.  This piece was orchestrated by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and played by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal conducted by Charles Dutoit 

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Of course, with the passage of time, I have come to view Dawson’s though rose-tinted spectacles and now think of it as being an amusing place to visit.  I have to admit that I was saddened when I learned that it had been demolished and replaced by a large office block, Crown House, and occupied by NIG.

The NIG Building, Crown House, now on the site where Dawson’s once stood

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I remember clearly the day I discovered that Dawson’s Department Store was no longer there.  It was a shock, I can assure you!  I had gone to the area in the hope of taking photographs of some of the interesting places of the area, which included Bunhill Fields, Armoury House, The Wesley Chapel and, of course, Dawson’s and upload them to my earlier website.

I had taken the Underground to Old Street Underground Station only to find that Dawson’s was no longer where City Road curved away towards The Angel.  Despite it being years since I had visited this area of London, I had not envisaged any changes being made during that time.  I obviously had failed to appreciate the great changes that had been made to the Old Street Underground Station and the re-development of the crossroads in front of it!

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Where had it gone?

I could not believe my eyes.  Where had it gone?  One can’t lose a department store!  I hurried along the road to look more closely at where the store used to be.

The sweep of City Road was still present, but now in place of Dawson’s Department Store, stood a huge brown brick building carrying a strange name, NIG!  What on earth was NIG?  I had never heard the name before.

I asked a number of people who were walking along City Road and others waiting at bus stops, but no one had any idea what I was talking about!  It was as if Dawson’s had never existed or had been swallowed up and forgotten!  I must have appeared like some lunatic to the people that I spoke to, as I tried to describe the store to them.

After a while, looking at the people before me with blank stares on their faces, it finally hit me!  I realised that I was older – much older – than the people I was asking.  Obviously, time had passed and Dawson’s Department Store must have been demolished a good while earlier.  As a result, the store had no place in their memory!

Sadly, the store had passed from my present into the past and on into a bygone era without my knowing and had long since been forgotten by the locals ……. but not by me; no, not by me.

Evaporated away, like the Morning Dew ……….

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I suppose that Dawson’s really did not have a place in the so-called modern world, however I cannot but feel sad at its loss in spite of the really miserable times I had spent there!

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