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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
- In 1978 the street architecture outside Ilford railway station was much the same as it is in 2019. The Super Cinema had long since been replaced after being bombed during the war and retail had become a mainstay of the town centre. Department store Bodgers had expanded in the late 1950s to also take up a corner plot curving from Station Road to Cranbrook Road. In2019 the 144 bus route no longer runs through Ilford but the 25 is still going strong.
The 2019 photo shows Bodgers behind hoardings as it is being prepared for demolition. Graffiti can be seen on the boards and was actually commissioned by the landlord Access Self Storage through creative agency Concsious Cosmos. They summoned the skills of some London-based artists, some native to east London, to adorn the hoardings with some original pieces.
On Friday 31th August 2019 artists @apparan @kimberliartist @xlvii @come-to-sister @red1_lenfant_terrible @maikelwalkman and @marcinlachart produced pieces to adorn the boards as part of the Unity Walls project. This was probably Ilford's first ever public, commissioned set of murals and may represent a nod to Ilford's future as a creative hub for people of all backgrounds to descend to and express themselves.
Ilford famously gave its name to the world renowned Ilford Photo, but has it ever had a creative identity?
With the construction of a 42-storey tower block on the site of Bodgers, what do you think about the town's future?
Available NOW on Amazon - Ilford Retro Vol.1 From Gants Hill Odeon to The Plough and Plessey, all 52 episodes with photos of old and new! tinyurl.com/Il...
This store had some great memories of shopping in Ilford. It was such a unique place like Harrison Gibson
It certainly did, didn't it Raj. These were icons of the town.
Bodgers was always quite expensive but i loved going in there with my mum and sister in the 80s and just browsing... Remember buying cuddly toys, Transformers, Real Ghostbusters and Nintendo games from their toy department which was next to the cafe. There was also a cool vending machine there that would dispense plastic eggs containing toys, presided over by a mechanical parrot !
Golden memories......nothing quite like them. Their toy section was one of the best in town, a bit of everything like you say, with computer games to soft toys. There used to be a photography business next to it for a while too, doing studio shots in that 80s/90s soft-focus style. Thanks for reminding me about that egg machine! Completely forgot about the overseeing parrot, it's accounts like yours which reignite those wonderful childhood feelings.
tI moved of Ilford 7 yrs ago, after spending 44 yrs there. It seems soulless now regarding the shops. Thanks god valentines pork hasn't been rubbished.I've always thought it was one of the best parks anywhere in England.
That's a good old stretch to have got to know the place thoroughly. Yes the town centre is seeking further transformation to try to re-attract shoppers and give people a reason to spend time there. It will be slow progress but like many, I think the Crossrail / Elizabeth Line will have an effect eventually.
Ilford Retro I hope so too for my old town. Don’t forget amazon has much to blame for this worldwide. Not just Ilford town centre!
@@pandora8478 A very good point!
Valentine’s Pork? Don’t remember ever seeing any pigs there when I was growing up! 😂
@@dannylandon1292 🤣
Very sad to see Bodgers close down as with Fairheads, Harrison Gibsons, Wests, C & A, Woolworths, etc. All the buses used to be parked up on York Road which served as a Terminus then.
Indeed, all those famous names now sadly gone. I remember the buses on York Road too, since the terminus moved to Hainault Street, the area has a very different feel to it.
Just sad
I went to Bodgers on their last day of trading. Just to take photos of the shop floors etc. A really sad day, even though I could afford West End suits etc back then, Bodgers was always my favourite. Till it’s last days some parts of the store where still quite Grace Bros (Are You Being Served?)
I used to have a Saturday job in Bodgers. I was there when the money changed over in 1971 in the ciggie kiosk by the front door.
A ciggie kiosk - these days it's hard to believe they existed in department stores!
I lived in Ilford in the mid 1990s, and remember Bodgers and Harrison Gibson well, both good stores. I bought a three piece suite from Bodgers in 1995, the sofa lasted until 2017 when it was thrown out now as it was worn out, but I still have the two armchairs, both still in good condition. I remember being served by a man possibly in his 60s with a ridiculous toupee! Harrison Gibson was a bit more professional. I bought my dining room table and chairs from there also in 1995, which I still have bar one chair which broke. This was what shopping was like before the Internet came along.
The 90s was a great decade. Customer service and quality in shops still meant something and the ranges you were able to choose from in different department stores was good. How come nobody wears a toupee any more??!!!?!?🤣 Really nice to hear that those items of furniture have served you well and for the most part are still in use.
Me and my best mate used to go nicking in bodgers on Saturdays,we used to bunk off school and still go in there,and the best part of it his mum worked in there.if your reading this you know who you are lol
....and she always wondered why the tills never added up at the end of a Saturday haha!!!
I bought an English dining room table and chairs from Bodgers in 1988 and had it shipped to Israel. The chairs are long gone but the dining room table with oval ends and its solid tripod legs still lives on and is well cared for.
It's amazing to hear that furniture from a bygone shop, if not a bygone era, still exists and is being used to this day, in many areas of the world. John Bodger would be very happy about the longevity of his goods.
Bodgers summer 1991. Practically spent the whole summer playing sonic the hedgehog on their sega mega drive stands. Every shop seemed to have a mega drive/super Nintendo stand. Even Boots of all shops had a gaming section in the early 90s!!!
I remember those gaming stands, they were cool. Did they ever make any sales through them I wonder? Or were they just magnets for kids to get in some free gaming on weekends for titles they never bought?!
C&A used to be the 'SUPER' cinema and during WW2 it was destroyed by a V2 rocket from Germany. I had the pleasure of being able to go there with my parents a few times, it was a brilliant cinema and a great loss to Ilford at that time. Also at that time we lost the Variety theatre called the 'Hippodrome' at Ilford broadway just inside Ilford lane.
It always fascinates me why something that was so well loved wasn't replaced with another cinema after the war. I agree that it was such a loss to the town and it's so nice that you got to experience it. Ilford lost so much of its entertainment venues let alone heritage architecture because of the war.
Hello there! a very informative video on Bodgers but where can we get the blueprints of this building? Any idea?
Hi Alveena you might be able to find them on the Redbridge Council website's planning section. There should be an entry for the new/proposed development and amongst the documents they should have one showing the existing layout.
Me and my family lived in Ilford in the early 1990s when I was only young lad.Its a real shame to see it today so dull and lifeless and so many businesses closed that were so busy in their Day 😔😔it's sad to see
Hopefully after a few years the country comes out of its economic depression and places like Ilford along the Elizabeth line start to thrive. If that happens and businesses open up rather than close down, it would reverse the decline. Perhaps it wouldn't get back to where it was in the 90s, but it would be better!
So sad
😥
Give it five years and this view might look very different.
@@IlfordRetro I agree.
@@IlfordRetro as soon as Ilford opened a Starbucks a few years ago, I said to myself “Yep…time for gentrification 😔”. It’s already started. That could be a good or bad thing depending on how you wanna look at it but I prefer the old Ilford
I love your channel btw
@@onaematopia you're right there are two sides to the coin when it comes to gentrification. The redevelopment proposed for the Ilford Hill area where many of the latest flats have been built, will probably be the focus of Ilford's new generation.
I remember all of this. Ilford used to be cool. Loved C&A, loved Woolies and Bodgers. Now it's just generic rubbish from China
The advent of the internet and the competition it poses for retailers, fast fashion, bargain stores and a shrinking of going out to do things has led to a similar story up and down the country. There are some new ideas to reinvent the High Street, hopefully they'll come this way soon.