Palindr˜»me wrote:

Don't forget GW Smith's in Lisle Street... I nearly got arrested there
as a teenager -the policeman took some time to convince that I was
really after a wobbulator..

I have a 1968 Smith's Catalogue in near-mint condition, if anyone wants
to /really/ reminisce.

I was traveling to London at about that time, but missed GW Smith. :-(

You Brits missed one of the most fascinating places in the world. It
was in New York City right after WW II, and known as radio row. It was
replaced by the World Trade Center, now also gone.

After the war, all the surplus electronic parts ended up on radio row.
You could also buy surplus commercial parts of all kinds. My first TV
was made up of parts I bought there, made for the RCA 610 model. It was
a very good 10 inch, (round tube), set and we used it until 1951. I was
working for Bell Laboratories at the time, and they had a liberal policy
about using parts from the stores for home projects. They figured that
we engineers lost more time shopping for small parts than they were
worth in stores.

--
Virg Wall, P.E. K6EVE