"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Richard Sterry" writes:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

Cor, nostalgia! I spent many a happy hour in there as a schoolboy in the
mid
to late 60's.

Likewise;-)
My grandparents knew the Milne's who ran it originally. It was
the retail shop which hung off M.J.Milne electrical wholesaler.
I think it's now run by one of their sons, and if the older Mr
Milne is still around, he'd probably be over 100 by now.

I thought it must have closed years ago, and was therefore
very surprised to see it at its new location on Oxford Rd recently, while
visiting my Mum in the Battle Hospital. I meant to go inside and have a
poke
around the shop, but never got around to it. Must do so, one day!

The real shop on the bridge became a wine bar come nightclub, and
they moved to the current premises, which are sadly only a tiny
fraction of the size. Same sort of thing in there, just not as
much of it, and I don't know if the wholesale business still
exists (which used to occupy several former shop presises in
Kings road just along from the original shop). I don't go into
Reading very often now (parking ticket due to badly worded
parking restriction designed as a cash earner for the council
put me off the place), so I haven't been in there for 2-3 years.

One thing that amused me in the old shop was when it reorganised
on one occasion and they built a separate cash kiosk where you
paid. They wallpapered the front of the kiosk with all the bounced
cheques they'd had returned over the years -- it made for quite
interesting reading whilst you were in the queue to pay.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Whilst in Reading you may wish to check out Drews the Ironmongers, close-ish
to the station. I got a nice big plastic tool box there a couple of years
ago, and took it home on the train. Stood a little too far away from it on
the platform and got the question, is this your box sir???????