Memories Of Bentalls II

To a small boy born in ’54 and growing up in nearby Surbiton, Bentalls seemed like having our very own Selfridges just down the road.

No shopping expedition to Kingston on the then 418 bus was complete without a visit to the store. On the sales floors a very early memory was the amazing pneumatic cash management system with its network of small tubes running all over the ceilings across the store and down to terminals alongside the sales counters.

As Mum completed her purchase at a counter the assistant would write up the bill by hand and Mum would hand over her cash - the credit card was unknown in those days! The assistant would then place both money and bill into a small brass container - about the size of the cardboard tube in a toilet roll I think. The container was then inserted into the terminal end of one of the tubes and at the touch of a button there was a ‘whooshing’ sound as away went the container on its journey to the cashiers. These folk seemed a mysterious breed - never seen but somehow definitely ‘heard’ as it were when a shortwhile later the container returned to our counter with a thump as it hit the end of the terminal thereby reminding the assistant that she had a sale to finalise. Change plus receipt were removed from the container and handed to Mum together with her purchase (by now suitably wrapped in its bag with the green Bentalls logo) and a ‘thank you Modom’ reminiscent of Are you Being Served. What never ceased to amaze me was how the right container always returned to the right sales counter as there must have been a huge amount of traffic wizzing around above our heads from all parts of the store.

Sometimes as a treat during the school holidays lunch was had in-store. On one very special occasion I was taken to the Thames Room with its oak panelling and on our visit a fashion show was in full swing. Models in assorted outfits wove their way between the tables of Ladies who Lunch, carrying numbered cards which presumably referred to the outfit they were modelling. Sadly Mum’s housekeeping would never have run to buying any of the fashion on show. Just being there was an extravagance in itself. When the waitress brought my plaice, peas and chips and asked if the ‘young man would like tartare sauce with that?’ well, to a lad who only knew of ketchup this surely was ‘it’?! Nearby, was the Wolsey Room with more Tudor-inspired wooden panelling where events like the Christmas Fair were held. Wherever you went on the upper floors everywhere was thickly carpeted beneath which the wooden boards creaked just like a visit to a stately home.

By the 60’s there was a coffee lounge where we sat up on stools and could be served with Danish open sandwiches which like the experience in the Thames Room seemed to be the latest in sophistication and awfully ‘posh’. One of the varieties of sandwiches on offer was served with pickled walnuts - terribly exotic and so destined to be my chosen favorite on every visit!

With the town Post Office at the far end of Eden Street, the fact that Bentalls had its own Post Office was so convenient - how many department stores could boast that facility? One could buy a birthday card in the store and take it through to the in-store PO, write it and post it just outside in the brass wall mounted post box which I think can still be seen today on the remaining portion of the old store which faces John Lewis and which was designed by architect Aston Webb - of Buckingham Palace fame.

In later years it seemed more suitable for me to join my father on shopping trips now on Saturday mornings, especially when combined with a visit to Burtons in Clarence Street when Dad needed a new suit for work - always choosing what to my teenage eyes was the least interesting fabric - so very safe, dull and boring. With a family holiday coming up it also meant Bentall’s Mens Department - roughly where Crabtree and Evelyn is now - for him to get a fresh pair of bathing shorts which, yes you've guessed it, would be identical to last year’s, only a size bigger. Oh the shame when Dad tried these on and would emerge at the fitting room doorway wearing the latest incarnation which seemed vast and so old fashioned and from which his lily white legs would be destined to get their annual unveiling.

Ah, Happy Days...!!!

James Laming, a Time & Leisure reader, sent this in repsonse to our request for memories of Bentalls in Kingston.