I have been visiting Hungerford Arcade for a number of years now and have seen it in its various moods.  Whether during the hot dog days of summer or during the chilly days of winter with the sharp winds whipping in off of the Salisbury Plain, I have been there.  I enjoying visiting the Arcade and looking at things (and sometimes purchasing them) it makes a welcome break from the madness of real life.

But yesterday, which was the 21^st of October 2017, was rather special as I experienced something that I had not experienced before.  Total or near total darkness.  The day started as many had with the only unusual thing being that Caron and I were actually in Hungerford on a Saturday having been in sunny Kent (do visit the Turner/Emin/Arp exhibition in Margate if you can) and Bath during the previous two weekends.

My wife had trotted off to Tesco’s and was visiting the splendid new W.H. Smith store in the High Street on her way back, as I was too idle to pick up the weekend newspapers.  I had agreed to meet her outside of the Town Hall so that we might share the shopping load.  The Arcade was busy, but not especially so and I made my way to the junk stall straight away as I knew that my time was limited.

Quite soon after negotiating the steep stairs to the cellar, I found a rather faded teapot stand dating from the early twentieth century showing a view of Morecambe which I thought to be rather nice (and also practical).  Later, I found a leather wallet containing two handkerchiefs commemorating the 1953 Coronation of our Queen.  Soon after, I found myself in the book department under the café and almost immediately found The Young Naturalist by Alicia Catherine Mant dating from 1824.  And then it happened, my world was plunged into complete darkness along with most of my fellow Arcade visitors.  Only Rafters Café retained the daylight and its patrons continued eating without protest.

I had never been in the Arcade in darkness and it was a rather nice experience and I could almost sense the ghosts, who are supposed to haunt the building, moving around.  But one has to be practical and I had a brainwave.  The torch on my new mobile phone, that would be the answer.  That is when my problems started as my mobile phone was so complex that it took me about ten minutes to figure out what button to press to activate the tiny torch.  But when I did, the effect as magical with its sharp light illuminating the books as I spent a happy few minutes looking at other editions before I decided to leave and meet Caron.

As I walked down the stairs towards the junction with the main right hand passage, I was met by a large number of stars floating without association in the air.  Well enough of the Keats.  I was met by a number of people holding their mobile phone torches in the air for illumination.  Although this did remind me of Tinker Bell in the Peter Pan stories, I must say.

Alex and the arcade staff were ensuring that everybody was okay  and I was told that the whole of Hungerford had been plunged into darkness by the power cut which did not surprise me as for some reason, our lovely little town seems to have more than its fair share of power cuts.  I was thinking of designing a poster noting this as a further tourist attraction.  If You Want to Experience Real Power Cuts then come to Beautiful Hungerford  the poster might say, but enough of this thin wit and back to the dark right hand passage at the arcade.

From my vantage point, I could see that the counter area was lit by the fading daylight of the autumn afternoon.  The counter was surprisingly busy and after getting some change from the Antique Market in Town Hall (as the arcade’s till was down), I paid for my goods and made my way back to my little cottage as I knew that Tesco’s would have suffered the same problems as the Arcade and my wife would have gone home.  The power was restored about an hour later and life continued as normal as it always does in Hungerford.

Although not on the scale of the York Blackout of 1977, I still enjoyed our little blackout and to be in the Arcade when it happened added to the experience and I will not forget the floating mobile torch lights for a long time.

When you next visit Hungerford and pack your sandwiches and your flask, do leave some space in your bag for your trusty torch.  You never know when you might need it.

Happy Hunting

Stewart Miller-Osborne

Chef Patron Laurent, Adrian and a very smart looking cat!

Hungerford Arcade welcomed a charming gentleman, Laurent Lebeau.  Laurent not only owns the beautiful Red House pub at Marsh Benham, Newbury, he is also the chef.  He came to the Arcade in search of wonderful antiques, which of course, he found.  There was an item that was not antique, but as you can see, it struck a chord and just had to be bought.

Laurent describes The Red House beautifully.  Have a look at what is said about it but best of all, take a look for yourselves.  You will be glad that you did.

The Red House is a traditional thatched pub set in beautiful West Berkshire countryside, a couple of miles to the west of Newbury.  We serve Great British Food, complemented by a well-stocked bar full of local beers and and a hand-picked wine list.  Chef Patron Laurent has been cooking for over 25 years in brasseries, bars and Michelin-starred restaurants and our meals are freshly prepared from the finest locally-sourced ingredients.

Visit the Red House here

Hungerford Arcade was visited by a very interesting young lady, Miriam Stenson.  Miriam told us that she collects hands and was pleasantly surprised to find a beautifully carved wooden hand here at the Arcade.  The detail on it was amazing.

Miriam was a little camera shy so I could not take a photo of her with the hand.  However, Miriam kindly sent me a lovely photograph of her collection of hands and low and behold, in the same picture, we have Miriam reflected in the mirror taking the photo.

Thank you very much Miriam for sharing your wonderful collection of hands with us.  Rita

It is amazing what you find hidden in books.

Over the last few days, I have found a 1910 newspaper cutting noting the death of Florence Nightingale as well as a 1960s family photograph.

Quite frequently you find pressed flowers and ferns (some dating from Victorian times) in books as well as invitations to long forgotten functions.

I have found tickets and receipts of all descriptions as well as items that still mystify me.

On my birthday this year I received a copy of the Gulag Archipelago and on page seventy-six there was an invitation to a council function in Colchester.  This invitation dated from November 1976 which was something of a coincidence.

When you are looking through books always look to see if the pages have been disturbed as this may indicate that a found object might be hidden between the pages.

My greatest find, if you are interested, was the final page of an 1825 letter from Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) who apart from being a poet and critic himself, was a friend of Shelley and some of the other Romantic Poets.

Again, I noted a slight disturbance in a page in a book of his poetry and the rest is history.  But I will not detain you further as my time is short today and you have better things to do than read a sprawling article.

Whether you are in the book department in the Arcade or just browsing books, do look out for what is hidden between the pages of books.  Who knows, you might find a lost letter from TS Eliot or a ticket from the Liverpool Overhead Railway.    Or like me an invitation to a council function in Colchester that was held just over forty years ago. 

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne

Jane and Trevor Elliman have been stallholders at Hungerford Arcade for many years.  We all know what a fantastic artist Jane is and you can discover her paintings for yourself by clicking on the links below.  The painting on this page is of Jess Elliman, their much loved daughter.

Hungerford Arcade welcomed a lovely young lady who came in with her mother and lovely, cheeky young cousin.  Laurel told us that she is a member of the West of England Youth Orchestra and can play several instruments.  Everyone is very proud of her achievements and she enjoys it all very much.  The Orchestra travels across the West Country bringing music and happiness everywhere they go.

The West of England Youth Orchestra serves the region and it is open to all young people in the area who are playing at the required entry level (grade 7+).

You can find out more about this wonderful orchestra by clicking here to visit their website.

Thank you Laurel for sharing your story with us.  Rita

Hungerford Arcade is known around the world and it will come as no surprise that we attract a lot of visitors from overseas.  Neil and Lorraine Page are from Australia and they came in looking for a present to take home for their daughter.

Lorraine was so excited when she spotted a genuine, old Paddington Bear for sale, complete with the ticket attached to his little blue duffle coat.  This was the perfect present.

Dear little Paddington will travel in comfort on his long journey to Australia where he will be very much loved.

Neil and Lorraine told us that they breed beautiful Clydesdale horses back in Australia.  What a wonderful life!   Thank you for sharing with us.   Rita

For a period in the 1970s, I worked at a bookstall at Harrow & Wealdstone Railway Station in North West London.   It was not really at the end of the world but as I lived in Ealing, the journey each day felt that I was travelling to both Poles via Timbuktu.

Although I did not realise it at the time, I was witnessing the decade that time forgot.  Rather like Fitzgerald’s lost generation, this was a decade that passed and was, to some extent, forgotten soon afterwards.  It was the bridge between the rebellious 1960s and the more sombre 1980s and 1990s.

The actual bookstall was favourably situated between the up Bakerloo Line tube platform and the spectacular down Euston to all stations North of Watford platform.  I say spectacular, as express trains roared through the station at high speed causing the whole bookstall to shake each time. Although I had visited Harrow to play football I had never really visited the railway station before.  The previous manager sadly had a nervous breakdown when his precious cat died.  His passing was slightly mocked by certain members of staff but having lost Cindy Lou a few months previously, I sympathised with him.

Harrow & Wealdstone Railway Station as some of you may know. was the

scene of a catastrophic railway accident on the 8^th of October 1952 in which 112 people sadly died.  It was one of those accidents that to this day, (as with Moorgate) has not been fully explained.  Some of the staff that we there on that fateful day would tell me stories over a coffee and a cigarette of how by the luck of God, they missed being involved on that awful day.  One had popped out just before his shift to buy a loaf of bread and another had been detained in the main ticket hall.  Or at least these were the stories they told me.

To some extent, these stories passed me by as I was living in another country.  I was young.  As I look back, I can see the 1970s as if I have found a hidden time capsule.  But they are still here, even in the Hungerford of 2017.

I was in the Arcade the other day when I spotted a Midwinter Tea/Coffee set and it took me back to those dark frosty mornings when Wynne brought me a cup of tea when she brewed up.  She had used the same Midwinter cups.  As Captain Oates had already perished, I can tell you that the tea was most welcome.

If you look in the Arcade, there are many items that date from the 1970s. Obviously, records can be easily dated but what about the much maligned lava lamps.  I loved lava lamps and even purchased one for my tiny office in the bookstall so I could relax when cashing up at the end of the day. And if Bowie was playing on my transistor radio, then so much the better.

Lava lamps | by Dean Hochman

I was not aware of this until recently. but lava lamps were the invention of a naturist film maker named Edward Craven Walker (1918-2000), who was responsible for such gems as Travelling light (1959), Sunswept (1961) and the rather oddly titled Eves on Ski’s (1963).  Although the lava lamps actually predated the 1970s (Craven developed the idea in a country pub just after the war) to me, they were the essence of the 1970s.

On occasions when I am wandering around antique shops and retro fairs and I see these lamps, my mind slips back to my sturdy little lava lamp (which on occasions I forgot to switch off when I left in the evening only to find it continuing its gentle journey when I arrived the following morning). Lava lamps are still manufactured to this day. but the ones manufactured in the 1970s can still be found and after a quick check still work without a problem.  Or at least I am told they do.

Most people of a certain age look back on the 1960s with a fond nostalgia with its liberal attitudes and yes, the 1960s were a pivotal decade.  Bras were burnt, hair was shoulder length and flower power was all the rage. There were The Beatles and Jimi as well.  The Rolling Stones were already a fixture and Mr Bond was keeping this country safe from those fiendish enemies of freedom.

It was maybe because I was too young to appreciate the sixties that I have always been more nostalgic about the 1970s.  The curse of Political Correctness did not tarnish this decade and the crazy health and safety rules of today did not apply.  One just used common sense.

Do you realise that Star Wars started in the 1970s?

The first movie was released in 1977 (the year I met my beloved Caron)

and it was one of the first date movies we went to see.  The adventures of this space opera have continued to this day and its popularity has if anything increased.  This was brought into focus by the tragic death of Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) over Christmas and the sadness that followed. 

What other items were connected with the 1970s?

Here are just a few:

Abba (I still love their music to this day) 

Jaws (were you alarmed during the sunken boat scene?)

Concorde (our skies are sadly quieter these days)

Charlie’s Angels (confectionery but much missed) 

Vinyl Records (which are making an incredibly strong comeback)

Platform Shoes (no more twisted ankles and six foot three women)

Flares (nuff said)

The Godfather (I might accept the offer that one cannot refuse if flares ever return)

Disco Mirror Balls (did they ever go away?) 

Bad Wallpaper (I am still haunted by the designs of the 1970s to this very day)

Saturday Night Fever (Staying Alive which was my motto when attending Chelsea away games)

The Magic Roundabout (come back Dylan all is forgiven)

Space Hoppers (and watching your siblings being launched into outer space)

The Silver Jubilee (we were strawberry picking in Kent and it came and went away)

Charlie Perfume (the smell of it still makes me feel light-headed)

Jack Nicholson (a stunning actor who like De Niro has faded into forgettable films) 

And lastly it was the decade of hot summers.

One remembers 1976, but there were other summers in the decade that

were most acceptable.  I can remember being in the South of France and ringing my father for further funds and boasting how hot it was in Frejus only to be told that it was considerably warmer in London.  Although our country summers here in Hungerford are acceptable, we rarely get the mad and crazy temperatures of the mid 1970s.  Perhaps they will return. Who knows?

Obviously, the list above is random and you are unlikely to find some of the items in the Arcade or elsewhere.  But there is a great deal available if look around.

Each time I visit the arcade, I find large numbers of items connected with or from this forgotten decade.  I always thought retro would make a return although I thought that the sixties and not the seventies would be the primary focus.  But I was wrong and the 1970s have made a very strong comeback.  When retro items are again manufactured. then you know that they have arrived.

The nice thing about 1970s retro is that not all that many years have passed since the actual event.  A lot of items are still around and because of this they are easy to find.  Whilst trailing around jumble sales and country fairs (I do not do boot sales) I frequently find items connected with this lost decade.

When inspecting a cabinet in Bedwyn a couple of summers ago, I found a 1970s newspaper which was getting very excited about the movie Last Tango in Paris (1972), which starred Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider.  Nothing had changed in thirty odd years with the media whipping itself up into frenzy about this serious and brilliant movie which contained the acting performance of the decade from Brando.

Even today, the movie causes waves and I noted just before Christmas that a comment made by the director Bernardo Bertolucci was jumped upon and attacked by people who (in my view) were immature in their outlook.  I doubt if Last Tango would have been made today given the ridiculous nature of correctness that can be found everywhere.  But in the 1970s and taking Mrs Whitehouse and her friends out of the equation, the movie was released and after a while the feeding frenzy faded leaving Last Tango in Paris to take its place in the history of European Cinema.  I saw the movie at the time of its release and admired it greatly and then, I just got on with my life.

This was the essence of the 1970s (which in a way was a harsher decade than the 1960s).  You just let things take their course and not everything had to be micro-analysed as it is today.  There were no mobile phones and the internet was still some years away.  If my memory serves me correctly, there were only three television channels and colour televisions were still something of a novelty.

But let us return to that innocent bookstall in North London where for a number of reasons I spent a great deal of time.  It faced the stairs of the

footbridge and from my vantage I was able to see the changing world of movie posters and the like.  One particularly springs to mind, it was the Liza Minnelli poster for her album Liza with a Z which I considered to be to be quite brilliantly designed.  There was simplicity to the artwork and for whatever reason, the poster remained in place for a considerable time.  Perhaps they forgot to replace it or just did not care.  I opened the stall with Liza with a Z and wished her good evening as I caught my train home. The odd thing was, that whilst I liked some of her songs, I was not really a great fan of Liza’s music.  But the poster was different and if I saw one (at a reasonable price), I would purchase it and frame it.  I would think of the small bookstall at Harrow & Wealdstone Railway Station with its cold mornings and exceptionally hot summers.

Each of us (if we are of a certain age), will remember the 1970s.   I hope with a certain fondness.   And if you are really keen, there are lots things to find and buy (usually at decent prices).  You can visit Hungerford with your wife (or girlfriend) of thirty or so years.  She can wear a cheese cloth blouse and Wrangler jeans and you can dress in (well that is up to you).  You might bring your children and their children and spend time exploring your memories of the 1970s.  It does not have to be Hungerford as retro is everywhere.  Just enjoy the trip while it lasts.

In November, I had occasion to be in Harrow so I decided to visit the railway station.  To my slight surprise, The Bookstall at the End of the World had gone and had been replaced by an open space.  I explored my geography and stood roughly where my lava lamp would have been and also, where I would have served my many customers.  There was not even a space for the posters where Liza with a Z had once been.  It had been replaced by a sign warning passengers not to stand too close to the platform edge as fast trains were passing.  That had not changed and these monsters seemed even noisier and more brutal than I had remembered them.  I felt a little sad at the passing of time but this did not last long, for in the 1970s, The Minions had not existed.

And what is life without The Minions?

Happy Hunting

Stuart Miller-Osborne

Hungerford Arcade have so many interesting customers come through the doors who enjoy sharing interesting parts of their lives with us and ultimately, with you.

Landlord, Russell Mackenzie and his lovely wife, Cardyn, moved from South Africa and took over the Royal Oak four months ago.  This stunning building has a beautiful garden where you can relax and enjoy the lovely weather.  (When we get some!)

            Landlady, Cardyn, Arcade co-owner, Adrian Gilmour and Landlord, Russell Mackenzie

                                         Some of the lovely tankards Russell bought for his pub

                 I came across this plaque when looking through pictures of the Royal Oak at Pewsey

Everyone at Hungerford Arcade wish Russell, Cardyn and the Royal Oak our very best wishes.  Rita 

Hungerford Arcade hold many events throughout the year.  The most recent one being the Model Steam Engines show hosted by Daniel Cordory and his good friend and fellow enthusiast, Roly.

                  Roly getting steam up watched by Daniel and his son, Russell

Daniel and Roly also restore vintage model steam engines to their former glory, making sure they all get up a full head of steam.

                     (L-R) Roly, Arcade manager, Alex Rogers and Daniel Cordory

Daniel and his wife Sarah have been stallholders at the Arcade for a few years now, Daniel specialising in steam engines and Sarah with her eclectic mix of silver, jewellery and lots of other items.