Another slice of local history...

... in my Harrogate Then & Now series.

This is one of the more complicated in the series so far,requiring much detective work. The original picture appears to have been taken in the 1870s or 1880s, but the firm concerned still had a shop in the centre of town when I moved to the town nearly 30years ago - so certainly in the 1990s.

Unfortunately the picture in the library archives was wrongly attributed to that last address and it took quite a lot of searching directory records to discover that the business moved through at least four different premises and this might well have been their first shop. 

We were helped a lot by being able to wander round the outskirts of the town centre using Google Streetview and were amazed to find the shop still standing and looking very similar to the original.The address also matched (almost) but we are quite accustomed to the numbering of premises in particular streets changing slightly over the years.

The last shop in their chain was a rather old-fashioned gentlemen's outfitters, but the company started out selling hosiery - hence the shop window displaying long stockings.