One Street.....Whitley Road #1

Today seems like as good a day as any to start my One Street series.....especially as I happened to be in the florists around the corner on said street buying some festive greenery and I'm otherwise blip bereft ;-)

So this is 'Bluebells' at No 70, unfortunately 'Mrs Bluebell' was feeling a little camera shy this morning so you just get the flowers.....
When we first moved to Whitley Bay in the early 70's, and maybe for about a decade after, this was a Chemists/Pharmacy still in its original, rather resplendent Victorian form and decorative finery....it had scarred but highly polished mahogany counters/wooden drawers labelled in gold lettering with the names of mysterious drugs, glass fronted cabinets, 3 of those massive display bottles filled with coloured water in the window (red, yellow and blue)....oh, and one of those bentwood chairs by the counter for the convenience of aged lady customers awaiting their prescription for bile beans and a bottle of (probably liberally-alcohol-laced) tonic! I think most of the shop fittings ended up at Beamish Museum. I love going in there but I always spend a fortune......

Off to check where the nethermost ends of Whitley Road actually are on an old map now.....I suspect it stretches from Cullercoats to the Newcastle City limits, I SHOULD have plenty to play with......