Packing Up Gardners Market Sundriesmen

All are welcome at a party to celebrate Paul Gardner and one hundred and fifty years of Gardners Market Sundriesmen – his family business through four generations – at his old shop at 149 Commercial St this Monday 6th January from 6:00pm – 9:00pm.

Gardners Market Sundriesmen is moving to 78 Ruckholt Rd, Leyton, E10 5NP. Phone 0208 558 1289

After 150 years, Paul closes up in Spitalfields for the last time

Each day since Christmas, Paul Gardner, his wife Jane, and their sons have been clearing up the shop opened by Paul’s great-grandfather James in 1870 as the first tenant of the newly-constructed Peabody Building in Commercial St. By seven o’ clock on Friday night, three van loads of paper bags had already gone to the new shop in Leyton, and the family were exhausted, when the gang of volunteers arrived to assist with packing up.

Although depleted of stock, the shop looked pretty much as it had always done, yet an hour later it was almost empty. Without waiting for instructions, the well-wishers set to work stowing all the contents into boxes and stacking everything outside on the pavement before forming a human chain and passing the boxes into the van. Paul and his wife Jane stood in weary amazement at the centre of the whirlwind as the counter was disassembled and the cellar was emptied.

In between carrying boxes, Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie managed to take enough photos to record the historic event. No-one complained about the dust of ages that was stirred up, coating Paul Gardner with a cobwebby layer which gave him the appearance of the old retainer who had been there for one hundred and fifty years, and rendering his face as grimy as a chimney sweep.

Once the van was full, Jane set off with the driver to supervise the unloading at the new shop in Leyton. In the meantime, we set to work on the final clear out. All kinds of old signs and mementos of past times were discovered, including Paul’s father’s receipt books dated up until the month in 1968 when he died. As the team of volunteers lifted the shop counter out onto the pavement, bank notes fluttered down Commercial St to delight of passersby.

By then, the shop looked like an empty theatre after the scenery had been removed. Paul lay down on the floor to make one last phone call to his wife on the spot where he had stood behind the counter for the past forty-seven years. Before long, the van returned and we loaded the counter and the remaining scales, trolleys and other paraphernalia.

By now, Paul was so tired he could hardly stand up but he sent me down the road to the off licence for some beers and we drank a toast together. Then he locked up his shop for the last time and this was how one hundred and fifty years ended in Spitalfields.