I turn my back on Brighton for just a few days, and already they're doing their best to dismantle it.
This shop (below) has been a Brighton institution for over 100 years. Nowhere in the world would you find a better hardware store. They simply had everything.
Many a time I've gone there with simply a silly drawing on the back of an envelope of some tiny object that I needed. One of the staff would disappear into the back, or up into the loft, and return with exactly what I was after. They NEVER failed me. It was a remarkable store.
Now I hear that it will close. It took me years to get over the closing of a nearby shellfish shop called 'Alan John's' (Alanjohns?), now I shall probably suffer even more by knowing that Dockerills is no longer there.
Where will I now go to find all those essential bits and pieces? Where will I find another Ginger Tom permanently asleep on the counter? Where will I go to find brown-coated staff for whom nothing was ever too much effort?
I wonder what will become of the property? I hope not another Charity Shop! I think there is already one on either side.
So, RIP Dockerills. I will miss you, as I'm sure will all residents of central Brighton. I can't believe this is happening.
Unfortunately, such institutions are an anachronism in modern Britain. We had a similar hardware shop in our vicinity, originally a family business but with increases to local business rates felt they had no choice but to sell out to one of the larger chains. It is still a hardware store of sorts, but no longer has the knowledgeable and helpful staff and range of goods.
ReplyDeleteDockerills had (has) such an amazing reputation in the town that it hardly seems possible that it would ever close. My fingers are crossed that someone will take it over, and continue.
DeleteWe have its twin here and would be devastated if it were to close.
ReplyDeleteI am genuinely distraught.
DeleteThere is a similar shop here ( Harpenden-Southdown) and the man who ran it for years was going to retire and close it, but someone took it on at the last minute. You could hop on a train from Brighton, get a taxi and you would be here in a few hours. A bit longer from SW France!!
ReplyDeleteMy son plays cricket for Bishop Stortford CC, so he could pop in. I'll let him know.
DeleteWe have a store that at one time had an excellent basement full of hardware goods. They even had a "pick and mix" section where you could buy just one screw - or a selection of different sizes and other useful DIY items. Now everything is pre-packed in those little plastic bubbles and there's no-one to advise you on what you need. I believe it's called progress! We even bought a cement mixer from the same store, at half the price of renting one for the few weeks we needed one.
ReplyDeleteWhen these shops close, they are gone for ever. They will never be revived. What a shame.
DeleteHow often did you shop there and what was your spend? I note the other day that something you could have popped into town for for your wife you bought on-line, nothing to do with hardware shop. This was pointed out to you by your dear friend Yorkshire Pudding. I think with all these small shops it is a case of use them or lose them. I have a friend whose husband ran a hardware store near Yarmouth and it has recently closed due to his retirement. He worked seven days a week and said his most profitable day was a Sunday when people "just popped in for something". He could not afford to pay staff for Sunday work. He never made much money and he and his wife were on a knife edge financially throughout their lives of running a hardware store in modern Britain. When he retired nobody wanted to buy the shop.
ReplyDeleteI did go there quite often, and it was always full of people; mostly tradesmen. I think the real problem are 'Business Rates' which are HUGE. It's difficult to make money after rates, salaries, and other everyday expenses.
DeleteThe Screwfix catalogue is the first choice for most tradesmen these days.
DeleteWickes is full of them every time I go.
DeleteWhen I was in Brighton a few years back, I took a photo of Dockerills' shop frontage. I am afraid you will have to visit B&Q in the future. No ginger toms sleeping on the counter. No brown coats. Such independent shops are being consigned to memory.
ReplyDeleteB&Q, et al, are nowhere near as comprehensive as Dockerills. I do visit Wickes for paint, and other DIY stuff, but it's not the same.
DeleteIf people want to hang on to these small independent shops they must support them. But they won't. Far easier to order online, pay online, and get goods sent to their door. The perfect pathway to end cash and bring in CBDC. I was looking in shops yesterday for something I had seen. A shower curtain with a garden mural on it. The idea is to hang one in the garden to disguise an ugly fence. Couldn't find one. I did look online and yes there is such a thing. I will keep on looking in shops, but have to accept that I probably will not find one.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that Amazon has now become my 'if all else fails' site to go to. Usually I find things at once.
DeleteEven here old style shops are closing. It's so nice to get that personal service though in this small island where everyone knows everyone it is all personal
ReplyDeleteAt Dockerills they knew me, and always greeted me warmly. Now if have to go to B&Q I'll probably be met with a scowl.
DeleteMy experience of our local B&Q is that, with one or two exceptions, the staff know very little about any of the goods on the shelves except which aisle to go to compared to the knowledge of the staff in a shop like Dockerills,
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DeleteIt is indeed sad that small shops close, it happens here too.
ReplyDeleteA sign of the times.
DeleteSad. I loved the places where you could buy one bolt, or two screws when that was what you needed, not a box of 12.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly how they were. A real old fashioned store.
DeleteIt is a sad loss when a shop like this closes. Was it a family business? Sometimes the next generation decides to sell out because they do not want to run a business.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a family run business, I believe they are having to close because their overheads are beyond 'profit-making'. We have a Socialist run council, and they make businesses pay huge amounts until they simply have to close down.
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