25 years or more

[dps51]

hi folks
if I remember right about 25 years or more
there was a model shop called bennetts
there was a big one in holborn in London and a big one in reading Berkshire
what happened to them and is there a model shop like them anywhere now
they did everything trains boats cars planes books also dolls things plus other toys thing

[red_death]

The one in Holborn was Beatties then Modelzone before the chain went bust.

[njee20]

I remember Beatties in Holborn (and other places, I think Guildford had one for a short while). Was always fascinated by the LGB layout they had running around the ceiling, one of the White Pass & Yukon locos I recall.

[dps51]

sorry I always get names mixed up
its a wonder I get my name right some times

[chrism]

I remember Beatties

Ah, there's a name from the past. Beatties Southampton, aka my piggy bank's nemesis

[njee20]

That was the other one I remember visiting, round the back of the Bargate shopping centre wasn't it?

[chrism]

That was the other one I remember visiting, round the back of the Bargate shopping centre wasn't it?

Depends what you remember as the back of the shopping centre
They were about halfway along East Street, which ran between the shopping centre and the High Street.

There was also an excellent one man band model shop in the old Northam Road, between Northam railway bridge and Six Dials - that one was also very good at emptying my piggy bank.

[joe cassidy]

Would the one in Reading have been Eames ?

[dps51]

Would the one in Reading have been Eames ?

it was the one in the butts centre in st marys butts

[joe cassidy]

Eames was near the railway station and there was no Butts centre when I was a kid 

[keithfre]

is there a model shop like them anywhere now

Cheltenham Model Centre?

[dps51]

Eames was near the railway station and there was no Butts centre when I was a kid 

wow you are going back a few year if it was not there when you was a lad
as i can remember my dad working on the building that was late 60s early 70s
i can not remember the shop you was on about
i remember heels of reading with there toys

[joe cassidy]

Heels was a kids' paradise.

I loved those Britains soldiers.

My sister loved the garden sets.

[javlinfaw7]

Purchased a few things in Beatties in Brighton in the eighties ,and there was one in St Enochs Square in Glasgow ,moving into House of Fraser before closing probably in the early nineties. It did not have the same magic however as The Clyde Model Dockyard ,or Argyle models that closed in the sixties and seventies

[Bealman]

Ah... Britains soldiers. Were they the ones with removable swords, helmets and stuff?

Was it the same mob that made the toy gardens and plastic trees that found themselves onto many a OO layout?