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
The one in Holborn was Beatties then Modelzone before the chain went bust.
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.
sorry I always get names mixed up
its a wonder I get my name right some times
Quote from: njee20 on October 25, 2019, 10:04:33 AM
I remember Beatties
Ah, there's a name from the past. Beatties Southampton, aka my piggy bank's nemesis ;)
That was the other one I remember visiting, round the back of the Bargate shopping centre wasn't it?
Quote from: njee20 on October 25, 2019, 10:22:55 AM
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.
Would the one in Reading have been Eames ?
Quote from: joe cassidy on October 25, 2019, 11:18:06 AM
Would the one in Reading have been Eames ?
it was the one in the butts centre in st marys butts
Eames was near the railway station and there was no Butts centre when I was a kid :)
Quote from: dps51 on October 25, 2019, 09:48:28 AM
is there a model shop like them anywhere now
Cheltenham Model Centre?
Quote from: joe cassidy on October 25, 2019, 11:56:15 AM
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
Heels was a kids' paradise.
I loved those Britains soldiers.
My sister loved the garden sets.
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
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?
Yes George, that's it.
Quote from: joe cassidy on October 25, 2019, 11:18:06 AM
Would the one in Reading have been Eames ?
My first n gauge loco - a Lima 0-6-0 came from a shop specialising in electric razors on the first floor of the Butts Centre in 1971. There was a excellent model shop just off the Oxford Road in a shopping complex that inluded a car showroom with an excellent restaurant. Sorry but can't remember names.
I just noticed this sticker on the side of my Saxa Salt wagon and it reminded me of this thread. :beers:
(https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/83/6379-271019224200.jpeg) (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view&id=83284)
Cool! :thumbsup:
Quote from: joe cassidy on October 26, 2019, 12:18:40 PM
Heels was a kids' paradise.
I loved those Britains soldiers.
My sister loved the garden sets.
so you remember heels then
that was where my dad got his railway stuff from
so what part of reading did you live
I lived in Tilehurst by the old dog stadium on the oxford road