Arthur Beale Chandlers to close

Sad, but not surprising given the location. The guy is a yachtsman, I think he's got an old gaffer up in Scotland.
I wonder what will happen to the lovely olde-worlde shop interior?
 
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One of the massive changes I have seen in London in the past few decades is the changing shape of shopping. In particular small independent shops have been driven out in favour of yet another "Pret a Manger" (how many do we need?) or chain.

When I first started working near Broadgate there was "London Yacht Centre" just round the corner and a short walk to Kelvin Hughes on Minories, They both went years ago, There was also one (I forget the name) near Victoria Station and I think that has closed too.

And it is not just chandlers - many independent retailer have gone meaning it can be hard to buy anything in London these days apart form a sandwich
 
bedouin said:
When I first started working near Broadgate there was "London Yacht Centre" just round the corner and a short walk to Kelvin Hughes on Minories, They both went years ago, There was also one (I forget the name) near Victoria Station and I think that has closed too.
Click to expand...

I think it was Force 4 near Victoria Station. Then, of course, there was Telesonic in the Brunswick Centre and Pumpkin out in the sticks on The Highway.
 
I have a couple of small specialist piano hand-tools that came from Buck of Buck and Ryan, Tottenham Court Road. These tools date to late 1800's and are better made than anything available today. I, and the previous owners, use these almost every day.
So I related this to a young shop assistant at their newish store in Southampton Row a few years ago. I have to admit he looked at me with wonder and a hint of pity.
I bought my University camera gear at Fox Talberts across the road.
 
Ocean Leisure is still there under Charing Cross station I think? Used to be quite a good chandlers, without the historic character.
Their premises are much bigger than Arthur Beales' shop, the rent and rates for such prime real-estate must be astronomical, but they are managing to cling on apparently.
 
Beale's was great if you wanted to chat rigging for an old dinghy as they had a range of modern fibre ropes that looked like traditional hawser-laid rope. I also have a pair of their socks - blisteringly hot in any weather. I know a few who swear by their jumpers in the winter.

Also, they were top for specialist tools.
 
I feel that it's partly that the usage of the city has changed. When such shops thrived the city was used for more than working, eating and drinking. These days people enter the city reluctantly on a train to go to a job, buy a frapucino latte, get drunk to try to forget their life and then get the train home. Not a lot else happening there any more so hardly surprising that every other doorway is a coffee shop or bar with the occasional chemist or fast food thrown in.

It could be worse, any time anything in Reading closes they build a block of largely empty flats without parking
 
I visited a few years ago as my daughter was doing something in the Westend that we attended. Had a conversation with the owner about the shop and was informed that they had a lot of turn over from theaters, apparently they need a lot of rope. Perhaps they are another casualty of COVID and the disaster of lockdown.
 
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