steve_cronin
N/A
Does anyone know if the chandlery in Artillery Lane in the City (Formerly London Yacht Centre) is still functioning and if so under what name.
Steve Cronin
Steve Cronin
Artillery Lane
- Thread starter steve_cronin
- Start date
xcw
Active member
I went past yesterday and they are closed. No sign of them re opening and I know they were due to close soon anyway due to coming to the end of the lease. I suspect that's the end of any chandlery in the City.
SimonD
Active member
Force 4 on Vauxhall Bridge road is still open, but a sign in the window says they're under receivership (I'm waiting for the closing down sale!)
steve_cronin
N/A
Thanks xcw & SimonD....nm
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Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Anybody know about Capt Watts? nm
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pkb
New member
Re: Anybody know about Capt Watts? nm
Still going strong from their Dover St base. What about Kelvin Hughes in the Minories or have they gone the way of all flesh?
Peter
Still going strong from their Dover St base. What about Kelvin Hughes in the Minories or have they gone the way of all flesh?
Peter
Mirelle
N/A
Nostalgia
Kelvin Hughes closed their Minories shop this Spring. The London Yacht Centre in Artillery Lane closed a few weeks ago, and I was told that the owners who also own Captain Watts would be keeping that shop open, instead. I had thought that Force 4 could keep going but evidently not.
I can remember when the London Yacht Centre was not in Artillery Lane but in a basement in the next street to the West, when you could buy charts, sextants and all manner of nautical paraphernalia from J.D. Potter in the Minories, (the very first Admiralty chart agent, publisher of Claud Worth's books, and mentioned in the Riddle of the Sands) from Brown and Perring near Duke's Place, or from Kelvin Hughes in Leadenhall Street (they bought out JD Potter and moved to the Minories).
The demise of the London Yacht Centre is no doubt due to Internet chandlers, but the demise of the other three is due to the decline and fall of shipowning in London.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Kelvin Hughes closed their Minories shop this Spring. The London Yacht Centre in Artillery Lane closed a few weeks ago, and I was told that the owners who also own Captain Watts would be keeping that shop open, instead. I had thought that Force 4 could keep going but evidently not.
I can remember when the London Yacht Centre was not in Artillery Lane but in a basement in the next street to the West, when you could buy charts, sextants and all manner of nautical paraphernalia from J.D. Potter in the Minories, (the very first Admiralty chart agent, publisher of Claud Worth's books, and mentioned in the Riddle of the Sands) from Brown and Perring near Duke's Place, or from Kelvin Hughes in Leadenhall Street (they bought out JD Potter and moved to the Minories).
The demise of the London Yacht Centre is no doubt due to Internet chandlers, but the demise of the other three is due to the decline and fall of shipowning in London.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
G
Guest
Guest
Re: Nostalgia
And there was a ship and yacht chandler called Chamberlain next to Waterloo Station way back. The sailor went there, collected his bits and pieces and took the steam train to somewhere on the south coast. It was dead on time at the little halt; the guard was looking at his pocket watch to make sure. From there a bus rattled along leafy lanes until he reached a muddy slipway in the dusk. His dinghy was there with its oars; no one ever touched those those, but he did keep the rowlocks in his kit. He rowed out to the yacht on her mooring with the new gear and lit the oil lamps and poured some meth into the Primus tray................and.................
And there was a ship and yacht chandler called Chamberlain next to Waterloo Station way back. The sailor went there, collected his bits and pieces and took the steam train to somewhere on the south coast. It was dead on time at the little halt; the guard was looking at his pocket watch to make sure. From there a bus rattled along leafy lanes until he reached a muddy slipway in the dusk. His dinghy was there with its oars; no one ever touched those those, but he did keep the rowlocks in his kit. He rowed out to the yacht on her mooring with the new gear and lit the oil lamps and poured some meth into the Primus tray................and.................
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Re: Nostalgia
Please continue - I was really getting into that.
Please continue - I was really getting into that.
AndrewB
Well-known member
Re: Nostalgia
Same here. Shouldn't he have visited Thomas Foulkes in Leytonstone to buy a Rippingill No 3? And tipped the porter 3d for putting by a still-warm loaf from the village bakery?
Same here. Shouldn't he have visited Thomas Foulkes in Leytonstone to buy a Rippingill No 3? And tipped the porter 3d for putting by a still-warm loaf from the village bakery?
Mirelle
N/A
Re: Nostalgia
His oars were still aboard the dinghy because he had left her too far down the hard, so he had to wade out until he trod on the exposed upper fluke of the anchor.
Getting aboard, he confronted the age-old dilemma; one jerry can in the cockpit contained 50:1 petroil mixture for the Stuart Turner, another contained paraffin for the Primus and lamps, and a third held his drinking water. He had let the lamps burn out and his torch was now a dull red glow. In the gathering dusk, the question of which can held what was by no means easy to solve....yet it was urgent, because he needed to find the can opener.
His oars were still aboard the dinghy because he had left her too far down the hard, so he had to wade out until he trod on the exposed upper fluke of the anchor.
Getting aboard, he confronted the age-old dilemma; one jerry can in the cockpit contained 50:1 petroil mixture for the Stuart Turner, another contained paraffin for the Primus and lamps, and a third held his drinking water. He had let the lamps burn out and his torch was now a dull red glow. In the gathering dusk, the question of which can held what was by no means easy to solve....yet it was urgent, because he needed to find the can opener.
tome
New member
Re: Nostalgia
He did tip the porter, but waited two days in the roads whilst awaiting the arrival of Armstrong. A telegram, delivered by the outbound pilot yawl together with fresh milk and tobacco informed him that Armstong was unable to come...
He did tip the porter, but waited two days in the roads whilst awaiting the arrival of Armstrong. A telegram, delivered by the outbound pilot yawl together with fresh milk and tobacco informed him that Armstong was unable to come...
steve_cronin
N/A
Ah but, they were the days when....
...the "Torffs" went sailing (thank you very much sir) and the working classes knew their place and kept to it. (Ee's a gent me boy and you and I should be glad of it)
Things have moved on a bit now.
Steve Cronin
...the "Torffs" went sailing (thank you very much sir) and the working classes knew their place and kept to it. (Ee's a gent me boy and you and I should be glad of it)
Things have moved on a bit now.
Steve Cronin
robp
Active member
Re: Anybody know about Capt Watts? nm
Same group. Marineforce, in Administrative Receivership. Selling off individual stores. Maybe they already did here?
Same group. Marineforce, in Administrative Receivership. Selling off individual stores. Maybe they already did here?
Twister_Ken
Well-known member
Us and them
Steve,
It was all before my time, so I can't relate this to personal experience, but I suspect that back then there were two classes of sailor. There were those who commissioned the latest greatest design from likes of Fife, who employed paid hands to sail them, and stewards to look after them.
And then there were far more who, like many of us today, kept boats at the top of a creek, who made do with old sails, who did it all themselves (or with a friend who wore serge trousers and leather boots), and whose boats were designed by people like Griffiths or Harrison Butler - if they were designed at all and not just reworkings or conversions of vernacular working craft.
Steve,
It was all before my time, so I can't relate this to personal experience, but I suspect that back then there were two classes of sailor. There were those who commissioned the latest greatest design from likes of Fife, who employed paid hands to sail them, and stewards to look after them.
And then there were far more who, like many of us today, kept boats at the top of a creek, who made do with old sails, who did it all themselves (or with a friend who wore serge trousers and leather boots), and whose boats were designed by people like Griffiths or Harrison Butler - if they were designed at all and not just reworkings or conversions of vernacular working craft.
brians
Member
Re: Anybody know about Capt Watts? nm
Dropped in yesterday. Ground floor completely changed with about 50% given over to Nauticalia novelties etc. with Nauticalia price tags. Perhaps they have taken over?
Dropped in yesterday. Ground floor completely changed with about 50% given over to Nauticalia novelties etc. with Nauticalia price tags. Perhaps they have taken over?
AndrewB
Well-known member
Two classes of sailor.
Of course - South coast versus East coast, Toff versus Amateur. Deckmaster's story is a pastiche of E.B.Cooke or maybe Maurice Griffiths, writing about East coast sailing around 1925/30.
Of course - South coast versus East coast, Toff versus Amateur. Deckmaster's story is a pastiche of E.B.Cooke or maybe Maurice Griffiths, writing about East coast sailing around 1925/30.
steve_cronin
N/A
Re: Us and them
Probably. I wasn't around either but I do know that the idea of going sailing for fun and recreation wouldn't have occurred to the quoted station porter & his family. Much less would he have been admitted to the "Royal Bumptious & Ancient Yacht Club" except to carry the sail bags. "Three Men in a Boat" boater hats & all? Boats were smaller then and the "top of a creek" was the place to keep one since it was good for the clinker construction and marinas were still two generations away. Even when I started in the early 70's a 30footer was considered a big boat. In the 1930's a Harrison Butler would still have been expensive and probably cost the value of two railway workers cottages.
There was a third class of course like Sopwith, Lipton & HRH with their Big Class & J's.
Sailing for the masses only came with the Mirror Offshore and the GP14.
Like I said, things are different now.
Steve Cronin
Probably. I wasn't around either but I do know that the idea of going sailing for fun and recreation wouldn't have occurred to the quoted station porter & his family. Much less would he have been admitted to the "Royal Bumptious & Ancient Yacht Club" except to carry the sail bags. "Three Men in a Boat" boater hats & all? Boats were smaller then and the "top of a creek" was the place to keep one since it was good for the clinker construction and marinas were still two generations away. Even when I started in the early 70's a 30footer was considered a big boat. In the 1930's a Harrison Butler would still have been expensive and probably cost the value of two railway workers cottages.
There was a third class of course like Sopwith, Lipton & HRH with their Big Class & J's.
Sailing for the masses only came with the Mirror Offshore and the GP14.
Like I said, things are different now.
Steve Cronin
Mirelle
N/A
Re: Us and them
But, Steve, the "masses" don't go sailing now. An Average White Boat costs the same, new, as a two bedroom terrace house in most of the southern parts of this country. There actually are people who not only do not own cars powerful enough to tow an Enterprise but who do not own cars at all.
Sailing is as snobbish now as it ever was, yellow wellies and designer oilies have replaced reefer jackets and yachting caps as the sign of social status but the hoary old social curse (H Belloc, a sailng man, incidentally) is with us yet. After all, the past two decades have seen the return of the paid hand on a big scale, only now they are called professional yachtsmen.
My father messed about in boats from 1920 to 1985 (being paid to do so by His Majesty during 1939-45; he was a minor academic who seldom had two coins to rub together, but he crewed for others, repaired old small boats, converted an RNLI sailing lifeboat, and so on. I suspect he was highly typical.
But, Steve, the "masses" don't go sailing now. An Average White Boat costs the same, new, as a two bedroom terrace house in most of the southern parts of this country. There actually are people who not only do not own cars powerful enough to tow an Enterprise but who do not own cars at all.
Sailing is as snobbish now as it ever was, yellow wellies and designer oilies have replaced reefer jackets and yachting caps as the sign of social status but the hoary old social curse (H Belloc, a sailng man, incidentally) is with us yet. After all, the past two decades have seen the return of the paid hand on a big scale, only now they are called professional yachtsmen.
My father messed about in boats from 1920 to 1985 (being paid to do so by His Majesty during 1939-45; he was a minor academic who seldom had two coins to rub together, but he crewed for others, repaired old small boats, converted an RNLI sailing lifeboat, and so on. I suspect he was highly typical.
Mirelle
N/A
Who on earth buys that stuff? nm
no possible comment!
no possible comment!
