Wonderful memories!! My grandmother lived in Adelaide Street and I would go to Nigh's with my pennies to buy sweets and also on errands for my grandmother. Remember Mr. Nigh very well, very large man in a brown shop coat, he walked with a distinct limp (not sure if he had a false leg?). I can picture the inside of the store now in my mind!
To me Ronnie Barker’s character Albert Arkwright from Open all Hours has an uncanny likeness to Mr. Nigh. He wore a brown dust coat and had a pronounced limp just as Tropicgal remembers. His shop was very small and crammed with the old sweet jars that people used as gold fish bowls at that time.
Trevelyan, Exactly! That's what I've always thought. It was almost as if Ronnie Barker based his character on Mr Nigh! I remember there was barely room to move once you had two customers in the shop. He also had an old fashioned meat slicer which he used to slice ham, I can picture it now.
BOP, I don't think your memory is playing tricks, it was always a bit dark in there. I think it was because the only natural light came in through the door because the window on the left was to the storeroom and was blocked off so it could be used to display stuff, likewise the window on the right which always seemed to be full of boxes!
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