Dear All, Well I'm still surviving despite the "barbaric" north. Actually things are going OK in the record dept, the backlog of work is being cleared slowly but surely. I've got an audit this week - just to add a bit of variety.
All the best for Easter, Leslie.
PS How do you like the photo of my digs?
A little slice of WHSmith history this time, with this card sent to the Bradford branch from Leslie, who was helping out up in Carlisle. I'm sure that the Carlisle branch has been around for much longer than 52 years so perhaps they were expanding? Leslie, where are you now...? Any comments are welcome. WHSmith still stands in the same spot on English Street and has recently, controversially, take over the duties of the Post Office, whose grand main building on Warwick Road has now closed down.
It's interesting to remember that WHSmith was once a record shop. These days, with the demise of Virgin / Zavvi there's only HMV left as a high street retailer for music, with it's Carlisle branch in The Lanes shopping centre. In some of our bigger cities there are still some independent record shops doing good business, but times are changing. I remember well going into Woolworths for my seven inch singles every Saturday morning at the beginning of the 1980s to spend my pocket money; my first record....Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police. Then there was WHSmith, Boots and Our Price who had their record departments; for secondhand and collectables it was Vinyl Vaults halfway down Botchergate. When we're talking about record shops in Carlisle we mustn't forget the Pink Panther on Rosemary Lane (and later on Chapel Street). From the late 80s it was the only place I went for my new records and I remember buying up Stock Aitken Waterman records amongst the indie and thrash metal! I was lucky enough to work in the Pink Panther during the 1990s and it was an exciting time. There's now a facebook group for anyone who wants to reminisce about it!
The card itself shows Leslie's digs....or the Citadel as it's better known. These impressive oval towers mark the original site of the Botcher Gate, or English Gate, the entrance to the city from the south. The current layout was based on a design by Thomas Telford and built in 1810-11 and completed by Sir Robert Smirke. They were rebuilt in the 1840s spported by the Earl of Lonsdale, whose statue can be seen in front of the right tower; it still stands there to this day. Until recently the Citadel housed the civil and criminal courts and jail cells.
This is often the first view many visitors see of historic Carlisle, as it stands directly opposite the train station. In the foreground is the busy station car park with a family on their way for a trip, cases in hand. This view has changed little in 50 years, although the car park attendant's hut is no longer there. A final mention must go to the split-screen Morris Minor parked up in the extreme bottom left corner. A classic!
