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Cambridge Arcade


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You couldn't miss this guy Richard, he would stop you in the street (a busy main road) and practically try to force you to buy a pen off him.

In fact the skill was trying to avoid him. You could walk on the opposite side of the street but that would then mean having to negotiate the end of Cambridge Street and Cross Burgess Streets in the days when there was traffic in the town centre and it was busy. The other side of the road where he was lurking between the town hall and Furnival Gate was clear of adjoining roads (except for the arcade which didn't carry any traffic).

So you could have been accosted by him walking down from the bus stop outside the Peace Gardens just to go and spend your pocket money in Redgates on Furnival gate and end up buying a pen instead.

I remember one who use to hang around the top of Dixon Lane,

he marched up to me one day and stuck a Biro in my top pocket.

I said "thanks" and carried on walking away from him,

he quickly followed and grabbed me by the arm.

So I turned round and stuck the pen in his top pocket,

after that he never approached me again.

lol

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I remember one who use to hang around the top of Dixon Lane,

he marched up to me one day and stuck a Biro in my top pocket.

I said "thanks" and carried on walking away from him,

he quickly followed and grabbed me by the arm.

So I turned round and stuck the pen in his top pocket,

after that he never approached me again.

lol

We have a plan for Strret hawkers/Political Canvessers etc - the wife (5 foot) answers and they start to give her the talk, I then loom over her (6 foot, 19 stone, 49 inch chest) and proceed to make impolite motions, strange they take a lot more notice of me than my tiny wife ... I have been known to "escort" overly keen callers up the drive by the collar.

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I remember one who use to hang around the top of Dixon Lane,

he marched up to me one day and stuck a Biro in my top pocket.

I said "thanks" and carried on walking away from him,

he quickly followed and grabbed me by the arm.

So I turned round and stuck the pen in his top pocket,

after that he never approached me again.

lol

I wonder if this was the same guy just in a different location, his sales technique sounds familiar.

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Guest plain talker

I wonder if this was the same guy just in a different location, his sales technique sounds familiar.

I remember him. He used to allege that the pens he foisted upon people were being "sold" to aid ex-servicemen.

he tended to hang about the opposite side of Moorhead to Debenhams, where the Radio Rentals shop was the Heart-Charity Shop is now.

His "selling" technique was a bit "suss" and very intimidating, to say the least.

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I remember him. He used to allege that the pens he foisted upon people were being "sold" to aid ex-servicemen.

he tended to hang about the opposite side of Moorhead to Debenhams, where the Radio Rentals shop was the Heart-Charity Shop is now.

His "selling" technique was a bit "suss" and very intimidating, to say the least.

That's the man plaintalker, exact location and the very same sales technique.

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Guest plain talker

That's the man plaintalker, exact location and the very same sales technique.

I remember he used to dress quite "smartly", in a blazer and tie. He used to get quite miffed if you were "wide" to his selling technique and managed to avoid him/ give him the pen back.

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I remember he used to dress quite "smartly", in a blazer and tie. He used to get quite miffed if you were "wide" to his selling technique and managed to avoid him/ give him the pen back.

Thats him, blazer pocket and tie carried a military motif to give more credibility to his "ex-serviceman" line of sales strategy.

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Then there was the "bible thumpers" with their banners "The Wages Of Sin Is Death" who always used to hassle you and give you grief at the High Street end of Fargate.

Anyone remember them?

Here they are in action in 1981

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As promised :rolleyes:

First one, May 1964 from Pinstone Street. Suggs Sports to the left, Barney Goodman's to the right, Cambridge Arcade written over the Archway, Sheffield United Tours sign visible inside the Arcade, and the blind man who sold packets of lavender and matches to the left of the entrance.

Second one, Union Street end, Arcade sign much more prominent, Copper Coin Cafe and Lamb's newagents.

Third one, the Arcade itself, this is looking down the Arcade, from Pinstone Street towards Union Street. Hodgson's camera shop situated to the left of this picture.

Source : Remember Sheffield in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies - David Richardson

Credits - Picture 1 D. J Richardson

Pictures 2 & 3 C. J. Farrant

Worthy of a "Best of" presentation, we never had much in the way of Arcades.

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Hi,

This is my first post but I have just spent a very interesting hour looking at the site and thought I would add a note. In the late 1800s my great great grandmother Catherine Gilligan is shown in one of the trades directories as being a wardrobe dealer in Cambridge Arcade. It is lovely to see the pictures here it gives me a small glimpse into my family's past.

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Hi,

This is my first post but I have just spent a very interesting hour looking at the site and thought I would add a note. In the late 1800s my great great grandmother Catherine Gilligan is shown in one of the trades directories as being a wardrobe dealer in Cambridge Arcade. It is lovely to see the pictures here it gives me a small glimpse into my family's past.

Welcome to Sheffield History nowland.

Glad you are finding our posts interesting and useful.

Please feel free to contribute to them.

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Hi,

This is my first post but I have just spent a very interesting hour looking at the site and thought I would add a note. In the late 1800s my great great grandmother Catherine Gilligan is shown in one of the trades directories as being a wardrobe dealer in Cambridge Arcade. It is lovely to see the pictures here it gives me a small glimpse into my family's past.

Hi Nowland and Welcome to the site. Thanks for posting, here's a little (hopefully) additional information :

James Gilligan Clothier (retail) Cambridge Arcade, Pinstone Street Kelly's 1893

Mrs. William Gilligan Wardrobe dealer Cambridge Arcade, Pinstone Street White's 1911, 1919 and 1925

James Gilligan Clothes dealer 40 Union Street & Cambridge Arcade, Pinstone Street; h. 67 Harcourt Road White's 1911

James Gilligan Clothes dealer Cambridge Arcade, Pinstone Street; h. 521 Crookes Moor Road White's 1919

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I think there was a cafe at the bottom of Cambridge Arcade. In the fifties its name was "EL MAMBO".

The ground floor was called Heaven and the basement (which had a loud juke box) was called Hell. They sold frothy coffee from a noisy machine!

It was "cool" to be seen there!

Unless the old memory is playing up again downstairs had three areas like stables and at the end of each area was a juke box. Three juke boxes in a basement must have been "Hell".

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Guest plain talker

Then there was the "bible thumpers" with their banners "The Wages Of Sin Is Death" who always used to hassle you and give you grief at the High Street end of Fargate.

Anyone remember them?

Here they are in action in 1981

Would the religious-banner-carrier be Ced Crocker, the chap who still carries banners with religious texts on them around the Fargate area?

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Guest transit

Would the religious-banner-carrier be Ced Crocker, the chap who still carries banners with religious texts on them around the Fargate area?

....but was'nt he the one proclaiming "THE END IS NIGH" ---- even back then !!!!!!!! he he

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As promised :rolleyes:

First one, May 1964 from Pinstone Street. Suggs Sports to the left, Barney Goodman's to the right, Cambridge Arcade written over the Archway, Sheffield United Tours sign visible inside the Arcade, and the blind man who sold packets of lavender and matches to the left of the entrance.

Second one, Union Street end, Arcade sign much more prominent, Copper Coin Cafe and Lamb's newagents.

Third one, the Arcade itself, this is looking down the Arcade, from Pinstone Street towards Union Street. Hodgson's camera shop situated to the left of this picture.

Source : Remember Sheffield in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies - David Richardson

Credits - Picture 1 D. J Richardson

Pictures 2 & 3 C. J. Farrant

"Sweeny's" the gents hairdressers moved into the Arcade from the balcony above the Castle Market in the early seventies. I had my hair cut in both locations for years spanning from a nice number one skinhead through to a very trendy shoulder length mullet lol

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Exactly the reason for me posting it, because I don't remember the SUT ofice down there either, but the picture is good, the evidence is there; and someone might remember it being there, someone older/wiser and possessed of a bigger nose than me .... I've got you all licked on girth, mind you .... ! lol

I remember as a kid boarding SUT "charras" parked on Union Street just above Cambridge Arcade. This would be in the early 1950's for our annual holiday in a caravan at Wallaces Holiday Camp, Cayton Bay. On the nose front I'm afraid I'm an also-ran but I'm rapidly catching up on the girth front. Alas I've got you licked on the age front but am certainly no wiser !

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Can anyone remember te arcade between the Moor and Union street in th 1950@s?

Barney Goodman tailors and Sugg sports were on ther as well as a barbers shop.

The arcade was demolished in the late 1960's to accommodate the new development.

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Can anyone remember te arcade between the Moor and Union street in th 1950@s?

Barney Goodman tailors and Sugg sports were on ther as well as a barbers shop.

The arcade was demolished in the late 1960's to accommodate the new development.

Welcome to Sheffieldhistory delves,

You will find some good photographs of Cambridge Arcade in this Topic

Steve

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Welcome to Sheffieldhistory delves,

You will find some good photographs of Cambridge Arcade in this Topic

Steve

i can remember, there was a small cafe at the bottom i think it was called the copper kettle, they did a mean fish and chips.

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....but was'nt he the one proclaiming "THE END IS NIGH" ---- even back then !!!!!!!! he he

Merged with previous topic.

Question

When did the arcade close?

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Didn't the blind man used to stand there selling his boxes of matches?

The Blind Man is on one of the pictures I posted, outside Suggs U/L.

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