Ron's Music Shop And Redbridge Photographic

A Memory of Ilford.

The former Ron Pakeham (spelling?) owned one of the stores in Pioneer Market and sub-let half (and eventually all) that store to Redbridge Photographic, where I worked some evenings and Saturdays whilst at school and later college. The manager was Val Goldstein, who knew everyone in the trade! Chick ran the musical instruments side for Ron, and was a real character who enjoyed liquid refreshment... High points were a certain old gentleman called Frank Fl**ker who used to come in and buy the 'risque' 8mm shorts from David Hamilton, which were so tame by today's standards even the vicar would not blush, and a weird guy who dressed up in half of a truly ancient cinema commissionaire's uniform and claimed he had been in the Mounties which is why he had defaulted on his camera loan.

Ron sadly died but Redbridge soldiered on until the new traffic layout was instituted (late 1970s?) and much of the area redeveloped. I returned a couple of years ago (I now live on the Pacific West Coast of the USA) and recognised - nothing! I even got lost walking around. Oh dear, oh dear....