B.B. Evans

A Memory of Kilburn.

As a young child in the late 30's and early 40's, a visit to B.B. Evans Department Store in Kilburn High Road was like a visit to Aladdin's Cave. Full of all kinds of clothes and household articles and a wonderful toy department, which had an ingenious "Santa's Grotto" every Christmas. With its stairs and lift and (literally) above all, its utterly fascinating pneumatic payment system. Whereby your money and your bill were put in a cylinder, which was then placed into a vacuum pipe, from whence it was whisked off to who knows where and then shortly afterwards, miraculously reappeared with your change!

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