''fanny'' Hawkins Sweet Shop.

A Memory of Reading.

In reply to Keith Hawkins' appeal to anyone that knew of F.W. Hawkins shop on Hosier Street, Reading, I used this shop during the 1950s as a small boy while spending the weekends with my Nan & Grandad who lived at 61 Hosier Street.
My Mum & Nan referred to Miss Hamkins as Fanny, I have no idea if this was her real name. The shop was very dark inside with gas light brackets on the walls. On entering the shop as a small boy clutching a few coppers my Nan had given me to buy some sweets with the silence was unreal, the shop was always empty, after a few minutes of waiting to be served and looking at lots of glass cube-shaped display jars with round lids, all full of different sweets, trying to decide what to buy, Miss Hawkins would emerge through the part glazed door (which sported a heavy net curtain) at the rear of the shop, which must have been her living accomodation, the doors were painted in a dark brown varnish, as was the exterior of the shop. She would look at me through a gap in the sweet jars and display cabinets across the counter and ask me what I would like to buy. She always wore an old fashioned cross-over pinny and her grey hair was always in a hair net, she seemed very very elderly to me as a small boy.
Other shops etc. recalled from these days on Hosier Street are Madges Cafe, Moth's fish & chip shop, Style's fruit & veg shop, Cox's junk shop, Ramms radio repairs,Royal Exchange pub, (next door to my Nan's), Stern's grocers,Newsagents on the corner of Hosier Street & Grape passage, Reading Novelty Stores on the corner of Hosier Street & St. Mary's Butts, before it moved to the bottom of Castle Street / Hill? Rowlands bakery, I loved to watch their battery powered dark green electric vans pass by on Saturday mornings.
It was a friendly community then, Nan never locked her front door, the Policeman came past at dusk trying doors to see if they were locked, he would open Nan's door & shout "You all right Mum?" to which she would reply "Yes thanks".
My Grandad passed on around 1960 and a few years later Nan's health got worse so she came to live with us, ending my visits to Hosier Street, I did return just before it was demolished, it all looked so sad standing derelict waiting for the bulldozer.
Over 50 years later the memories live on, lardy cake for tea on Saturdays, penny worth of chips on Friday night, being sent next door to the 'bottle & jug' of the Royal Exchange with Nan's jug to get a pint of beer so Mum & Nan could have a drink indoors while I played, buying a Matchbox toy at the paper shop for 1/6p.Walking to Whitley pump to have a ride on a trolleybus back to the Butt's for a penny.
Madge Johnson of Madges Cafe fame used to take me from Nan's to her home on Saturday afternoons so I could watch her television, the only access I had to a TV back then, I loved to watch '6 - 5 Special', also she would often take me to sit in her cafe and give me a dinner to eat as a treat, did I feel a big boy!
I had a good view of the bacon factory from Nan's back bedroom window, Hosier Street holds so many happy childhood memories for me, even though the buildings and people are long gone.