Macilroys

A Memory of Reading.

So far as I know never was called Oxford Street its always been called Oxford road. My grandfather also Frank, met my grandmother, Dora, when they both worked for Macilroys before the Great War. I believe Macilroys was the large department store situated under the white awnings in the photograph. My grandmother lived in, which was not unusual in those days, I am not sure if grandad lived in as well but shortly after they married, grandad and his brother Lionel joined the Berkshire Regiment and went off to France to fight the Bosch!! Today there is still physical evidence of Macilroys but you will get a crick in your neck seeing it. If you walk back from the entrance to the Butts Centre, towards the crossroads of St Marys Butts/Broad St /Cheapside/and Oxford Road and look upright up you will see the name Macilroys painted on the end of the building. They must of used very good paint back then as I believe it is painted directly onto the brickwork. Back in the 60s I worked for Mac fisheries on this same bit of Oxford Road, we used to go for a drink at Butlers wine bar and occasionally partake of the remarkably named Alchys Favourite Mountain wine!! On the day of President Kennedy's shooting we celebrated a staff members birthday at Butlers and as a joke locked him in the walk-in freezer
and nearly forgot about him. By the time we got him out he was shaking like an earthquake, a memorable birthday indeed - if my memory serves me well his name was Kennedy as well!
Archivist has been looking into this - it looks as though the name changed in the 1960's from Oxford Street to Oxford Road. Regards, Editor.