Universal Stationers

A Memory of Harrow.

The person who climbed the ladder may well have been me or perhaps my father who owned the shop.
I used to help at Christmas to earn some pocket money and loved the book department, where I would fit plastic sleeves to the books.
The whole place had a wonderful atmosphere and seemed vast to me (it was later enlarged) and I liked talking to the staff, many of whom had been there for years and who all had such diverse personalities and stories to tell.
People were polite to each other in those days. It was rather nice to say "Can I help you Sir or Madam?". Nowadays it's more likely to be "Are you all right there?".