First Supermaket In North Cheam

A Memory of North Cheam.

I lived in North Cheam from when I was born (1951) until 1972. When I was young I remember shopping in Sainsburys with my mum. There was a beautiful tiled floor and the counters ran along both sides. There was a separate queue for each type of produce and the ladies all wore hair nets. I think there was a cash office where you paid for all your shopping. This shop was in the London Road, SW of the crossroads. I think it must have been where there is now a door and window showroom (number 485). Some time in the 1960s the large Queen Victoria pub was knocked down and the site redeveloped to include several shops and a Tesco supermarket. What a novelty that was! You collected your shopping in a basket and paid for it all at the end. In the late 60s or very early 70s a new supermarket, Caters, was opened in Morden. What an amazing place that was although I still remember live eels being sold (I doubt if they were alive for long). We used to get the 93 bus from North Cheam to Morden, meet my dad at Morden underground station, shop in Caters and then sometimes go into the Wimpy Bar just round the corner before going home. How things have changed. I wish I'd taken more photos at the time as I always had a small camera from when I was about 9 or 10. We never realised how life would change.