Bicycle Shop In Denmark Street

A Memory of Wokingham.

When I lived in Wokingham in the 1950s, I remember a double fronted cycle shop on Denmark Street (next door to the entrance to some sort of meeting hall?) - you can just see part of the hanging sign for the shop in picture number W123016. To me then the shop seemed quite large and was certainly stuffed full of bikes and accessories that I coveted. I can still remember the wood flooring and smell of bike oil.
The owner was a nice guy, who was friendly and helpful, but seemed pretty old to me then, although he was probably much younger than I am now! Anyway, I was in there one day talking to him and was shocked when he said that people were driving everywhere and weren't buying bikes anymore. He predicted that it would only be 10 years or so before people didn't have bikes and the bike industry would be dead. He was clearly worried that he would have to close before he wanted to retire and was sad at the passing of what he regarded as the era of the bike. I sometimes think of him now, in 2020, and wish he were still around to see the amazing resurgence in bike ownership.