THE UNTOLD STORY OF TOOTING MARKET
PART 3: Tooting Market 1950s onwards
The dawn of a new decade
Life was still difficult for many post-war, but it did gradually improve during the 1950s. The traders in Tooting Market would no doubt have breathed a sigh of relief when all rationing came to an end in 1954 giving way to wider choice and availability.
You could imagine fierce trading as stallholders competed for the housewife’s custom particularly with the advent of self-service cut-price grocers such as Anthony Jackson, whose Food Fare opened in Tooting Market in 1953. He would have sold all the staples: it was the age of spam fritters, salmon paste sandwiches, tinned fruit with evaporated milk, fish on Fridays and a tinned ham salad for tea on Sunday.
However, just as traders thought life in the market was getting back to normal there were changes ahead.
Future of the market in the balance?
Now very much in his later years James Evans Powell, owner of Tooting Market, was still residing at Court Lodge Farm with his housekeeper Daisy Boddington, but his health was deteriorating despite her care and attention.
On 15th July 1957 James Evans Powell died at his farm in Bletchingley aged 77. Reporting on Mr Powell’s death newspapers mention his early career with Hall, Lewis and Co’s Wagon Finance Company, his involvement with the building of Tooting Market and his brief time as a Wandsworth Councillor. It was noted that during his twelve years at Court Lodge Farm he had become a well-liked and respected member of the local farming community.
On 19th July the funeral and interment were held at St Mary’s Church, just opposite Court Lodge Farm. It seems Mrs Daisy Boddington aged 67, and her younger son George W.F. Boddington, were the chief mourners. Old stalwarts of the market also came to pay their respects, namely Louis Pater the ladies’ outfitter, Fred Romaine the fishmonger and Mr Emanuel the fruiterer. Having traded in the market over many years they must have felt they had lost an old friend.
As news about James Powell’s death spread through the Tooting Market community it might well have caused alarm amongst the stallholders. Who would take over the ownership ? He was a single man with no children.
In with the new
All became clear once probate was granted in early September 1957 and the details of James Powell’s will were released. Mrs Daisy Lilian Boddington was to inherit.
Unsurprisingly news of the substantial £80,000 bequest to his housekeeper made the papers: Mr Powell….. left his effects to Mrs Daisy L Boddington…and the residue on trust to her for life and then to George W F Boddington. (George is incorrectly shown as Charles).
The bequest was to acknowledge his sincere appreciation of the great kindness and help shown to him by Mrs Boddington who had looked after him for over 20 years and attended him night and day during his recent illness.
George Walter Frederick Boddington born 1927 was the younger of Daisy’s two sons. It’s of note that her elder son Edward William Studholme Boddington did not feature in the will and that James’ sister only received an annuity of £250. Coincidently Daisy’s husband Frederick Boddington, a fireman, had died aged 66 in 1957 just a month or two before James Powell, having been living apart from his wife for a good ten years.
Daisy Boddington was now the new owner of Tooting Market. James Powell would have needed a manager to oversee the market whilst he was living at Court Lodge Farm and it’s possible the young George Boddington might have assisted in its running.
George and his wife Eileen had moved into 35 Montana Road, Tooting, by 1948 once James and Daisy had moved permanently to Bletchingley, so were living within easy reach of the market.
Market to cater for late night shoppers
Daisy and George had a good eye for business as just three years after taking over Tooting Market they agreed to extend the market’s opening hours to cater for late-night shoppers. Mindful that this would give housewives, especially those who went out to work, more free time at the weekend the shops would remain open until 7.30pm on Fridays as from 3rd June 1960. The scheme was welcomed by the stallholders who promoted special offers as an incentive to their customers.
Moving with the times
Whilst commenting on the new initiative George Boddington praised the market for the very wide selection of goods on sale as he looked down the arcade at the open-fronted shops selling food, clothing, fabrics, jewellery, household articles and records.
In 1960 George made a detailed planning application for a new stall within the market called Beauty Box, no doubt tapping into the blossoming cosmetics’ market which accompanied the London fashion explosion of the ‘Swinging Sixties’. Daisy, now into her 70s, must have welcomed her son taking on more responsibility.
Old faces and new…
In the 1960 Post Office Directory there are still some familiar names in the market such as Emanuel, Pater, Romaine and Brafman. The range of goods on sale had not changed a great deal over the previous two decades with traders still catering for the shoppers’ everyday needs.
But there were newcomers such as Express Key Cutting who offered a ‘while you wait service’.
Richard, a recent contact, recalls how as a lad he helped out for an hour after school, clearing up 4 days a week at 5 shillings each time.
“The stallholders were two local brothers, Bill and Eric who also sold hardware items and had a mailing system so after my hour I would weigh, stamp and post numerous packages, keys or locks etc, at Tooting Post Office on my way home. The highlight in Tooting Market was listening to the latest pop music records blaring out of the record stall 20 yards away.”
Another new face was Max Fox, a tailor by trade, who appears in the 1960 trade directory as a dyer and cleaner. Along with his wife Fay he also repaired and pressed clothes.
Andrew Fox fondly recalls his grandfather’s tiny shop In Tooting Market and neighbouring traders from the ‘60s :
“There would have been chalk to mark up garments and there were pins everywhere. The stall was white painted brick that had turned beige with cigarette and pipe smoke. The smell was fantastic, old tobacco, leather, cotton, dust, the smell of damp wool being ironed. The noise was the sound of the treadle, the hiss of the iron.
I used to love the market. The smells of the different stalls and the sounds. The smell from the fishmonger’s stall, the wonderful array of the toy shop. The café painted cream and red where I had my first taste of a pork sausage!”
A Tooting Character
Tales abound at that time of the ‘Eel Lady’ probably Doris Edith Harrington, née Adams, who sold eels sitting on a stool in Tooting Market next to the dog food stall.
She was a member of the Harrington family whose Eel and Pie House at 3 Selkirk Road is still doing a roaring trade today, having first opened its doors in 1908.
Ron, a fellow researcher, gives his vivid recollection of the Eel lady.
“She always had quite an audience as she chopped off the heads, and the remaining bodies slithered around for a while. Apparently she changed her method and expressions depending on the audience, pulling faces to alarm onlookers as the knife was administered, but then smiled and said, ‘they don’t feel a thing’.
I remember her crossing over Tooting High Street from Harrington’s in Selkirk Road with a trolley laden with containers of eels and other seafood. She took her life in her hands by stepping out in front of vehicles without much warning and waving (sometimes with only two fingers!!) before proceeding into the market and offloading her eels into the large containers at her stall.
She had very few teeth but managed to wedge her lipstick-covered fag end between two of them, puffing away intermittently. She wore her hair up in a bun with traces of yellowish nicotine forming ‘highlights’ that were deposited when she tidied her grey hair with her fingers. She is definitely one of my favourite Tooting characters.”
By 1960 Anthony Jackson’s Food Fare had a competitor with the arrival of Victor Value a rapidly expanding self-service supermarket chain also offering discounted prices.
Jackson’s rose to the challenge with eye-catching half page advertisements claiming to be the name that made supermarkets famous.
But surely that was Tesco’s Jack Cohen!
A time of change
In 1962 Court Lodge Farm was sold, and its herd of Guernsey cattle and machinery were put up for auction. This included tractors, ploughs, potato planters and cultivators so it had been very much a working farm.
At some point after this Daisy Boddington moved to a smaller semi-detached property at Tilgate Common in Bletchingley, and it was there that she died on 7th September 1977 aged 86. Like her benefactor she is buried in St Mary’s Church, Bletchingley.
Upon Daisy’s death her son George W F Boddington and his wife Eileen were appointed as her Executors and Trustees.
According to the terms of her Will, Daisy bequeathed all her personal possessions to her daughter-in-law Eileen, but her real and personal estate would pass to her grandson, Peter Boddington, once he attained the age of 25.
A mere year would pass after Daisy’s death in September 1977 before Peter Boddington became the rightful owner of Tooting Market in August 1978. Read Part 4 to learn more…
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