Unity House up Hanley.
We called it K9 as kids, because from Burslem it looked just like Dr Who's dog K9.
It was condemned not that long after it was built as it was structurally unsafe, I remember the entrance had a temporary walkway covered in tarpaulin to protect pedestrians from falling masonry, and loads of the windows were boarded up because they had shattered under the strains that should have been dissipated ( blimey.... ) by the structural columns that were not up to the job. They ended up putting huge steel bands as a sort of corset to strengthen it, but ultimately it was vacated and demolished

Tungs camera shop by the theatre royal - everything wrapped in cling film

Norman an Birch motor bike place (is it still there?)

Fyffes fruit warehouse up by Barclays on Town Rd

The original Comet opposite the Place

Gemini men's ware in Pall Mall - run by a bloke me dad knew

duate Record Shop - in the small arcade near piccadilly - also blood lloyd record shop was near there too - i was in there when i found out john lennon had been shot - memories

Does anyone remember the clothes shop Oriole?
It was amongst a small row of shops at the top end of Hanley by the roundabout towards Town road.
Sold Chevignon clothing which back in the day was superb.

There was a shop set back on the left just as you go down hope street which sold designer clothing and then owned a shop down Piccadilly which amongst other clothing sold Simpson jeans. I do believe he had a shop where weatherspoons is now as there was a precinct there.

Think these all closed in the late 90s...

Rumbelows
Tandy
Dixons
Electronics Boutique
Littlewoods
Another World
Discs & Discs
Stolen from Ivor

There was also a couple of second hand videogame shops, one across from the old Tesco and one across from the Potteries centre up from Britannia

There were two indoor markets .One where, as you say, where Weatherspoons is. This was fish/meat & fruit/veg. The other one was a two storey market where Potteries Centre is now. This sold usual market merchhadise and I think the basement of the Potteries Centre was the original basement of the old market.

More useless information is that Percy St used to be the main bus terminal in Hanley before the bus station was built

Can't see Huntbach's on here. It looked anachronistic in 1969 - a warren of corridors and split levels and staircases - surely it's not still there?

I knew a Saturday girl in Webberley's. She told me a woman had come in one day and asked for 3 feet 6 of books (to fill a new book-shelf). Sounds dubious, but the story was a good one at the time.

And in the Lewis's car park I am certain (in the late 60s) there were still one or two crush barriers from the terracing when Vale played there before they moved up to Burslem. Is that possible?

Hayden's - "Hayden's Have It". That was their extremely snappy strapline, I think.

SMC was in that strange little arcade.

There used to be an excellent record shop where I used to spend many a happy hour. Run by an old hippy. Can't remember the name, but about 50 yds from where Dale's sports would have been

Never ever remembered that some of these shops existed but after reading about them i do remember them now.

Anyone remember the old market 'did it used to be where weatherspoons is now or close by there?'....

Remember always having a sandwich and a drink on a Saturday afternoon in one of those square rooms.....

Then there was brewbakers but it's better to go even further back in time than that....

Derricots chip shop close to where the side entrance to the potteries shopping centre is now used to jam packed on a Saturdays....Lovely chippy that was, that's if there was room to sit in there.

What a great thread.

What about Bratt and Dykes, about 4 floors of stuff, mostly boring until you get to the top floor, loads of Star Wars stuff all over the place.

Partners and Webberleys, classic school pencil case shopping

Stolen From Ivor - Joe Bloggs Jeans a-go-go

Fantasy World - Smiths t-shirts and posters, decent vinyl upstairs & downstairs - frib oil and fucking weirdos :o

Dirty Graham's Cafe on the Bus Station - errr...dirty

Top Q - cheap Leather / Pleatherwear - 'Asda price!!'

Mike Lloyd - good/obscure vinyl - bloody Valeite

Sneaky culture was a brilliant shop.

Used to go into the old stanleys every week after a night out just to get free cheese and ham toasties.

Slightly off topic, can anyone remember the old Normid in Talke? Always rember going there every weekend, getting an iced cream with that pink sherbert stuff on, and spend hours playing on their nintendo until my parents finished shopping. Better than that Freeport that's there now!!

Remember Chawners clothes shop, two-tone tonic suits, crombies, Ben Sherman shirts. Levis, loafer shoes (with tassles of course) all for the discerning skinhead about town.

Also Sherwins music shop on corner of Old Town St and the square. Used to work as butchers boy in Dewhusts just up from Sherwins in 60s. All gone now in the name of the Potteries Centre

Geno's Cafe, spent many a hungover saturday afternoon in the summer months in there in the late 70's early 80's

That Stanley Casino used to be The Heavy Steam machine did it not? I liked it muchly in their too, used to take the missus in there quite often when we'd been on the piss in Hanley.

Anyone remember Bizar? Used to sell all sorts of weird stuff, was near where the lower entrance to TKMaxx is now, always went in there when I was in Hanley

The old Stanley Casino next to the old ABC cinema.

use to love that casino, down the stairs and underground....just how casino's should be. real private but nice atmosphere. not like the new soulless Circus Casino where chavs and dicks go because they think its cool.

Sneaky Culture in the precinct off piccadilly.....quality vintage gear and old computer games etc

also just remembered when another world was on the top floor of that building opposite the shopping centre, on the square where theres a few market stalls and the white pub (never remember the name of that place!)

Including other buildings too.

Had to pick Hanley really as it's the only place iv'e known pretty well...

Tom Coopers 'think it was Tom' fishing tackle shop by where the backstage entrance to the theatre is now...

Remember my very first dole cheque. Brought a rod and reel which left me around 40 odd pence to last a fortnight....

Used to enjoy going in sherwins music shop too...

Any more memories anyone?

Some great memories being sparked here.

Been a while since I had a proper mooch round Hanley, but I've no idea what happened to some places I used to frequent as a yoof:

Chatfields/Chatwins(?) - music - Hope Street. Got my first bass from there + a really poor amp.

Route 66 - used to be Huntbach street I think - then moved to Hope Street, to a smaller place?

Kays'(?) - Music shop - half way down Hope Street and opposite - R&B Music.*

* I thought it was ace that Hanley had a kind of unofficial "Muso's Quarter".

Fantasy World - all kinds of stuff from there - T shirts, Music merchandise, books etc - became "Another World" and moved - still going?

Mike Lloyd's and Lotus Records - used to love going in Lotus and just talking music with the lads there (oh and buying records!).
What was the record shop on the opposite corner to MLM? - Think it used to be the old WH Smith's.

Dale Sports - in the days before Sports Direct and JJB. Are Bourne Sports still going in Stoke?

Tandy - I know that's gone - was great for all kinds of electronic/audio knick-knacks.

Tungs - used to pick up some photo gear there when I was starting

Few Goldenhill memories as a child playing football on the Rec

The scores were usually in the region 23 goals to 5 goals.

Cricket quite rightly was only played in the summer.

A piece of wood that roughly resembled a bat and a tennis ball were the only things needed or wanted.

The girls played tennis or rounders.

Rounders was usually the game of choice as the bat requirements were roughly the same as cricket, it just had to vaguely resemble the actual thing.

Skipping, I never saw the point of it and Hopscotch seemed to be very complicated for what it actually was.

My sister could do both games a lot better than anyone else and a lot faster too.

We played most of our games on the waste ground we called The Square which was behind our house, between Alice Street and the houses on High Street.

Football, Cricket, Rounders, Hide & Seek, Cannon, Shotties, Tin Can Nurkey, Tip It & Run, Cowboys & Indians and generally reliving World War Two.

Those poor old Indians and Germans never stood a chance, “I’m not dead, you only winged me” was the cry.

Wagon Road which led from Alice Street to the backs was reserved for skipping and races.

Hopscotch was played in the street, we usually found an old piece of pottery and used it as chalk to lay out the grid lines.

Mrs Knapper at number 12 was the arch enemy of all children, she used to let us play for a while and when we went in for our meals she would come out with a bucket of water and wash it away.

I cannot imagine what pleasure, if any, she got from that.

In Wagon Road was the back entrance to the bakery, this is where they stored the waste bins ready for collection by the man who had a pig farm.

On more than one occasion I saw the boys from a very a very poor local family eating the waste food from the bins.

That was poverty, not what they call poverty now, where they haven’t got enough money for cigarettes and p

Looking for 1978-1985 editions