In this article I have taken the photos of shops on Maryhill Road available from the Virtual Mitchell website and matched them to their modern location. Where possible I have told a little more about the owner, the company or what it stocked.
Number 1869 Henry Healy, provision merchant (grocer)
Number 1869 is on the right as you travel south on Maryhill Road, after the station and is currently part of the Day Today convenience store:
In 1934 it looked like this (photo credit Virtual Mitchell website):
Henry Healy was a grocer’s shop, in between what seems to be a fruiterer on the left and William Walker, a newsagent and tobacconist, on the right (William lived in one of the flats accessed through the passage where the wee boy is standing).
Henry Healy started a chain of grocers around Glasgow. Apart from Maryhill Road I have seen reference to branches in Partick, Dundas Street, under the bridge at Argyle Street, Duke Street, Gorbals Aracde, Possil, Victoria Road, Mount Florida, Paisley Road, Parliamentary Road, Shettleston Road.
Here’s another branch (posted by Glasgow City Archives):
Did you notice the stained glass at the top of the window display? The ladder and the chain hanging down on the left was for a blind that came out over the pavement to protect the goods on display in the shop window from the sun. You can also see the sawdust on the floor coming out of the doorway!
You’d have to be at least 60 years old to remember a grocer’s shop like this, I think, so to give everyone an idea I’ve picked some memories people had of a Henry Healy shop (link, with thanks to the contributors):
Getting broken biscuits with grandpa (Michael O’Neill)
Always a queue outside on a Saturday afternoon (Mary Dunnett)
Great shop for cold meat and pigs’ feet (Margaret Fairgrieve) and black pudding (Isabella McTaggart)
Purchases being boxed and tied up with string to carry home on the bus (David Watson)
The butter getting patted with two big wooden paddle sticks, then wrapped in paper (Evelyn Cameron)
Sawdust floor and paper bags (Alastair McCallum)
Their sweet-cured ham was wonderful (Teresa McCaffery)
Hot pies for a Friday treat (William Higginbotham)
The butter – when we could afford it, cold meat, the big slicing machine – someone always had a plaster on. Always a queue. (June Crichton)
Butter shaped with wooden paddles, loose tea in a big tea chest and everything in a paper bag. (Susan Rasdale)
The mis-shaped caramel wafers!!! (Willie Hendry)
Counter service where butter was cut in front of you then made into a block then also cheese cut. Paper bags. Cold meat sliced to order. Grease paper. (Alan Anderson)
Chop pork was brilliant (Jane Alexander)
Butter always had a thistle on it (Emmy Hughes)
Henry Healy was from Ireland and started selling eggs from a cart, building the business to have more than 30 shops across Glasgow, including Maryhill Road. As supermarkets threatened business, HH switch to offering filled rolls and other snacks, as seen here:
By 2009 with six shops left the company went into receivership.
The stores on Queen Street and Mitchell Street were bought and the name retained. Last year the Queen Street shop (right by Royal Exchange Square) won the award for Glasgow Best Café (link) – my blog isn’t an advert but shouldn’t we being supporting local businesses?
Numbers 1772 (G.D. McGregors, fishmonger), 1750 (City Bakeries) and 1749 (Maryhill Post Office)
These shops were at Maryhill Cross, in modern terms the junction with Cowal Road:
The property nearer to the camera on the left was number 1802 (The Redan pub, prior to that The Horseshoe), so 1772 and 1750 were in the trees beyond it on the left and number 1749 was on the right.
The camera position in the street view photo above is marked by the red star, the shops are marked in red circles.
Here is 1749, Maryhill Post Office in 1933:
The tall tenement with the dome on the corner of Cowal Street and Maryhill Road was number 1733 to 1735 and the Post Office was the next shop along to the north. In this photo it is the shop with yellow window frames to the right:
Here’s 1772 with its new shop front in March 1935:
On the left the edge of Ure and Young’s bakery shop is visible.
Here is the shop at 1750 in 1939
On the left, Jessie Saroli’s fruiterer and florist shop can be seen, and on the right Archibald Gillespie’s, butchers.
Obviously, the photo is not great quality so here’s one of the shop at Cathcart Road that might give a better idea of what’s in the window:
Many younger readers will not know the pleasures of a visit, so here are some memories posted online (with thanks to the contributors):
Used to get sent to the city bakeries shop for wee cups of mushy peas and a bag of broken biscuits.
The cafe in St Enochs was the holy grail if you had been ‘good in the toon!’ the highlight for me was the wee apple pie and tiny, tiny carton of cream (Tracy McMaster-Houghton)
Their trifles were my favourite (Corinne Angel)
I remember their Halloween Cakes with charms in it, wrapped in grease-proof paper. (Gordon McWilliams). bright orange icing and fake cream filled cheeks (Marie Therese Kelso)
You hardly see fern cakes in any cafes or shops now, but it was my fav as a wee girl, that and a pineapple cake (wee pastry case with fake cream and pineapple jam covered in yellow icing) (Cheryl Scott)
Best mutton pies ever and loved fern cakes and Paris buns (Fiona Ross)
The best cream cookies! (Nancy Fairley)
Used to love the City Bakeries empire biscuits and at New Year their black bun. (Nancy Hutchison)
Swiss Apple Tart – soft meringue on top in many colours – delicious ( never seen it anywhere else or since but a delicious weekend treat for tea) (David Gray)City Bakeries (“Bakers of Distinction”) had their bakery at Clarendon Street, just off Maryhill Road at the St Georges Cross end:
(photo credit: This is My Glasgow (link), a highly recommended page with regular high-quality photos)
The Urie family took over an existing bakery on this site (the Friendly Bread Association, a co-operative) in the early 1900s and started the City Bakeries business. John Urie was the founder and also owned the Ca d’Oro building on the corner of Gordon Street and Union Street.
The impressive premises in the photo above were built in the 1920s and extended in the 1930s by which time they had around 60 shops. They considered a profit-sharing scheme with workers in 1914 and funded a recreation ground and holidays, including extra holidays for perfect timekeeping, which (it is said) 60% of staff qualified (source).
Some bigger shops like the branches in Partick and Parkhead had a tea room or a restaurant above, and people have memories of celebrations held there including wedding receptions.
In later years they opened The Lite Bite brand and took over some local bakeries like Peacocks, but City Bakeries was itself ‘swallowed’ by Greggs.
Going back to the shops on Maryhill Road, this photo is looking north at the junction with Cowal Road (photo credit – could be Alan Young?), no traffic lights in those days!
In the next photo, McGregor’s would be behind the red lorry parked on the right (just the other side of the T for Tennants sign outside the pub next door, The Dawsholm at one point (photo credit to Chris Doak)):
Here’s approximately the same spot today:
