117 High Street
Current
117
High Street
Lowestoft
NR32 1HN
United Kingdom
Darren Breeze - I am a Registered Professional Turner, tutor, demonstrator, maker, creator, recycler with a passion for what i do. I endeavour to create heirloom standard work at an affordable price, allowing all to share the love, passion and dedication I put into each piece.
As a maker and artist I sell the items I make and create via my High Street shop, website and at selected shows and events. I also sell a wide range of woodturners tools and equipment, timber and a variety of finishes and colouring products for wood. I also have a selection of work made by local artisan crafts people.
History
Formerly No. 109, prior to 1891
Before 1878 the building was a private house and the home of Miss Lindsay, but in 1878 the building was rebuilt and it's career as a shop was born. In the 1932 edition of Kelly's it was a Chemist shop run by John Harrison Bowness. It carried on until being taken over by James Eccles until 1967 when Mr J. D. Edington took over and ran it as The Rexall Pharmacy. Mr J. D. Edington can be seen standing in the doorway of the first picture. During the late 1970's the Panda Book Shop moved in from their first smaller shop at No88 and by 2016 they were the only and last independent bookshop in the town
Built in the mid 1800s, originally as a private residence, it was converted into a shop in 1878 and run as a chemist under various ownerships until the late 1970s.
4th February 1941, a Dornier Do172Z on a bombing run came under attack from two RAF hurricanes, the German crew tried to flee and jettisoned their payload of 18 50 kg HE bombs as they went, one of which landed on the rear of No 116 rendering the property derelict and later demolished. The blast caused some damage to No 117 and the now exposed gable end shows the scars while internal walls et cetera once were.
The plane crashed into the sea half a mile off Corton, where one survivor of the four-man crew was held as a prisoner of war. In the late 1970s the building was sold and converted into a bookshop which ran until December 2016
Darren bought the property in March 2017 although the property has been neglected over the years this has also meant that some of the original features are still intact zz See before after image idea
Architecture
Number 117, which is Bowness the chemist. And this is a fascinating photograph because it's got a central display window that you could walk around before you got to the front door and that's Mr Bowness standing in front of it. Dean, for personal reasons I think you know a little bit more about it? DEAN — Yeah, I do actually because what came after the chemist was Panda Books where I worked for for many years and it was one of those buildings that had been a chemist shop for like generations and it remained in that use for about 50 years. So Panda Books moved there in 1977 from number 88 High Street where David and Christine Johnson had opened the shop in 1973. And I started there in 1988 and worked there for over 15 years. The frontage of the shop had been changed by Edington's the chemist in the mid 1970s because it created a much bigger shop.
So that lovely central column where you can see Mr Bowness standing to the left had gone before Panda Books had arrived which is a it's a real shame because it would have been ideal to display books. So by 1977 the shop had changed to the frontage that it's had for many years. And Panda Books were there from 1977 to 2017. The shop front itself with the side columns here and here, this is a totally different and earlier shop front to what's there today, but these with the I'm not quite certain what this word would be described as, this sort of scroll work on each of the pilasters here and there, still remains. And this is the property today and you can see quite clearly that despite this being totally different, that presumably is now the door to the flat above. And so that's been added and the chemist shop with this display cabinet window in the middle, blocking the way to the front door is gone and... but you can still see here the original shop front hasn't been touched. The modern day shopkeeper, Mr Darren Breeze, a professional woodturner, busy working and selling from his premises at No.117. CREDIT: Ivan Bunn from transcript - Poetry People - High Street Histories
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