95 98 High Street

This shop is made up from four different shops which had been knocked through into one large unit, as far back as 1865 No95 was the offices of the Suffolk Mercury and John Thomas Hendly was their chief reporter. In 1876 No96 was Mr William and Henry Brand shop which they ran as a Tailors and Outfitters. In 1865-1876 No97-98 was Pratt and Thirle who operated the shop as a Linen Drapers and Silk Merchants but by 1900 No 98 had become separated from No97 and had become Edwin Starling's Hairdressers. It wasn't until 1932 when it was recorded in the Kelly's Directory that the buildings had all been knocked together to form The London Drapery Stores. During the 1960's Tailorite Ltd had moved in and were selling House Furnishings. As you can see in the 1st picture, the  just before it was turned into O'Reillys Irish Bar. In 1999 O'Reilly made history by getting into the Guiness Book of Records for that year for having the U.K's longest bar which measured at 128ft. 5 inches. O'Reillys had a number of shop front facade's running down one side of the building inside and when Grizzleys came about in 2006 I had to dress one shop front inside as a sweet shop and install ten 20p sweet machines in front of it. That was back in the day I ran a vending machine business. Before it became Grizzleys and then the Prospect it was part of the Greenfields empire and most recently Ashby's Kitchen and by 2016 Marmaris Turkish Grill.

CREDIT: Lowestoft High Street, The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker by Crispin Hook 2016 Get the book