‘It is universally acknowledged that…’ I’m not about to regale you with the well-known opening lines of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice! Instead: ‘…the power of a people is regulated by its mental capacity and, therefore, the bookshops of a town are the truest index to the general character and tastes of the inhabitants.’ The writer of Watford in 1891 had a subtle sense of humour.
The town boasted at least seven independent bookshops in Victorian times. One was bookseller, stationer, engraver, bookbinder and newsagent George W. Lea of 2 St Albans Road. His shop was classed as ‘handsome’ with large show windows and its location judged as being in one of the ‘best parts of Watford’. St Albans Road was then considered ‘a very fashionable quarter and part of one of the most beautiful districts around Watford.’
A stone’s throw away from Mr Lea’s shop were Little Nascot, formerly owned by auctioneer and land agent Charles Humbert, flattened for the less-than-beauteous underpass, and The Elms (formerly Town End House), an early 18th century property demolished to make way for the Town Hall. The nearby grounds of Cassiobury House, occupied by the Earl of Essex, with its impressive gatehouse, were open for public promenades. It was a pleasant area.
George Lea stocked a wide range of books, assisted by his daughter Annie. His elder son Charles was a printer’s compositor; his younger son Alfred, an apprentice. The shelves were filled with ‘valuable’ books by ‘authors of note’; ‘secular, religious, serial, periodical and in volume’, as well as newspapers and magazines. His stationery department sold the latest notepaper stamped from the die, envelopes, correspondence cards, black-edged mourning stationery, pocket books, ink stands, writing cases, date racks; everything for the library or office. He had a reputation of being an excellent bookbinder, with ‘practical knowledge of the public’s tastes.’ In addition, he sold leading firms’ artists’ materials, pencils and brushes, sketching paper, easels, palettes and ‘every requisite for the professor or student’.
Children weren’t forgotten. In a single-storey attached shop, George Lea sold a wide range of toys, mechanical and otherwise, and fancy goods, including the best British and Continental leather goods, satchels, ladies’ handbags, purses, note and card cases, brass goods and photo stands. Depending on the time of year, he stocked sports goods such as cricket, tennis and archery equipment.
In addition to running a busy shop well into his 50s, George Lea was a skilful pyrotechnist, arranging and carrying out displays of fireworks for local birthday, wedding and other celebrations.
I well remember Stratton’s, another bookseller, stationer, office supplier and printer at 42 High Street. In the 1960s, the shop was flanked by Tripp’s ladies dress shop on one side and Grange Furnishing on the other, the latter now The Moon Under Water. In my young days, Stratton’s was synonymous with value, but it was first established at 86 St Albans Road back in 1884. George H. Stratton succeeded to the business in 1904. A former employee of Boots from St Ives, Huntingdonshire, he had experience of purchasing stationery, fancy goods and arranging stocks. The shop in St Albans Road was ‘one of the handsomest double-fronted shops in Watford’, just five doors from Station Road.
Around 1909, the continuous shop front was substituted for the frontages of two adjoining shops; their interior merged into one. ‘One feature within is a large many-winged screen laden with varieties of fancy goods, picture postcards and articles in leather, while another is the lending library; and another, several cheap editions of books, so popular nowadays.’ Popular fiction I expect! Military textbooks, books on religious topics and maps were also stocked, as were artists’ materials.
As additional services, George Stratton printed photographs for professional and amateur photographers and used his considerable experience to locate and purchase engravings, old prints and books on behalf of collectors, customers and friends, not seeking reimbursement for his time. At the start of World War One, he joined the Watford Branch of the National Volunteer Training Corps.
St Albans-born Herbert Dorant was another bookseller, bookbinder and printer. Born in St Albans in 1886, he was a printer’s apprentice at 15, moving from Hemel Hempstead to Watford in 1905. In 1913 he took over the shop at 177 St Albans Road, quickly gaining a wide reputation. He also had a workshop at 2a Shakespeare Street, the street where he stayed. His Huguenot forebears had lived in Hertfordshire for several generations. His grandfather, James Dorant was Deputy Clerk of the Peace until his death at 79 and his maternal grandfather, Thomas King, was a Freeman of the City of London and the Goldsmiths Company. Herbert Dorant was a poet at heart. He wrote, printed and published a volume of poems ‘breathing a spirit of appreciation of life’.
I wonder what the writer of Watford in 1891 would deduce as to the ‘general character’ of the inhabitants in the town now. Correct me if I’m wrong but, apart from three national chains selling books, there are few, if any, independent bookshops left.
Lesley Dunlop is the daughter of the late Ted Parrish, a well-known local historian and documentary filmmaker. He wrote 96 nostalgic articles for the ‘Evening Post-Echo’ in 1982-83 which have since been published in ‘Echoes of Old Watford, Bushey & Oxhey’, available at www.pastdayspublishing.com and Bushey Museum. Lesley is currently working on ‘Two Lives, Two World Wars’, a companion volume that explores her father’s and grandfather’s lives and war experiences, in which Watford, Bushey and Oxhey’s history will take to the stage once again.
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