This photograph shows my Dads shed business taken in Knowles Street. The Westminster Bank can be clearly seen the background. The building is still there, but no longer a bank. The exact date of the photograph is not known, however it must be before 1964, when we moved down South.
I do not know the two people in the photograph, they could be models used for advertising… Does anyone have any information or recognise either gentleman? Also the board leaning against the shed is advertising, F.M. Donachie, 42 Westbourne Road. I would interested in any information about this person too.
Photograph and details courtesy of Carol Smith.
Thank you for all your comments. I remember Dad telling me he used to sell a lot of timber garages then Stockton Council banned them in favour of concrete garages.
The bank was next to the Royal Oak, the Sun Hotel was near the dance studio.
Not sure if this helps, but there is no Westbourne Road in Stockton. Stockton has the Street while Hartlepool has the Road. Odd because the sign does say Westbourne Road.
The chaps have no turn ups on their trousers. Turn ups on older men stayed in use until much later than the early ’60s – my dad was still wearing his for work until his retirement in mid ’70s. The ‘men’s’ shoes look like light weight winkle pickers; something a working man would never wear and which I vaguely recall started to come in very early ’60s for casual / fashion use.
All together very puzzling: are you sure that the fact that the bank was next to the Sun Hotel had nothing to do with the set up?
There is also a Westbourne Road running off Acklam Road, in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.
In the mid-1960s the London Gazette carried winding up orders for Francis Mann Donachie, a builders agent, lately of 42 Westbourne Road, Middlesbrough.