My Mother was manageress of a Bread & Cake Shop on Tolworth Broadway in the 1950's 1960's. I have asked around with no luck. It's location was on the left as you travel from the Toby Jug Roundabout towards Surbiton. Near to where the Sunshine Cafe & Restaurant is now.
The shop was one of a Chain and she would often help out at a shop on Kingston Road junction of Ruxley Lane and also on Wimbledon Broadway.
Her name was Phyllis Hill and lived at 20 Cox Lane, Chessington from 1949 to her death in 2002.
More information about can be found here: http://www.mike-hill.com/FH_Website/fam2.html
So if you remember the name of the shop, I would be obliged if you could jog my memory?
Kind regards
Michael Hill
Comments
Hi
Further to the earlier reply in the 1960s and into at least the 1980s there were three bread and cake shops on Tolworth Broadway.
1. Coombs (nearest to the Tolworth underpass) which mainly sold bread which I think was not baked on the premises
2, Hollands (at the junction of Princess Avenue and the Ewell Road which is at the beginning of Tolworth Broadway which sold mainly cakes and bread baked on the premises
&
3. Clarks (I can't remember if there was a "e" on the end) which sold both cakes and bread that I don;t remember being were baked on the premises. I think the shop was at No 66 The Broadway two or three shops nearer the Tolworth underpass to where the Sunshine Cafe & Restaurant is now. The single shop front was slightly different to other shop fronts on the Broadway with the name of the shop in italics on smooth plain gray 1950s plastic background The entrance to the shop was a one piece glass door to the far left of the shop front with the rest of the shop front as a single glass window some 18 to 24 inches at an angle pointing inwards from the pavement on the right to the left where the entrance door was. When you went into the shop the main counter which ran the length of the shop was on the right hand side with a small standalone glass display on the left of the shop.
The above description is how I remember the shop in the 1960s to 1980s - I only moved to Tolworth from nearby Hook in 1967 (and I still live in Tolworth now) so unfortunately I can't help you with the 1950s. Today if I have got right shop front (so many of the shops fronts have been divided up or joined up) differently the shop is now the "Broadway Cafe".
Hope this helps or at least encourages somone else to correct, comment or add more information.
Regards
Hi, I am a student at Kingston University and am working on independent research about the Lyons bakery in Tolworth which was located on Cox Lane in the industrial region. If you could share anything that you or someone you know remembers about this bakery, I would really appreciate it.
After consultation with my brother, we know of two bakers that were in Tolworth Broadway (at least in the 70s). The one you are probably thinking of was Coombs but there was also Hollands on the corner by Princes Avenue. (I'm reliably informed that Hollands did baking on site, but we don't think Coombs did.) Hope that helps.