THE OLD STRAND

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 58, 9 March 1928, Page 3

THE OLD STRAND

HISTORIC SHOPS ' j ' ' ■ . .' ' • '. • :':"" ' v ' i '.'. ■ ' SALE ". OP: HANDCUFFS . . :. Now that au arcade of shops is-fc bo built at .Charing Gross, oiie. begl,Hi to look with new curiosity on the shpp.l of the Strand (writfis "J.\B." in tho "Manchester Guardian")., ..The .Strand has been a famous shopping street for ■ at least centuries, and it is only in the present century, and especially since: the war, that it has become overgrown with cheap and gaudy ; tailors, bargain, boot shops, and' mock- auctions, with a few stately old growths of /pedigree shops still surviving here, and there 'in .the jungle. Npar Somerset-House there is still a famous tailor and, shirt-maker that has made tropical suits for AngloIndians since the days of. the . John . Company, and somehow suggests, too, that heirs to estates under probate in Somerset1 House treat themselves there , to new suits and smart ties on such occasions..'Another shop at this part is a saddler's, at whose door in sunny weather you can still see saddles finished and ready to be packed in cases for distant polo players. -This week the gun-maker: next to the Middle Temple entrance announces that, like his1- old neighbour the famous fishing : rod and tackle shop, he is about to go. west. Sotheran, the bookseller, still has his rare .old shop near Wellington Street, although; Sotheby's, the great auctioneers, have long since gone off-to Piccadilly with the black god that stood over their doorway in .Wellington ■ Place.' A few shops of a good class harbour in the shadow of the Savoy and the Cecil, and at other parts a business with/ii look of breeding can be discern- '. Ed among "noisy neighbours; but. the residential middle class have: long ago left the neighbourhood, and the Strand of to-day suggests: the chance comer.' It will be interesting to see.if. the new shopping: arcade ,will, revive the old shopping glories of the '■■'. Strand. .'.■ At the corner of Craven street there still stands a ripe , and -peculiar shop, not only different: from other'shops in the Strand, but from other shops in London. Whistler's; is -the only shop in. the Strand now with lace curtains in its upper windows, proclaiming that this merchant still lives, over-his Bhpp, and it is the only shop-in; London that displays handcuffs for • s"ale': in two of its windows. "5. had known the 'Strand window'-with its handcuffs.,for many years, and never tried t6; find out till the other day what the -trade in handcuffs was and who bought them., I hardly wanted to know the facts. : I liked to think that absent-minded detectives from Scotland.Yard running to, catch the Continental train at Charing Cross'to bring'back extradited criminals, .finding they, had forgotten that part of their outfit, nipped into Whistler's shop and'got' a,: new pair. I liked to think of stout farmers up for the cattle show buying a pair of handcuffs so as to be ready for the Strand confidence trick men when; they • had got well on the. way with their rosary story. But, really, who do buy handcuffs ■•' - : '". , .'-.;.., '.-:'". ■ .■-.-■' ...: ■'■ ; HISTOKY OF 'Well, r went-into':' -this1 mysterious shop and heard interesting things' about the handcuffs and much else. The original Whistler was a diamond merchant who .founded the shop here in 1825, and was so.good a silversmith, that he madei.thoNorthumberland Bace Cup, which caiiio back to the shop a few years-ago -for ■valuation. .His watchman's rattle is still'1 kept under the desk of the present 1 proprietor, who points out its superipritjr to ,sP whistle. A whistle, he says, is impossible to blow if you are in a very excited state. If you are in a state of -fear it simply, can't be done. (This is an important point for householders.) The seat in which I sat was'a hall chair with "a crest inlaid on the back. It had been the chair of Sir'Eoij'ert Peel, the Corn Law reformer,iand;'tn£Jey~were other chairs in use there of even'mbre curious provenance;- The house did considerable business in-rifles- and shot-guns, and had sold; weapons to big game hunters and small game. hunters for' about a century. It had done business in all sorts of. 'things—from it came the First ..Folio Shakespeare that was sold at Sotheby's for £4500 in the early years of this and there is a- good: Bomney upstairs; for this shop follows also the trade of the Medici. . ." ; ■...'■'•''•'•, .''.■'. Tho handcuffs are festooned, broken by police whistles as the .dart'breads the tongue in the Greek ornament, along : the . Strand and the Craven street windows. Who buy them .and, having bought them, what do they do with the handcuffs? Well, it seems casual customers buy ascertain num.-: ber. Any man walking .along the Strand might have a pair in his poc-: ket. But the main business is done by post.' Letters come from all parts of the world to Whistler's asking for: tho merchandise to be forwarded at once. Handcuffs have been sent as far as the Fiji Islands and Buenos-Aires, but the main customers are on the Continent. : Handcuffs raiely go to police authorities, for they have, of course, their official handcuff makers. ... I could: get no information who. the orders came from. Private lunatic asylums, shipowners (every- passenger liner carries handcuffs and coffins), theatrical Companies, private detectives ; are ■ .pro- ■ bably. the chief . customers. .1. was shown one order received recentlyfroni Paris for six pairs of handcuffs—one pair ladies' size nickel-plated—and.eacfr' pair were carefully described as to pattern and lock. There are many varipties of handcuffs, 'different shapes and keys and sizes and-material. The; priecs run from a cheap pair at 65,6 d to 25s for a smart nickel pair suitable for/a kleptomaniac. This shop sells about a -hundred pairs of handcuffs a year. Whether absent-minded detectives who havo forgotten these tPols', and are on their way to the Continent to bring back extradited prisoners,;ever nip in .to Whistler's on their way: to Charing Cross ■no one could tell .me. The shop with the handcuffs,- although I know now all they have to tell /inside, still remains to add to the mystery of tho Strand. . ■ ' , V ■' '