QUAINT ENGLISH SHOPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 19, 23 January 1937, Page 25

QUAINT ENGLISH SHOPS

How peers and peeresses visited London's quaintest little shops in Savile Passage 50 years ago for boots and umbrellas was told to me, writes a "Daily Mail" reporter, by the men who have worked in the shops for a generation. These men are typical of the old London craftsman in whose work faults can rarely be found. They are sad because Mill Street and Savile Row are to be connected by a carriageway, which means that Savile Passage —the narrow but much-trodden home of their craft —must go, and they must Arid new premises. The Savile Row entrance to the passage is narrow and tunnel-like, there being only room for one person to pass between the little shops. ( One of these was the only home a hundred years ago of what is now a flourishing umbrella business with shops elsewhere in Lohdon. On the other side is a shoemender's shop. A few yards farther down the passage there is a real old-fashioned shoemaker. The craftsman, whose name is George Rogers, has made shoes for 60 years in Savile Row and for 25 years before that his father worked at the same craft. George Rogers sits in his tiny shoe shop five days a week and makes shoes for the Englishman in his West End flat or in his mosquito net in some outpost of Empire. "I send my shoes all over the world," said Mr. Rogers as he sat behind his I counter in a white apron, his cap on his head, and a great mug of tea in

his hand. Although the price of handmade shoes has gone up 60 per cent, in the last 25 years, business is just as good. "The second Duke of Wellington, the son of the Iron Duke, appreciated my work. See if you can read this letter from him. I could not at the time, his Lordship's writing was so bad. The letter was headed "Strathfieldsaye House, Winchfield, Hants, and dated January 11, 1883. I read: "Gentlemen—You have made Mr. 's (the name of a firm of shoemakers) boots wearable which iie ought to have done himself and I beg you will be so kind as to send the bill. I wore the boots today and found them comfortable. "Your obedient servant, "Wellington." Mr. Rogers is 68. He has a son who will carry on the business "when I am gone," as Mr. Rogers put it. "I shall not leave this dear old place until I have to," said Mr. Rogers, "and then I shall look out for another shop." Mr. Rogers's neighbour in business [is Mr. Frank Smith, of the little umbrella shop; He is 75. Curiously enough, one of the first things he said to me was: "We made umbrellas for the Duchess .of Wellington. "The tiny shop in Savile Passage is only a show 1 window now, but it was the shop in which my grandfather started business more than 100 years ago. In those days umbrella ribs were of whalebone. They had to be carefully tested to see that they flexed properly. Only silk was used for coverings then."