Elastic Glue
This shop is in Earlham Street and from the enamel sign you can see it was a hardware shop for many many years, up until 2001 in fact. The shop was owned by a local character by the name of Fred Collins and his father before him, also named Fred. I believe his grandfather was also Fred, in fact there were I believe several generations of Freds. Anyway, this shop was typical of small independent shops that resisted the takeover by pornography that dominated the area in the 1980s.
One of those Victorian Freds was responsible for the ‘discovery’ of the elastic glue. Apparently he had the idea of mixing an adhesive that would stay flexible when set. The glue was prepared it in the basement of the shop in huge cast iron cauldrons and sold batches to fix saddles and problem horse shoes.
Sadly the shop appears to have run out of Freds in 2001, and despite the sign, it is no longer an ironmongers.
Elastic Glue
This shop is in Earlham Street and from the enamel sign you can see it was a hardware shop for many many years, up until 2001 in fact. The shop was owned by a local character by the name of Fred Collins and his father before him, also named Fred. I believe his grandfather was also Fred, in fact there were I believe several generations of Freds. Anyway, this shop was typical of small independent shops that resisted the takeover by pornography that dominated the area in the 1980s.
One of those Victorian Freds was responsible for the ‘discovery’ of the elastic glue. Apparently he had the idea of mixing an adhesive that would stay flexible when set. The glue was prepared it in the basement of the shop in huge cast iron cauldrons and sold batches to fix saddles and problem horse shoes.
Sadly the shop appears to have run out of Freds in 2001, and despite the sign, it is no longer an ironmongers.