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54 Suffolk Road (formerly Bon Marche)
In 1825 the site upon which these premises stand, part of a large field called the ‘Grattons’ or ‘Grottons’, was acquired by a builder called John Knight. The title deeds state that he held the land in trust for William Baylis.
Mr Baylis may have intended to develop the site but died in 1847, without apparently achieving this ambition, since the Old Town Survey map of 1855-57 shows the land to be devoid of buildings.
Sarah Baylis, William’s widow, sold the land in 1856 to a builder called Joshua Lane, of Montpellier Street, and it seems that he built these premises sometime later. Mr Lane sold the property in 1880 to Albert Stone, the proprietor of the Bon Marche drapery store in Bristol, for £1175. “Bon Marche” was understood in the 19th century to roughly translate as “good value”.
In 1881 this property, the Cheltenham branch of the Bon Marche, came up for sale. It was described as being situated at the corner of Suffolk Road and Great Norwood Street, as the adjacent building (on what is now the street corner) had only recently been erected. About thirty years earlier there were no buildings in this terrace between Great Norwood Street and Suffolk Villa, a house adjoining the Suffolk Arms, and the infill had occurred only gradually.
At Christmas 1906 the Bon Marche sold aprons, gloves, hosiery, post card albums, watches, clocks, dolls and toys. It may have resembled a small department store rather than a drapers. By 1909 they had a “penny counter”, where everything could be bought for one penny (not so different in principle from shops that sell everything for a pound today).
The Bon Marche continued to trade here throughout the Great War. Ralph’s and Jessie’s younger son, Ralph Albert Negus, a 2nd Lieutenant in the Gloucestershire Regiment, was killed in action on 18th April 1916 but business carried on, although the advertising seems to have been more muted. The shop closed sometime after 1921, without fanfare, and these premises were offered for sale in 1924 with vacant possession. Ralph Negus suffered chronic ill health later in life and died in the arms of his son Montague on 12th February 1927, at the age of 71.
In 1925 came a complete change of trade when Messrs Reed and Patterson took over these premises and renamed them the Grafton Garage. They were the authorised distributors for Daimler motor cars, with saloon models priced at £700 (the average weekly wage was about £5). They moved into new premises in Bath Road in 1926 and the Grafton Garage then came under new management.
In 1927, still called Grafton Garage, the shop became a branch of Cheltenham and Gloucester Car Mart Ltd which, as the largest car dealers in Gloucestershire, also had premises in the Promenade and in Winchcombe Street. Amongst others, they were agents for Talbot, Austin and Alvis motor cars.
By 1930 the property seems to have been empty but in 1932 and 1933 it briefly became a second hand furniture shop called the Grafton Furniture Mart.
The motor trade resumed here in 1933, when the Suffolk Garage (proprietor Hugh Spencer Jones) took over the premises. This company began in about 1920 in Suffolk Parade and by 1938 they were agents for Austin, Standard, Morris, Hillman and Lagonda.
In 1938 Mr Jones created a new company called Suffolk Garage Ltd, which soon went into voluntary liquidation and was sold to Gloucestershire Motors, from Churchill Road in Leckhampton, in 1939.
By 1975 there had been a complete change when Christopher Galloway Associates were here as Interior Decorators. Then, in 1979, Christopher Galloway sold these premises to Ken Shave, who opened an antiques market here with upwards of 30 individual dealers. Ken, who hails from Somerset, started in the antiques business in 1969 when he became a wholesaler selling mostly to America. He is one of the longest serving traders in the area today and Armada Antiques now mainly specialise in chandeliers.
For some local memories of this property follow this link.
