By the mid 1850s the grocer at 1 & 2 Adelaide Buildings was called Thomas Tibbles, who traded in tea, bread, flour, tobacco, snuff and shot. He was born in Charlton Kings in 1817 and lived above the shop with his wife Mary and five children. In 1855 the shop had a bakehouse for making bread on the premises. Thomas Tibbles was declared insolvent and out of business in 1861. The Tibbles were still living here in 1870 but were gone by the following year, by which time Thomas had changed his trade to a plasterer.

By 1874 the shop, still a grocer’s, was in the hands of Mr John How. But in 1890 there came a temporary change of trade when Mr John Perrin, a stationer and newsagent, was recorded here as an agent for the Gloucestershire Echo newspaper. He was also an agent for the Globe Parcel Express, which sent parcels to all parts of the world. In 1891 Mr Perrin vacated these premises and moved to a shop in Great Norwood Street, as can be seen here.
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At the turn of the 20th century Mr Albert Ernest Francis, another grocer, occupied both this and the adjoining shop and continued here until about 1911, when he moved to the top part of Bath Road next door to Robert Young, the florist. The property remained empty for a while but by the end of the First World War, in 1918, had become the first of three corn merchants based here. ​

In March 1953 William Ride & Co was offered for sale and was purchased by Oldacres, a supplier of animal feed, from Bishops Cleeve. This company was founded by farmer W.J. Oldacre, who opened his first shop in Winchcombe Street in 1907. Since the Bath Road property was in poor condition and required major repairs, Oldacres decided to sell it and the shop changed trades sometime around 1963, for the first time in more than forty years.

The Diamond Sanitary Laundry Company (Cheltenham) then moved into the property, having been established in 1879. This became a branch of the Kington Laundry, which was eventually owned by Paragon Laundry, and remained here until late 1969.