And All Leading Makes

I'll let this brief run of musical-themed posts come to an end with a set of three of my old transparencies that I've just run through the scanner. I've not seen them for ages, but they certainly must have sealed an impression on me, as whenever I've been stuck in the inevitable traffic-clogs along London's Holloway Road, I still think of the dilapidated remains of a music shop called Crossman's.

The billposters confirm the year, and an approximate month when I took the pictures: there's a black, red and white illustrated poster promoting 'The Dark Destroyer' Nigel Benn's boxing match at the Royal Albert Hall, which was on Saturday 28th May 1988. Other posters pasted on the boarded-up window panes announce the release of The Cure's John Peel Sessions, a gig by Linton Kwesi Johnson at Kentish Town's Town and Country Club, and another for Jerry Harrison, formerly of New York's Talking Heads.

93 Holloway Road, then (now it's an antiques shop)

I'm not too impressed with the main shopfront image, but at least I did get something. Shame that I can't make out how the wooden gate is actually connected to the rest of the building? Maybe it was just propped up, as it looks like this once-splendid looking shop became a repository for dumped rubbish.

However, I do prefer the two close-up images which highlight the period details in the signage and the lettering. Relics like this one were still peppered around the streets of the City at this time. Within a few years they'd all left us for good.

MAN 93 HIS

 

I've not discovered much information about the history of Crossman's Music and Radio although I note that around 1915, Crossman's actually published this postcard (below) of Islington's Central Library which is almost opposite the site of the shop. The Library was opened in 1907, and it continues to serve the area to this day...

 

a Crossman's product, pre-radio