Street Directory of Commercial Road, south side, 1956
Comparison with the 1921 listing
shows that the Jewish rag trade had come to dominate the street - its
decline, and Asian takeover, lay ahead (as details of bankruptcies show) - but with the difference that
companies, rather than individual traders, predominate; owners no long
necessarily lived over the shop (as confirmed by the electoral register
of the same year, where some are marked as ineligible for local
elections, indicating that their main residence was elsewhere; the
register also indicates the relatively few who were registered for jury
service). Some premises were subdivided into a number of trading
outlets, where garments were made up and distributed from pieces made
by various specialist makers. Woollen merchants feature in some
numbers. Underlining
indicates people, or trades, present in 1921 (in some cases a son has
taken over the business) - their details are mostly given on the 1921 page.
|
2 Semel's, hairdressers 4 J McMillan & Co Ltd, fancy leather goods dealers 6 Harvey Katz, wholesale warehouseman 8 Elia Glickman, dentist 8 Levius & Co Ltd, silk merchant [1] 10 Charles Sabel, tobacconist 12 Harry Wiseman & Son Ltd, fancy goods merchant 14 Simpson's Furnishers Ltd, house furnishers 16 H Bellman & Sons Ltd, mantle manfacturers 18 I Fox, gown manufacturer 18 Amhurst Manufacturing Co Ltd, wholesale dressmakers [2] ...here are Plough Street & Braham Street... 30 William Samuel Hillman, ladies' tailor [3] 30 A W Weller, textile merchant 30A Janet Gowns, gown manufacturers 30B William Leonard Liggins, coffee rooms 32 JJ & SW Chalk, timber merchants 34 Myer Eckhardt, tailor 34 J Bander [Bender] & Co Ltd, gown manufacturer 36 B Zane & Sons Ltd, gown manufacturer 38 M & I Franks Ltd, gown manufacturer 38-40 Star Frocks Manufacturing Co Ltd, gown manufacturer 38-40 A Rosener & Sons, mantle manufacturer 38-40 Paulette Fabrics Ltd, woollen merchant 38-40 Cusina Gowns Ltd 42 P Pantell, restaurant 44 Castle, Sidney Grahams ...here is Goodman's Stile... British Railways (LMR) Goods depot 46 St Louis Club [details needed] 48 & 50 Gunmakers' Hall Worshipful Co of Gunmakers (Proof House) ....here is Gower's Walk... 52 H Cohen, mantle manufacturer 52 Style Dress Ltd, gown manufacturers 52 Alfred Lever & Co, mantle manufacturers Improved Industrial Dwellings Co Ltd (Morrison buildings south) ...here is Back Church Lane... ...here is Berner Street... 74 Lassle Sassie, children's dress manufacturers 86 Hyman Spector, woollen merchant [4] 88 National Wine & Spirit Co., wine shippers [5] 90 Samuel Brent, gown manufacturer 90A A.E. Magen & Sons, estate agents [6] 92 Morris Angel, hairdresser 92 S Dibner, general merchant 94 Antonio Gonnella, refreshment rooms [7] 96 Albert Kliman, invisible mending [8] 98 Gordon Bros, mantle makers [9] ....here is Batty Street... 100 Abraham Mann, Manchester warehouseman 102 S M Thompson, dining rooms 104 Sitex (Woollens) Ltd, woollen merchants 104 Crescent Textile Ltd, woollen merchant 106 S Chenkin Ltd, wholesale hosiers [10] 108 Charles Connick, woollen merchant [11] 110 J Kanutin & Sons, wholesale warehousemen [12] 112 S Moss & Son, woollen merchant 114 Jack Bossick, refreshment rooms [13] ...here is Christian Street... 116 M Max, pawnbroker [14] 118 Jacob Rosenblatt, tailor [15] 118 Touquet, skirt manufacturers 120 Jacob Perlow, buttonhole maker 120 Brian George Pearsall, sewing machine dealer [16] 122 J W Bland & Sons (Stationers) Ltd, wholesale stationers 124 Bellebelinda Ltd, mantle makers [17] 126 S Ogin Ltd, ladies' tailors 128 King's Head, Cope's Taverns Ltd [Arthur J & Iris Taylor] ...here is Golding Street... | 130 Grossman Bros, tailors 130 Conroy Tee & Co Ltd, wholesale mantle makers 132 Ritwear Ltd, wholesale mantle manufacturers ...here is Golding Terrace... 134-36 H Landau Ltd, caterers 138A A Jelosky Ltd, woollen manufacturers 138 J Koslover Ltd, trousers manufacturers 138 Samuel Bolzman, tobacconist [or Botzman] ...here is Umberston Street... 140-42 Barclays Bank Ltd 144 Simon Biher, woollen manufacturer 144 M Toffel, mantle manufacturer 146 Harry Lord, hosier [18] 146 Isidore Jacobs, hairdresser [148 Sylvia Wolfryd] 150 Charles Levy, woollen merchant 152 Michael Werner, wireless engineer 152A Stebbing & Co, boot & shoe factors 152B Herbert S Walker, dentist ...here is Hessel Street... 154 Perkins Dyers & Cleaners Ltd [19] 156 David & Co, tobacconists [20] 158 Mackworth Arms, Bernard J & Mrs Ann Kaye [21] 160 H Singer, sewing machine dealer [16] ...here is Cannon Street Road... 162 L Frumkin & Co Ltd, wine & spirit dealers 164 P Sidelkowsky, ladies' tailor [22] 164 David Bass Textiles Ltd, woollen merchants 164 Percy, ladies' tailor [22] 164 Curwin Taylor Ltd, dressmakers [23] 164 Rensite Ltd, gown manufacturers 166 A Rosner & Sons Ltd, shirt manufacturers 168 D & L (Mantles) Ltd, wholesale mantle manufacturers 170 M & J Selby, tailors [Louis Selby] 170 Mark J Silver, tailor [172 Isaac & Lily Moscovitch] 174 R & L Radio Ltd, television [Jack Temple] ...here is Rampart Street... 176 Freeson Models Ltd, wholesale mantle makers [178 Fanny, Neil Y, Percy J Scott] 180 Klein (Men's Wear) Ltd, tailors [Michael Klein] 184 J Zaltsman, tailor [24] 186 Lucienne Modes Ltd, gown manufacturers [25] 188 L Thei & Son Ltd, manufacturing clothiers [26] 188 Lazarus Thei, wholesale draper [26] 190 Emanuel Shermatt [or Sherman], woollen merchant 190 I Dudack & Co, woollen merchants 194 Beau Brummell, hairdresser [Angel Nyman] ...here is Richard Street... [196-200 site of the former Blakesley Street School] 204 J Dudack & Son Ltd, trimmings merchants [27] [206 Hannah Spindle] 208 The Tolvin Press, printers ...here is Jane Street... 210-16 Lloyds Bank Ltd 210 Clements, Hakim & Co, incorporated accountants [28] 218 Gulistan Restaurant, dining rooms [29] 220 Joseph Cyril Stock, optician [29] 222 Collins & Bowman Ltd, mantle makers 224 C & M Goldstein, tailors' trimmings [30] ...here is Anthony Street... 228 Palaseum, cinematograph theatre ...here is Fenton Street... 230A Kavella Ltd, gown manufacturers 230 Lord Nelson, Mark David ...here is Buross Street... 232 Michael Fisher, tobacconist 236 Abraham Rappaport, woollen merchant [Rapoport] 238 M Glickman & Sons Ltd, ironmongers [trading elsewhere in 1921 and today] 240 William James Bevan, beer retailer [Hungerford Arms] ....here is Hungerford Street... |
240A N Goldstein & So Ltd, woollen merchants 240A I Wasserman & Sons, mantle manufacturers 240A [& 164] Holray Gowns Ltd, gown manufacturers 242-46 Blue Star Garages Ltd, motor engineers [31] 242-46 Brown Phillips & Co (Fashions) Ltd, mantle manufacturers 248 Diamond Bros, wholesale tobacconists 250 Bernard Solley & Co, solicitors [32] 250 S & N M Fox Ltd, woollen merchants ...here is Planet Street... 252 Victor Knopp Ltd, clothing manufacturers 258-60 H Skolnik & Sons Ltd, woollen merchants 258-60 Arthur Curtis & Co Ltd, mantle manufacturers 258-60 Max Goldstein, ladies' tailor 258-60 Henry Harris & Co, mantle manufacturers 258-60 M & A Harris, ladies' tailors 258-60 Philip Glicksman, mantle manufacturer ...here is Winterton Street... Commercial Road Great Synagogue [33] 266 Mrs Letitia Mary Margaret Newberry, beer retailer ...here is Watney Street... 
...here is Deancross Street...[right - 300-304 in 1974] 300 Michael O'Toole, physician 304 J Macdonald, chiropodist 308 Thomas O'Carroll, physician & surgeon 314 Maurice Batey LDSHOB, dental surgeon 320 Philip Steinberg MB, physician & surgeon 324 Berg & Hecht, ladies' tailors 326 F J Hill (Dunstable) Ltd, transport contractors [34] 328 B Pela, tailor 330 S Neuburger DMD, dental surgeon 334 Ellis's, florists ...here is Sutton Street... St Mary & St Michael's Roman Catholic Church ...here is Lukin Street... 348 Reginald William Simpson, beer retailer 350 Scott Bros & Co, wholesale druggists 352 Ali Sayd, dining rooms 354 E R Goodrich Ltd, oil & colour men 356 J Zaltszyrer, boot repairer [35] 358 David Shutz, grocer 360 Alfred Simons, hairdressers 362 J Platman & Sons, mantle makers ...here is Johnson Street... [right - 368-374 in 1974] 
368 London Trustee Savings Bank370 St Mary & St Michael's Presbytery 374 G I Frankel, printer [36] ...here is Hardinge Street... 378 G Murphy, fried fish shop 380 Launderette, launderers [37] 382 Miss Rose Coleman, newsvendor [37] 384-398 East End Maternity Hospital 400 Church House 402 Edward Fall & Co, solicitors 406 Arthur Tolsipi & Sons, refreshment rooms 408 H A Kendon, estate agent 410 Morris's Products (1933) Ltd, cake flour manufacturers [38] 412 Metropolitan Water Board (District Foreman's depot) [39] 414 Mrs Ethel K Daniel, beer retailer ...here is Devenport Street, Havering Street, Albert Gardens... |
[1] Elias (Elick, or Alec) Moses Levius [right] was born in Latvia in 1889. In 1921 he worked with one Altman as job buyers at 45 Commercial Road; he was naturalized in 1927, described as a Manchester warehouseman
living at Cleveleys Road, Upper Clapton. His wife Fay's brothers were
directors of Houndsditch Warehouse; in 1938 he lent a relative £50 as a
guarantee for bringing family members from Germany. In 1970 his
business was at 19 Leman Street; he died in 1974.
[10] Selig 'Aaron Lev' Chenkin [first right] was born in Russia in 1882, and naturalized in 1926; he was a wholesale hosier.
He married Esther in 1913; their children were Sarah (Cissie), Samuel,
and Eric. He married a second time, to Rachel, a widow, and died in
1974. Samuel [second right] took over the business; he lived at 104, as did Sidney
Reitman. Eric's wife Evelyn (whom he married in 1948) wrote children's
books to explain the Jewish faith, including Dina and Dov's Adventures
in Israel. In 1946 she went on a secret mission to France to search for
hidden Jewish children; in 1983 they moved to Israel, where she chaired
WIZO's Liaison Committee
of English-Speaking Groups. 
H. Singer Ltd,
with its West End office in Mortimer Street, exemplified the American
dominance - it was the parts and equipment arm of the giant Singer corporation,
originally founded in 1851 as I.M. Singer & Co. (In 1911, following
a strike, Singer fired 400 of their 11,000 workers at their Clydebank
factory, including members of the Industrial Workers of Great Britain,
among them Arthur McManus who became the first chairman of the
Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920.) See further Ruth Brandon A Capitalist Romance: Singer and the Sewing Machine (Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins 1977). 
[25] Lucienne Modes went bankrupt in 1981.
[27] Joseph Dudack
was at 204 in 1921; by the time of this 1963 photo [left] his premises were
enlarged to cover 202-208. In 1980 J. Dudack & Son (Dryers) Ltd
went bankrupt. Israel Dudack's business was at no.190.
[29] The 1963 photo [left] shows 218 as 'refreshments', but 220 as 'Albion Book Centre' with Cyril Stock apparently moved next door to 222. 
[31] In the 1950s Blue Star Garages
had many branches across London, with its head office in Hampstead High Street; they made
and sold batteries, and their development arm Coronet Cars Ltd promoted
3-wheelers, such as the plastic-bodied Coronet [right], and the Powerdrive.
[32] Bernard Solley & Co
also had a West End office, in Cavendish Square, and he instructed
counsel in a number of significant cases. His son Leslie Judah Solley
(1905-68) was a London University science graduate; in 1940 he set up a
private company 'Physico-chemical Processes Ltd', for research physicists and chemists, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers, metallurgists, inventors etc.
with £100 capital in £1 shares, mostly taken up by himself and his
father. Leslie then trained as a barrister and joined the Labour party,
and was elected MP for Thurrock in 1945. In 1946 he and two other MPs
wrote an eye-witness report Tragedy in Greece for
the League for Democracy in Greece. In 1948 he signed a petition in
support of the Italian Socialist Party, in defiance of Labour Party
policy, and was warned not to contravene the party line in future. He
was one of six Labour MPs to vote
against the NATO treaty (caling instead for a united Europe and work
through the United Nations), and as a result of this and his previous
warning was expelled from the party in 1949, together with Konni
Zilliacus; 5 Parliamentary Private Secretaries were also relieved of
office. He became a founder member of the Labour Independent
Group, and contested Thurrock in 1950 under this banner. In the 1945
parliament, out of 640 members there were 29
Jews - 26 Labour, plus Solley, the Communist Phil Piratin
and anti-Zionist Conservative Daniel Lipson; the Board of Jewish
Deputies asked them to report on any fascist or anti-Semitic incidents
in the 1950 campaign. Leslie was not re-elected and returned to the
law, but also became prominent in the Songwriters Guild of Great Britain writing, among other things, the songs for The Adventures Of Twizzle, a children's television series, under the pseudonym Leslie Clair. (An early song, of 1933, was Hot-dog, with ukelele accompaniment.) His magnum opus, an orchestral fantasy Music For Orchestra, was written in 1948 but lay undiscovered for sixty years. Left is no.250 in 1963.
[33] Commercial Road Great Synagogue
was established in 1920 (though does not appear in the 1921 listing) -
it was possibly a successor to another one nearby. Its first rabbi was Samuel Melnick; its last, when it closed in 1969, was Schlomo Halstuk [left].
[36]
Gustavus Isaac (Gershon Yitzhack) Frankel, known as Gussie, was born in
London in 1892, and lived at no.374 with his wife Millie and family;
here in 1903 his father-in law Morris Jacob Koenigsberg, together with
Abraham Schwalbe (later Selby) had founded the Congregation of Jacob Synagogue, whose premises remain across the road at no.351. He established a printing and stationery shop, G.I. Frankel, and died in 1945; his son Maurice David took over the business. Jeremy Frankel [right],
resident in California, recalls travelling to the shop with his father
from their home in Edgware every Saturday morning when he was a boy. He
trained as a cartographer and surveyor, and used these skills in
various jobs, with a particular passion for waterways and canal boat
restoration, writing a guide to the New York State canals and acting as
consultant to the Glen Falls Feeder Canals Alliance. In 1985, prompted
by a comment from his grandfather at a Passover meal in London about
his great-uncle's previous marriage, he took to family history,
researching his own family's Lithuanian and Polish roots; he is now
president of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society,
and a professional reasearcher, writer and speaker and partner in a
family history service Frankel & Fisch. He and Victoria Fisch are also members of the Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks in the West. [We're grateful to Jeremy Frankel for checking the accuracy of this information, and for his good wishes!] 
[37] Both still here in 1973 [left].Back to Commercial Road 1921 Street Directory | Back to Commercial Road 1899 Street Directory