Kennards of Croydon: The Store that Entertained to Sell: A History of a Debenhams Store

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The local paper published many letters about the building being too cold or too little space for the birds to fly in.

I visited it many times and he lived to a ripe old age, a really lovely bird and a real character of Croydon which was loved by everyone. It was a magical place where kids could take pony rides, lions and cheetahs entertained the crowds and they had an infamous Christmas grotto. The photograph was taken in the early 1960's, by which time the Croydonisation of Croydon had just started.Not a regular as such, but would always pop in there when out either during the day or of an evening.

Also on that day, The Music Man, the film adaptation of Meredith Willson's 1957 Broadway musical of the same name, had its world premiere at the Palace Theater in Mason City, Iowa.The band-leader got in touch with me over a midweek booking that we wanted me to attend, the venue was to be at Kennards blue room, wild horses would not have kept me away. It was quite a moody place with lots of early 'hoodies' in there - but it was fairly trouble free because they didn't have gambling / fruit machines in there. Kennards was very public spirited and gave further assistance with the grower's vegetable market of 1947, which was advertised as being the first market of its kind in Britain. The animals exhibited were quite a large collection of different monkeys in cages with wire fronts, various species of parrots and pet animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs.