Austerity Britain, but Portsmouth shops were heaving | Nostalgia

In the first photograph we are looking along Commercial Road with the junction of Arundel Street on the right just out of shot.

It was taken in the austerity years, just after the end of the war, about 1946 at a guess.

On the left is the Classic cinema with the jewellers H Samuel a few shops on from that.

Everyone is wearing a coat so it must have been winter and the pavements are packed with shoppers. Long gone days indeed.

In the second photograph we are at the junction of Commercial Road and Edinburgh Road of course.

Not only is there a policeman on point duty but there is another in the distance managing the zebra crossing outside Woolworth’s. The road is in a bad state of repair.

The ever-popular LDB (Landport Drapery Bazaar) was a store many liked to visit on Saturdays.

There appears to be a spartan Christmas tree on the awning above the corner of Arundel Street so this could have been a pre-Christmas or new year photograph.