THIS WEEK IN 1970: From a thriving street to a quiet memory lane

Boarded windows were meeting the eye with their depressingly blank look.

On the window of a one-time furniture shop someone had written in whitewash ‘100 Divans Must Go’.

They had gone – everything, except the bare, empty shop itself.

But not everywhere was closed – in an area not far from the tall block of corporation houses was a tiny old-world shop with no name.

‘It’s an Old Curiosity Shop’, said the shopkeeper Lilian Saunders. ‘I have always liked this little shop, so two years ago I took it over as a small dress agency.

‘I do a very good trade in here – but, of course, the shop will have to go.

‘It is a pity this type of shopping area is going. People like this sort – it has the kind of fascination you find in The Lanes at Brighton.

‘But one by one the shops in Lake Road are closing down.’

It was a street of childhood memories for many who, with the age of affluence, had moved to the lusher areas of Southsea and Cosham, or out of Portsmouth altogether.