A pleasure June.

It was a very innovative shop with its changing range of household items.

I loved Poundstretcher, and its toy department was a bit louder and broader than places like Smiths or Bodgers wasn't it. Didn't it always used to be roasting hot in there though?

It is! Strangely 'next...' the original logo was lower case, then from 1991 to 2007 it changed to confrontational capital letters and they dropped the 3 dots. From 2007 to 2022 they returned to the friendlier lower case, which I think worked, but since then they've gone back to capitals albeit a bit cleaner than the first time they did it. I think it's weird how many big high street names (including some recently disappeared) from Next to Debenhams to M&S to John Lewis all decided that white text on a black background was somehow the way to go for an eye catching logo. You'll have retrospective KZfaq channels doing it soon......I don't know.... 😅

You're right about that water feature. On one occasion a homeless person was seen washing himself in it! I think that was the beginning of the end. If you look closely at the glass panels that line the areas between each escalator, they have wavy designs on them to emulate the original water feature. When they were installed the panels would be lit up and cycle through the colours of the spectrum but they switched that idea off long ago. As for the huge marble in the middle ground floor section (it was a big attraction wasn't it) there's a photo of it in a series of books called Ilford Then and Now which you can find second hand online or at Ilford library. It's a great series of books showing photos old Ilford and the later editions (now about 30 years old themselves) show the Exchange's development.

@@IlfordRetro that's great. I'm in the library every Wednesday so will definitely ask for it. Thanks for the great videos.

They removed those central lifts last year for some reason. It seems to make it harder to get between different floors (?). The grand staircase you're thinking of wasn't really as grand as your memory might serve (sorry!) - but it used to be outside what is now Deichmann or thereabouts. Episode #074 shows the underside of it, when Perfume Shop used to be based there.

Your memory is exceptional. You're right, looking at the old cars is also so nostalgic!

@@IlfordRetro Absolutely. 2 years earlier we were all mouring the loss of Woolworths in Ilford. To me was worst decision ever. Also 1985 was just the change from Ilford to move on. Was never the same. But came back from time to time and always will

@@rajnirvan3336 yes it was a big loss to the town when Woolworths closed in '83. Nice that you remember some of the other old names from that time like Collier.

​@@IlfordRetro that shop is now stuck in my head 😂🤣🤣. I remember my uncle used to buy his clothes from there. Very interesting to know that Dolcis was formed on a stall in Woolwich. A place I know very well which is not far from where I currently live.