Non-food shops, mid 20th century

social aspects
of
shopping packaging customer waiting alerts post offices shoe shops wool shops newsagents department stores Green Shield stamps miscellanea

Newsagents
in mid-20th century Britain

I don't think we ever had newspapers at home when I was a child in the 1940s. Money was always short and all the news was on the radio, known as the wireless, anyway. Also we went to the cinema, known as the pictures, and there was always a Pathe News between films.

There was a W H Smith newsagents shop in my home town of Edgware. It was essentially a bookshop, but it also sold newspapers, magazines and stationery.

There were always street vendors selling newspapers at the entrances/exits to the station to catch commuters, and they did a good trade, whatever the weather.

W H Smith newsagent. The notice above the entrance shows that it was also a private subscription library. Screenshot from an old film.