In March of last year, we covered the epic 1983 tale of Stein Opticians on Harcourt Road who fought bitterly to save their beautiful shop from the developer’s bulldozer.
Recently Amelia, an award-winning photographer who still runs the family optician business today from 4 Camden Market, Grantham Street, sent me along a number of old press cuttings.
Here’s a before and after picture:
An article from the Evening Herald on the controversial move:
A fantastic image showing how the shop remained intact after everything else around it was demolished:
Finally, a rare original architect’s drawing of the new shop that that they agreed to move to:
[…] Despite the association with Neville, Charlotte Street never amounted to much more than housing small businesses. By the mid-twentieth century, as is evident from the National Library’s Wiltshire photograph, the street had run into terminal decline. A photo taken from a similar perspective in the 1970s from the Dublin City Library Collection shows that not much had improved, and by the 1980s, plans were afoot to develop an office complex. The road was closed by ministerial order on 28th July, 1992, and Charlotte Street officially no longer existed (Behan, 1994). A nod to the history of the place was the naming of a new road around the office complex “Charlotte Way”. The demolition attracted media attention as it involved demolishing Stein’s Opticians, as recounted in this “Come Here to Me” blog post (and update). […]
This brought back memories. I used to live round the corner in Harcourt Street and Stein was my Optician. I remember discussing the development that was going on around him and he held off for a long time.
JJ
[…] Articles on the campaign from the time period can be viewed here. […]
I’m a brother of the late Tom Collins RIP 2017. I would like Amelia to get in touch with me.