This busy scene was captured almost 45 years ago as shoppers walked past or visited one of Watford’s best known and most loved shops, Trewins.

Many of us will be visiting the town centre to buy our gifts in the build up to December 25, but many of the shops we remember fondly have changed or disappeared altogether.

Read more: When Beatties model shop was located in The Parade

With the help of Watford Museum and its volunteer archivist Christine Orchard, we are looking back at some of those favourite shops and High Street scenes so many of us remember as the countdown to Christmas Day continues.

Trewins began business as a drapers and traded in Queens Road from the 1880s until more than 100 years later when it became the first shop to open its doors in the new Harlequin Centre.

After becoming part of John Lewis, more than 130 years of shopping history came to an end in 2020 when the intu Watford store closed during the pandemic.

This picture was taken in 1977 and is another from the museum’s Bob Nunn Collection.