Three Rivers Museum Trust chairman Fabian Hiscock recalls one constant as he reflects on the changing face of shopping in our high streets.

We all regret, don’t we, the way in which our shops close, change, open, get demolished…. a sign of the times!

But hasn’t it always been like that? A selection of images shows ‘High Street Shops’ over a number of decades, and we see some simply vanish, some move and some re-invent themselves.

Watford Observer: High Street and Station Road in 1920s - Ibbotsons on the right. Image: Three Rivers MuseumHigh Street and Station Road in 1920s - Ibbotsons on the right. Image: Three Rivers Museum

Even in Rickmansworth we’ve seen Tesco move from the High Street to the new shopping precinct Penn Place in the 1970s, and again to the Harefield Road in the 1990s as the way we use the supermarket has changed. And as we’ve seen in earlier articles, Penn Place itself came and went in about 30 years.

Watford Observer: High Street and Station Road in 1940s - Ibbotsons on the right. Image: Three Rivers MuseumHigh Street and Station Road in 1940s - Ibbotsons on the right. Image: Three Rivers Museum

A sequence of images of the bottom of Station Road shows huge change between the time around the First World War and the 1970s. But one constant is Ibbotsons, on the corner of the High Street and Station Road.

Watford Observer: Gilhams Shoe Shop, 1960s. Image: Three Rivers MuseumGilhams Shoe Shop, 1960s. Image: Three Rivers Museum

The style of the shop front changed – and so did the style of shop-keeping, and of course what they sold, eventually to give way altogether to new fashions of both clothing and shopping, with different buildings required in a different type of street. Some, like Gilhams in the 1960s, maintained a more classic look, next to new businesses (like TV and electrical stores) with a very different appearance. And lots of us will remember Woolworths….

Watford Observer: High Street and Station Road in 1970s - Ibbotsons. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/ Geoff Saul Collection)High Street and Station Road in 1970s - Ibbotsons. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/ Geoff Saul Collection)

What seems, of course, to be new now is that we do so much less of our shopping in a building of any sort – the ‘shop’ is quite different from what we remember. In presenting our history we can only remind readers of how things used to be - whether it’s now better or worse isn’t our business, but it’s certainly different.

Watford Observer: High Street in 1970s. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul CollectionHigh Street in 1970s. Image: Rickmansworth Historical Society/Geoff Saul Collection

Watford Observer: Our modern High Street 2022 – the corner of Station Road, where Ibbotsons, right, and Tesco, left, once stood. Image: Deborah YoungOur modern High Street 2022 – the corner of Station Road, where Ibbotsons, right, and Tesco, left, once stood. Image: Deborah Young