The perfectly pink priory purveyor of papers and more

Photos: Google Maps (left), Local Data Company (right)

Stopping to get some sushi at Kimura yesterday, we popped in to the Priory News shop and I commented to the guy behind the counter about how marvellous it was to see the shop-front almost perfectly preserved. I asked if he knew the history of the shop, but unfortunately he didn't. So, I said I'd find out. 

Priory News is in a parade of shops stretching between the two ends of Farrer Mews, along the south-west end of Priory Road and round the corner along the north-east end of Park Road. This was the last part of the Warner Estate to have been developed. The land was sold to builder Charles Frederick Day and the buildings designed by local architect John Farrer.*

Originally the parade was given the street address of Palace Parade and what is now Priory News was at number 2. It seems to have been one of the last shops to have been occupied and dosen't show in the records as being in use until 1909.

Palace Parade c1908. It looks like number 2 (second from end far left) is not yet occupied). 

Reflecting the cutthroat world of local dairy competition and ultimately industry consolidation, t he tenants at 2 Palace Parade / 161 Priory Road have been:

1909 - 1921: Friern Manor Dairy Farm

1922 - 1923:  Premier Dairies

1924 - 1928:  Welford & Premier Dairies

1937 - c1970:  United Dairies

Without a name, I'm unable to track the shop in directories after this date, but the chap I spoke with yesterday said that his family had bought it about 40 years ago. That leaves only something like a ten-year gap.

United Dairies were absolutely everywhere. In the mid-1960s, as well as the Hornsey one, there were shops in Harringay, Crouch End, Wood Green, Stroud Green, Muswell Hill, Tottenham and two in Highgate. Here's the story of the Harringay one.

I think after a certain point, United Dairies shops stopped focussing on purely dairy products and became something more akin to grocery stores. 

*Land sale and builder information from Janet Owen, John Farrer, the man who changed Hornsey, Hornsey Historical Society, 2009