Frederick Pates, Pastry Cook and "half-past friend" of Wood Green High Road

Yarmouth-born Fredrick Pates arrived at 67 High Road in 1903/1904. He took over a premises previously run as a bakery and stayed in situ, living above the shop with his family till just before the Second World War. He then moved up to Braemar Avenue, dying there in 1952.

The picture of the shop front was on a postcard. The message on the back was sent to schoolboy Willie Bumard(?), apparently a family friend from the Isle of Wight. Frederick signs himself off as "your old ½ past friend". Might Willie have come in to number 67 at a certain time every day after school to buy a cake on the way home?

The other two images show a man who I assume to be Frederick Pates with one of his creations. It seems to be decorated with British and American flags. Perhaps the cake was made a year after the first postcard was sent and is celebrating America's joining the war.

Number 67 is on the southern corner of Courcy Road. Up till about ten years ago, it had been the Alliance and Leicester and then Santander. In about 2015 Santander moved across the road and the premises were empty until this year, or late last year when it was taken ovet by yet another fried chicken shop.

A previously uploaded photo from 1927 shows the Pates store at the edge of the photo.