Does anyone recall Osborne Pearce, the very high class cutlers at 105 Western Road?
They opened early in the 1950s and ran for about twenty years or so. They also had a branch in the London Road; number 66 I think. They just seemed to vanish overnight. Do you know what happened to them?
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Since posting the above item, I have found that Mrs Olga Osbourne is still with us and living in Hove. Although almost blind, Mrs Osbourne is still leading a fairly active life. She was delighted to find that anyone still remembered the old shops.
I remember this shop very well. I’m pretty sure the restaurant ‘La Fourchette’ now occupies this corner site. Judging by the gradient in this photo, the view appears to be of the side windows in Bedford Place rather than the level Western Road frontage.
Yes, it is part of the side view. It was more kitchen and garden equipment than fancy goods. Olga Osborne (note no ‘u’ – we’re fussy about that) is my mother. The London Road shop became a furniture store. I don’t know what it is now.
I remember the 105 Western Road shop well. I used to walk past it every day on my way to work at 111 Western Road (National Westminster Bank). That was from 1973 to approx 1982. When I was at Fitzherbert School, Osborne Pearce used to supply the domestic science department with its cookery equipment!
Hi Ron Charlton, I remember Osborne Pearce very well in Western Rd and London Rd, they took over Timothy Whites in London Rd. I know Mrs Osborne very well. I used to do all her decorating for her. I have now since retired. She is a wonderful lady for her age and still going strong. Bless her.
I remember going with my mother to this shop to buy kitchen scales with Imperial weights. It must have been very early ’50’s. I’ve just passed them on to my eldest daughter. I also still have a “wringer” (or mangle) from an earlier visit to the same shop I believe (unless there was possibly a similar ironmongers nearby – just can’t remember!).
In the 1960s I visited this delightful shop and bought a set of stainless steel teaspoons by Arthur Price. I carefully put them away but unfortunately forgot where I put them. Only this weekend on having a clear out did I find them carefully packed away in a corner of a drawer long since ignored so I got them out and now have a little bit of the sixties in my kitchen!
I bought a lovely set of teaspoons from this beautiful store and mislaid them. Having a bit of a clearout a couple of weeks ago I came across them again in their original box. A great surprise! Such a useful store and it brings back memories of the sixties.
I have a set of dinner knives embossed with ‘Cutlers Osborne Pearce Ltd Brighton’ in very good condition and still in daily use.
Never went into the store, but as a kid in the 50’s it was always fascinating looking in the shop window at all the wonderful kitchen gadgets when walking home from the flicks.
I worked in the London Road ‘Branch’ for three months in early 1962 prior to joining the Royal Air Force in May 1962. I was 17 years old and just the boy in the shop. I was treated kindly by the owner Mr Pearce. I remember most of the stock was homewares and required a lot of dusting! I enjoyed my short time there but as a young man I was keen to explore the world outside of Brighton.
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