66 http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk
Peter Dench is a photographer, writer, curator and presenter based in London. He is one of the co-curators of Photo North in Harrogate and has been exhibited dozens of times. He has published a
number of books including The Dench Dozen: Great Britons of Photography Vol 1; Dench Does Dallas; The British Abroad; A&E: Alcohol & England and England Uncensored. Visit peterdench.com
F
our AAA batteries, flax seeds, oat
milk, a tub of Prime Gelato and
a watermelon are on the receipt
from my last trip to the corner
shop, Park Local Express (PLE). It sells
organic products, vegan products, gluten-
free products, dairy-free products and
frozen products. When I first moved into
the area over 25 years ago, it mainly sold
cigarettes, cow’s milk, sliced white bread,
two-litre bottles of cider and packets of
brightly coloured sweets high in additives.
My world became more localised during
the global coronavirus pandemic and my
visits to PLE more crucial and frequent.
They always had my favourite toilet roll
in stock, not like the supermarkets that
threaten its existence. PLE has adapted to
the needs of local residents and remained
relevant to survive.
Corner shops have been around for 130
years and given how resilient they’ve been,
I expect them to be around for another 100.
There are still over 46,000 convenience
stores open across the UK today and have
become embedded in art and popular
culture. ‘He knows it is a hard life but it’s
nice to be your own boss really,’ sings Paul
Weller in The Jam’s 1980 song, Man in the
Corner Shop. Ronnie Barker starred as
shopkeeper Albert Arkwright, and David
Jason as his hapless nephew Granville in
the much-loved classic British sitcom, Open
All Hours, and BBC reality documentary
Back in Time for the Corner Shop tracks a
real-life Sheffield family living and working
as local shop retailers spanning eras from
the late 19th century to the 1990s.
This photograph by Nick Hedges is a
blueprint of a 1960s corner shop; it couldn’t
be on more of a corner. The window is
stacked with loaves, packets and bars. I can
almost hear the ting-a-ling of the door as
it’s opened and imagine a respectful
reception from the proprietor upon
stepping inside. I hope it sells affordabletreats for the children playing in the street
outside and has what the lady wearing a
buttoned-up coat striding towards it desires.
Perhaps she’s going in to pick up her ration
of British cigarettes, Craven A, named after
the Earl of Craven. She may be reassured by
the slogan, Will Not Affect Your Throat,
which helped make the first machine-
manufactured cork-tipped cigarette become
a household brand around the globe.
Hedges has been a documentary
photographer for around 50 years working
in the field of social affairs. His work is in
the collections of the National Media
Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum,
and is archived at the Central Library,
Birmingham. This photograph features in
the hardback book STREET, published by
Bluecoat Press, the corner shop of British
documentary photography publications.
I’m sure if you decide to pop in for a copy,
shopkeeper Colin Wilkinson will
declare, ‘Thank you, come again.’Peter Dench considers...Corner Shop, All Saints, Birmingham 1968 by Nick HedgesPhoto Critique