Gillingham | Then & Now

Date:

Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past and present on the same page, and see the evolution of familiar local places. ‘Now’ images by Courtenay Hitchcock

Paris House originally stood at the corner of High Street and Station Road (left of the picture). It was a three-storey specialist outfitters, drapers and milliners owned by the Pitman family (Thomas and George). Part of the building remains as the adjacent newsagents. The remainder was demolished to make way for the National Provincial Bank, below, which was later the town’s library.
Neither of the original postcards were posted, so we don’t have a date. However, the three-letter car number plates tell us that it is later than 1932.

The bank, above, is Grade II Listed, built in 1900 to the designs of Sir George Oatley for the Stuckey Banking Company Ltd, a major West Country bank which at one time had a banknote circulation second only to the Bank of England. Stuckey’s was acquired by Parr’s Bank in 1909, which merged in 1919 with London County & Westminster Bank.

Sponsored by The Museum of East Dorset

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