Bromley Civic Society

This beautiful Art Deco building is thought to have been built in 1885, when it is recorded as the shop for H.J. Luker, a ‘Silk Mercer’.

Happily, the 2024 planning application to turn this into a plain block of flats with a modern frontage was refused.

It has a distinctive Egyptian-inspired classical frontage, which is a much-valued part of the Conservation Area it is in.

In the Edwardian era the store was the Bromley outlet of The International Tea Stores Ltd., (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Tea_Co._Stores) only a few years after Hudson Kearley and Gilbert Augustus founded the company to sell tea direct to consumers instead of through wholesalers.

This building is well-remembered for being Zodiac Toys, a fondly regarded chain of 90 stores, mostly in South London. This shop also sold Prams. Before it was Zodiac Toys, it was Sidney Ross Toys & Pram shop and Youngsters Toys.

“I have fond memories of being taken to Zodiac.” (Matt Perrin in Bromley Gloss)

“Yep, Back in the mid 80’s I used to buy an outfit for my action man every week for 2 quid. Cosy days.”

“It used to be one of my favourite shops as a child, but never got to go in much. I got a a pair of roller boots from there. The blue and yellow ones with the zig zag down the sides. I was most upset when it closed.”

Zodiac toys was formed when Maynards confectionary decided to diversity in the 1970s due to their concerns about being dependent on the confectionary market. They launched their new brand with over 800 “keenly priced lines” in their self-service stores.

In the 2000s the building housed Calligulette, a fanciful Mediterranean restaurant that painted a lovely classical mural on their wall that faces onto the slip into Walters Yard.