A. French drapers shop 1930s

Arthur French started his drapery business around 1919 in the shop in Market Square that is today (2018) Nisa convenience store. Ten years later, he had shops in Oxted and Limpsfield as well as Westerham, and by the mid 1930s had divided the Westerham business into two outlets which became known locally as ‘Ladies French’s’ located in the right-hand-side of today’s Ruach Kitchens, and ‘Men’s French’s’ located  where Chows restaurant is today.

June Ingram remembered “…next door to the International Stores was ‘Ladies French’s’ where they sold everything – you could buy clothes, aprons, sheets, shoes, hats and coats – Hilda Leliot and Joan Jackson worked in there and it was a really nice shop…”

Gwen Smith remembered “…there were two shops in Westerham, H W Smith where Chows is now was a mens and boys outfitters, but was always called ‘mens French’s’ because that was what it had been. There was also ‘ladies French’s’ between the Kings Arms and the International Stores. When we first got married, Bill my husband came down from Scotland and didn’t know Westerham very well and one day my mother said to him ‘would you mind popping up to mens French’s for me and picking up my parcel?’ He spent ages looking for this shop and eventually came back saying ‘I’m very sorry but there isn’t a mens French’s in the town’ and she said ‘Oh no, I’m so sorry, that’s what we know it as, but it’s actually called Smith’s.”