Trolley dreams

The trolley saga is clearly hotting up, making it to dream world last night.

For some now lost reason to do with work, I was in the large Dickins & Jones in Oxford Street. The store which has been closed for years and a name which is now merely a bit of branding within what is left of the House of Fraser empire. With some relevant heritage to be seen at reference 1.

A shop which had departments for both luxury cars and luxury boats, to the point where I came across a convertible being driven (slowly) around the shop floor at some point. But the arrangements for getting from one floor to another were were very odd, involving some rather small and very antiquated lifts.

At some point I decided that I was bored and that it would be good to take the afternoon off, something I did quite often in the last third of my time in the working population - with the leave allowance and the flexi allowance seeming to be able to cope. At which point I found myself wandering along the south bank of the river, but a south bank which was rather terrain vague in Simenon-speak, not all covered with flashy new buildings at all. Rather like the south bank west of Vauxhall Bridge used to be before the developers got going. Tatty light industry buildings, vacant lots, the odd public house, all sorts.

Something was wrong with my mobile phone. This was important for some lost reason.

And then I spotted this wonderful trolley to add to my collection. Unlike any of the other near 500 which I had collected up until that point. Sadly, on closer inspection it turned out to be an unoccupied wheelchair. I did not think to look at the little metal plate, which would no doubt be somewhere, to see if it was made by Wanzl, the ubiquitous trolley people.

I think I must have woken up at this point.

PS: we used to have a Dickins & Jones in Epsom, one of a small number of provincial outlets. Now just about hanging in there as a House of Fraser. Probably not for much longer, which will be a pity - and a blow for the Ashley Centre. Who will they be able to get in in their place?

References

Reference 1: https://housefraserarchive.ac.uk/company/?id=c1473.

Reference 2: https://www.wanzl.com/en_GB.