I moved this blog to a semi-retired status a couple of years ago, without realizing that I was abandoning the very active community of posters associated with Elliotts shoes. Apologies to all the people whose comments piled up in the ‘unapproved’ file! You are now posted on the blog and I will do a better job of updating.
And, as a shameless plug, if you find this blog interesting you can still purchase Made for Walking at Amazon! Lots of good stuff in there that you won’t find on the blog.
Sample page from Made for Walking, Andy Peake, 2018. Schiffer Fashion Press
Made For Walking 
Thank you dear Andy for coming back! I would love to see my colleages from the Brompton Road Branch. This was my very first job in life ( this year im 70!) and i have scenes in my mind i could immitate all my managers( mr Illot!) and colleages( Michelle Caríssimo da Milano)… a girl i forgot the name ( from Manchester…a s o … but the most important item was the Sales Training i had from which i profite till nowadays xx
New Bond Street late 1969-1970.
Memories of Bob Green (Complaints Manager whom I’d succeeded), “Nobby” Clark (Store Manager), “George” (actually a girl), Mike Forbes (no relation, who succeeded me. His sister had the Lead in Hair as I recall and was a student of Sir Lawrence “Good-Morning-My-Little-Chickens” Olivier), ‘Mr. Gillespie’ (loved to drink Bass), David (we-never-use-a-first-name-here-Mr. Forbes) Barker – they all did by the time I’d left.
Don Nolan (elderly Irishman in Men’s Dept. Great guy. (Hilarious sense of humor). Ali Khan (who routinely described himself as being from “Central Asia” (read Pakistan). These guys really knew how to take the michael out of their clients unbeknown to them. Positively hilarious as my office overlooked the Men’s Dept on the first floor. Ah I have so many hilarious stories ..
David Sheldon’s name vaguely familiar tho’ I don’t recall meeting him.
Then there was Paul Clayton, Francois – pretty little french lass who took a shine to my English travelling mate we fresh out of the mines in NW Australia (to earn the money to finance out travels).
All so long ago now, others lost to antiquity. I was a mere 26 back then. Nicholas Elliott reported to have driven an Aston Martin. But all the shoes, “living skin” boots, etc. were (despite the chandeliers, pile carpet, mirrors etc) unequivocal junk from Spain, Greece etc. Hence their need for their euphemistically named “Customer Service Manager” – what a laugh. But sad after a couple of hundred years to see that outfit evidently was liquidated or went in to receivership – not sure. Something about clogs to clogs in 3 generations perhaps? In my time J Paul Getty turned up, so too “the Temptations” and I briefly met the late Marty Feldman and Linda Thorson(?) of “The Avengers” fame. But it was in hindsight all who-ha and a clear money spinner to the owners. It was the age of “Rule Britannia, Britannia Waves the Rules” well before colour TV, the internet, Cd’s, mobile phones and fuel injection, aids etc. They spared no expense in the shops’ fit-out and it must have handsomely rewarded the family.
The UK Sitcom “Are You Being Served” was so profoundly appropriate to Elliotts of 1969. Something about London back then somehow missed today.
Best wishes,
Bill Forbes
Noosa Queensland Aust.