Shop Plaque - 161 Streatham High Road
William Walter Paul, frequently described in the records as ‘one of Streatham’s oldest residents’, first appears in local directories in 1880. The 1881 census shows that Paul was born in Ilminster in Somerset in 1852, and was married to Barbara Donnington in Shropshire, who was then 24 years of age. He ran a business reflective of its time: a leather goods specialist. Alongside his saddler, trunk, and case making business, he involved himself heavily in local affairs, sitting as Vice President of Streatham Albion Cricket Club, where he was likely succeeded by George Hill, another important Streatham business owner, and becoming a founding member of the Streatham Chamber of Commerce.
He also sat on the second row of the Streatham Coronation Committee during the coronation festivities for King Edward VII in 1911, which would have been a hugely popular day of celebration; to illustrate, five thousand children were observed having fun in the ‘Valley Road fields’, a sliver of which live on today as the Valley Road Playing Fields. For the coronation he decorated his shop especially, described in the local press as ‘being draped in royal colours of crimson, and gold, and hanging tassels, while a huge Union Jack floated in the breeze, displaying ever and anon a large Crown’. Paul’s dedication to the royal family also shaped his career: he was temporarily employed in the stables of Queen Victoria, and he worked on a harness which King Edward took on a visit to India.
Directories show that Paul’s business was still trading from 161 High Road until 1938. In the late 1900s, the site was taken over by New Lotus Chinese takeaway, and Rice Republic arrived in 2014. It remains a well-loved local business to this day.
