Charles Gale's Gift Shop on Matlock Bath's North Parade, with a window display packed with all kinds of desirable items — "fancy goods" — for the tourist trade. Over the doorway is an advertisement for musical greetings cards, suitable for 45 rpm record players. The sign advertising the shop's wares was hand painted onto the glass; this was a commission undertaken by Frank Clay when sign writing was one of his specialities.

When Mr. Gale first took over the shop between the George Hotel and the Prom Cafe, which he had bought from Mr. Anstey of Chesterfield, there was a ladies' hairdressers behind the premises that was run by Mrs. Kay Smith. A little while later Mr. Gale bought the residential property above his shop from Josh Whittaker, whose father Frank had also been a "fancy goods dealer" here. Charles and his wife Edith lived at Rockvale House above their shop for nine years.

An undated newspaper, sent by their son Bernard, recounts how Gordon Patterson had rung their doorbell in the early hours to alert them as smoke was coming out of the Promenade Cafe next door. Gordon was on his way home from work. Meanwhile, Bernice Stoddart had woken and called the fire brigade. Charles Gale wrapped a wet towel round his head, grabbed his fire extinguisher, and the two men went into the cafe. Mr. Gale tackled the fire whilst Gordon Patterson fetched water to refill the extinguishers. The heat was so intense that it melted a lead water pipe, yet the external temperature— 14° below freezing— caused the water on the ground floor to freeze. There was a sheeet of ice outside. The only reason the two shops didn't have fire damage was that the bathroom was in the side extension, seen on the postcard below.

The shop was the Post Office until relatively recently (there is currently no post office in Matlock Bath) although the Post Office in the Gales' time was a few doors down the Parade. Photographs from the early part of the twentieth century show that the building used to have a wrought iron balcony at first floor level, similar to the one shown on the property to the right. It is unclear when the balcony was removed but perhaps it was when the first floor window was replaced or repaired. The green painted window to the left belongs to what was the George Hotel.

The awning above the window is shading the goods in the window of Charles Gale's shop.

This more recent view of North Parade shows what remained of the Promenade following the widening of the A6 trunk road in 1967. You can just see the red letter box outside what was once Gale's shop. The card also shows one side of the War Memorial.
The War Memorials