Running parallel to Brompton Road between South Kensington and Knightsbridge, Walton Street in Chelsea is now filled with boutiques and galleries. Though flanked by Harrods and The Conran Shop, it’s an enclave of independent shops.
Back in the day, Walton Street also had a panache for hosting a series of independent shops. The photo features shops repairing furniture, selling blinds and offering “shampooing”. Fashionable, well-dressed Edwardians feature in the photograph – the street was once home to the humorist P.G. Wodehouse
Most notably in the image though, compared with modern days, is the health and safety nightmare of that ladder running from the pavement to the roof!