The static water tank and the Bon Bon

My most lasting memory of the Hawthorn Rd shopping area is of the Static Water Tank that stood on the corner Kingstanding / Dyas Rd it must have been about 6/7 feet high and probably 10 yds diameter goodness knows what was found in it when it was emptied and dismantled.? I suppose the Dispensary is still there at the top of Dyas Rd? I remember being taken there by my mum, it had long benches like being in church a nurse would call you when it was your turn. I think you paid 5/- to see a Doctor that was before the NHS. Like someone has said Lathams was on the corner, and a Greengrocer Roses? then the paper shop Kirtons, Rochelles the butcher, I went to school with Johnny Rochelle. The only other shop along that stretch that I remember was a barbers shop, there was only one barber Mr Fisher, My memory of the barber shop was that of “singeing” the playing of a lighted taper over the cut ends of hair to seal them and so prevent colds? what a terrible smell. Doesn’t happen today. After the shops the first house was the surgery of Doctor Reeves Where the 33 bus stopped was a sweet shop I knew as the “Bon Bon” opposite was Foster Bros the gents outfitters alas no more Round the corner was an Opticians Scrivens I think and there was ” Douro Wines and Spirits” Over the road was “The Octagon” library and “Peacocks” department store, quite a parade of shops, on the corner with Stowell Rd was a furniture shop and seed merchants the rest is lost in time Moving towards Crossways and opposite Warren Rd there was Co-op ladies and Gents outfitters and shoe shops and further down on the other side in the first bungalow was a dentist Mr Renwick All that was 70 years ago