Did you shop in Reading in the 1980s?

[50but17inside]

Do you remember a shop called Cuckoo where you picked metal dangly earring ‘hooks’ and then spent hours in the shop threading them with your choice from the hundreds of different colours and styles of beads. You then took them to the till and the lady finished them with pliers - I’ve never seen a shop like that before or since!! No one but me remembers it! Did I dream it?

I was a teen in Reading in the 80s and have no idea what you're talking about.

I can remember a shop -think it was near the Oracle end of Broad St (pre Oracle days obviously!). I can remember all the beads laid out in the middle of the shop and threading bracelets with beads that spelt my name. It also sold other things but I have no idea of the name. This would have been in the 80's and you've just brought back loads of memories!

Yes I remember it, I didnt remember it was called cuckoo though, it was down past the pru. I bought lots of earrings there

I was a student in Reading in the late 80s. I vaguely remember some sort of DIY bead/ jewellery shop - was it in a shopping centre? There was also a hippy - ish shop with novelties, cards, incense etc which I loved. Can't remember the name of it, though.

Vaguely but I would have said upstairs in the Butts near the tshirt shop.

There was a very hippy shop in the Harris Arcade.

Yes! It was a bit away from the main shops - like the “wrong” side of Jackson’s Corner. Didn’t remember it was called Cuckoo but definitely spent hours in there making earrings.

You used to pick out a metal stalk which had a bit on the end to stop the beads falling off, and then threaded your beads on it. You then took your finished earrings to the till and the lady would finish them off and thread them onto the hooks that you had chosen.

Then you put your new earrings in and went to buy records at Knights before going to hang out in the gardens at the Hexagon with your mates.

Not sure i remember this shop but Strawberry fields and rockaround were my faves :)

Yes!! near Jackson’s where my mum bought my Trutex school shirts, that was it. Oh so pleased it was real. The shop upstairs in the butts centre was called But is it Art? and sold that rainbow coloured titanium jewellery and inflatable bananas 😂

I was very young but I remember a shop where you could do this in the 90s and I wasn't far from reading at the time so it could have been the same place.
The bit where you chose earring pieces was maybe at the back,? It was against an external wall and I think had a window above it.

I wish I remembered/had gone there because it sounds brilliant.

I loved But Is It Art and upstairs there was a bakery that sold a ring donut with nuts on that I loved.

In the Broad Street Mall do you remember a woman’s clothes shop, near the bottom of the escalator where the clothes were mostly cream? Probably 1992 ish

Don't remember the earring shop but loved Saffron Moon for all your mirrored skirts and incense stick needs. Remember But Is It Art? too, good for notebooks and cards. Favourite was the vintage clothing/skate shop in the Harris Arcade (I think) - got all our vintage 501s and Vans in there in the 90s.

But Is It Art? recently had a shop in one of the side roads between Broad Street and Friar Street. Don’t know if it’s still there, this was pre-pandemic.

I remember Saffron Moon. And Traders, which was like hippy heaven.

I don't because I wasn't allowed pierced ears. There was a t-shirt printing shop in the Broad St Mall.

Loved 'But is it Art" and the pancake kitchen in John Lewis.

*clara" BIIA is still there and survived the pandemic.

Ooh yes 'A Place to Eat' cafe in John Lewis (Heelas), everso sophisticated with its freshly made crepes. I always had a mint choc chip milkshake in there too. We once met Morrissey in the hat department of that JL. Random!

I loved a mint choc chip milkshake in Heels too! Never had pierced ears though, so don't remember Cuckoo.

I'm sure some of you must have gone to school with me! Don't remember the earring shop, but my DB's girlfriend at the time used to work in But Is It Art. Memories!!

There was a place like this in York / Camden in the early 90s
Hours I spent in there in my quest to be 'alternative' (in reality all ya 'alternative' types ended up looking the same!)

I used to love the Butts Centre & spent many a lunch hour browsing in there in the mid/late eighties.

There was a shop on the ground floor near the big supermarket where you could order personalised mugs in (blue & white striped) Cornish ware & I used my first ever Christmas bonus after I left school to get mugs done for all my family for Christmas presents.
Some of them are still going strong.
None of us had names you could buy on any personalised thing so they were a big hit.

Don't remember the earring shop though.

Does anyone remember the year Father Christmas got stuck in the air on a zip wire in the Butts Centre? His beard got caught in the pully and he was left dangling for ages, to the horror of all the kids, until a rescue could be launched.

We weren't allowed the cafe in Heelas - just to press on the board of doorbells in the big basement. We went to the cafe in the gas showrooms.

We used to meet up with the Reading boys in the café in BHS after school. And there was a cheap place in Smelly Alley where you could get egg and chips and a cup of tea cheaply.

Glad to see BIIA survived the pandemic. I bought a Reading mug there a few years ago, took it into work and a colleague managed to smash it the first day.

Smelly alley!!! Can remember buying crab sticks from the fishmonger. I remember Knights, Heelas of course. The shoe shop in broad street where the staff put your money in a tube on the wall and it shot up to the accounts department who put change in it. Was another world!!