Cobblers

A dusty galosh dangles on one wall and an ancient platform boot swings from the ceiling next to a truncated Eiffel tower. Hanging above the counter stuffed full of cottons, elastics, screws and bits of paper is a single lime green cowboy boot, which remains unclaimed since the owner went into prison in 1972.

Claiming his is the oldest shop in the street, the owner, 75-year-old Suleyman from Cyprus bought the cobblers in 1967 and still makes and repairs shoes on the premises. Learning his trade as a shepherd in his home country, where he first crafted shoes under a tree looking after his herd, he brought his self-taught trade to London with him and has never stopped. ‘I love it. I have so much energy for shoes.’

'Many people who buy cheap shoes now don't want to pay for repairs; usually I make them pay first and still they don't come back'. His sign clearly says: 'We will only keep your shoes for three months', although one woman came back shouting: 'You lost my shoes' – after three years. With more than 100 pairs of unclaimed shoes in the workshop at the back, it is clear that a lot of the footwear has been in the shop a great deal longer than that. Suleyman is a self-confessed hoarder who never throws anything away, who has four sewing machines in the shop and another four ‘spare’. ‘People say: ‘ooh, you have a lot of stock, look at all this stock’, but stock is money and if you have cash you spend it.’

Also on offer are knife sharpening, key cutting and sewing machine repairs. ‘I do everything. You have to. The market here was good; things were much better then and there were a lot more people’. Today the ‘Repairs’ sign outside the shop is falling apart and missing an ‘R’ and the distinctly faded window display complete with debris and dead plants appears to have remained unchanged since the shop opened. Yet Suleyman, smiling, remains optimistic, saying: ‘When a tiger is hungry, what does he do? He looks for food. And that is how customers find me.’ With rates at £1,400 a month and recently introduced parking restrictions, he admits to struggling, but says for him his work is his hobby and offers to design and make to measure a pair of boots for me for £200.

Getting up at 4am, he opens the shop daily from 7am to 4pm ‘because I want to talk to people’. 'Everyone in Chatsworth Road calls me Dad', says Suleyman, who still walks the length of the high street several times a week. ‘I am very happy. I spend my life here.’