Back in the 1970s, you would find a general dealer's shop like this trading on any number of North East street corners.
Our lovely photograph, from the ChronicleLive archive, and recently rediscovered and digitised, shows Mr and Mrs Frank Kelly standing proudly behind the counter of their grocery store on Beaconsfield Street, Newcastle, on June 21, 1971. For those living in the surrounding teeming streets, the shop - like thousands across the UK - sold the day-to-day essentials that would feed a family and keep the home nipping clean. And for kids, it was a place to fritter away pocket money on sweets and simply hang around outside with your mates.
If Napoleon once reportedly dismissed Britain as a 'nation of shopkeepers', the staple corner shop as we know it has existed since Victorian times. More recently, the familiar setting has been depicted in numerous soap operas, films and sitcoms - BBC's Open All Hours, running between 1976 and 1985 and starring Ronnie Barker and David Jason, being an obvious example.
