Harry Sorkin & Son North Street Leeds

[liits]

wam45xax_medium (1).jpg (4.52 KiB) Viewed 2038 times

There is a photo of him, too;

[MGS]

H Sorkin & Sons was formed by my Grandfather Harry and his two sons Morris (my Father) and Sidney
The business was originally set up as a hand pressing business for the trade and public sometime in the 1930's my grandfather Harry was prior to that in the confectionary business in Hull
The family arrived in the UK in 1906 from Gomel ( now in Belarus) previously in Lithuania,Poland,and Russia my grandfather told me he came from one town but had been in 3 countries occupation.His father Joseph was a Horse trader for pit pony's and later became a furrier as did Harry in his early days
I joined the business in 1954 after Harry died (1953)
The man who passed the suit was my father Morris a jovial man always with s cigarette in his mouth which was never inhaled
The price of sponging and pressing a suit was 4/6 a jacket was 2/6 and a pair of trousers 2/-
In 1955 we bought Hoffman pressing machines from Bellow Machine Co
This really made the business a leading finishing company for the trade
We also created the very first Same Day Dry Cleaning Service which we called the American Express Dry Cleaning Service
Also we had a pressing while you wait service and customers would be taken to a room upstairs where they would sit and wait for their trousers to be pressed
I don't ever remember Nevis Opticians being in the same address they were further up the road near Jackson hairdressers (used to be Ruebin Wienstiens)
North Street was full of character and Characters in those days and I have lots of very happy memories.

[MGS]

1962 Phone Book entry for Harry Sorkin, 173 North Street.

Thats good how do you get old telephone numbers

[buffaloskinner]

Thats good how do you get old telephone numbers

Via Ancestry.co.uk or using Leeds City library Family History internet access page, but you need to be a member to both these sites.

[j.c.d.]

Yes, the cig in the corner of the mouth does sound familiar. also about the price of sponge and press. two bob (tosheroon) . any time I needed a suit pressing I used to put it in with my boss's suits, he was Sydney Leviton who owned Modern Floor covering Co. the carpet firm who had eight shops on the opposite side of North St. he always had his suits made by Lawrence and Co. he never picked the cloth out, he simply ordered five or six dark blue or black and when any required cleaning I had to take them down to your shop. I put my suit in with them and apart from a raised eyebrow from your father as he copped for my suit mixed in there was never a problem.
You would remember Hymey Bloombergs bakery just higher up than the Eagle pub, if only bagels today were the like the mouthwaterng ones he produced. Smucklers deli and Gittlemans clothes shop next door, it only seems like yesterday.

[scrabblerz]

Just a clarification ancestry.co.uk does cost , ancestrylibrary.com is free at all libraries in Leeds as is Wi-Fi .