Kennedys Sausages

Kennedys Sausages

A shop building dating to 1926, located at 18A High Street, South Norwood. The special architectural interest resides in the ground floor shopfront and interior; the upper storeys and attic of the two-storey-plus-attic building are of lesser significance.

The shopfront is a bronze construction from 1926 featuring a grey granite stallriser, a complete set of transom lights in stained glass with an Art-Deco sunburst design, and a polished glass fascia announcing "18A KENNEDY 18A" with a makers' mark reading "Brilliant Signs Ltd London". The recessed lobby to the right of the display window has a soffit with green tiles to dado and yellow tiles above, and a black and white tiled floor. The double doors to the shop are original.

The shop interior remains largely unaltered since the 1920s. The walls are clad in coloured tiles—green up to the timber dado rail and primrose up to the picture rail—with green tile- and wood-edged mirrored panels arranged around the shop. Above the primrose tiles at frieze level are plastic panels in wood surrounds, which also cover the ceiling. Four white glass globe lights hang by chains from the ceiling, illuminating the marble-topped back counter and main counter, both original and faced with green tiles. Behind the back counter stands a large wood cabinet with glass back, designed for the display of wares. Lettering in the centre of the entablature reads "SAUSAGES" on a yellow background, with raised sections above on a green background reading "COOKED MEAT" and "LOBSTER PASTE". The floor is covered in red linoleum.

Kennedys was part of a small chain of shops operating in South London for nearly 140 years. The business began trading from 140 Rye Lane, Peckham in the 1870s, with John Kennedy as proprietor from the 1890s. The trades directories listed the business as "ham and beef dealers", though Kennedy also ran a fishmonger at 128 Rye Lane. Around 1899, Andrew John Kennedy opened a fishmongers at 297 New Cross Road, joined by a ham and tongue shop at 301 New Cross Road run by the same John Kennedy. By the interwar period, the family firm had expanded significantly, opening at least nine shops across South London between the 1920s and 1930s, including premises at 85 Rye Lane, 86 Peckham Road, 319 Railton Road, 10 Denmark Hill, 305 Walworth Road (circa 1923), 64 Deptford High (circa 1929), 27 Church Street Croydon (1929), 137 High Street Penge (1934), 161 High Street Bromley (1935), and 11 High Street Bromley (1936). The business later expanded to 23 High Street West Wickham (1962). From 1923, Alexander Kennedy began taking over operations, and by the late 1920s most shops were listed under his name in trade directories. The shops sold sausages for cooking at home as well as pies for immediate consumption—staple food for working people's diets in the 1920s and 1930s.

Like contemporary chains such as WH Smith and Boots, Kennedys deployed consistent design across its branches, using the same materials and decoration including shopfronts with polished glass signage, granite stallrisers and Art-Deco sunburst transom lights, and green and yellow tiled interiors with marble-topped counters, wood cabinets and mirrored panels. The fascia signs were made using the Brilliant Process, whereby letters of V-section were impressed into copper sheets with steel dyes and then covered in glass. The shop fitters were Messrs A Walter Piggott & Co Ltd, based at 7 Phoenix Place in Clerkenwell. Kennedys ceased trading in 2007.