A favourite word and a fabulous street

Remember the days when Butcher’s Row and Fishmongers Lane actually did only have butchers and fishmongers, well in Lisbon those days still exist for some streets. We were waiting for the no28 tram when I noticed that all of the shops opposite were haberdashers, we were on ‘Haberdashery Street’.

Standing at the tram stop looking across the haberdashers we suspected that many of them had been there for quite a few years. We were thinking 30 maybe 50 years at the time. We were a quite bit off with our estimate though, I’ve since discovered quite a few of them have been open for over 100 years! So I thought quite appropriate that I share Lisbon’s ‘Haberdashery Street’ as part of Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge today.

Reading the street and telephone directories I think the Portuguese word for haberdashers is retrosaria but I’m not 100% sure as online translators mention camiseiro. If you know, please do leave a comment below.  It wasn’t only the Art Deco retrosaria that caught my eye, spotted this stunning shopfront on another street.

Before I go I have one tiny thing to admit to you. Haberdashery Street isn’t actually called that – it is Rua da Conceição so named because of its proximity to the Church of Conception. I should probably also admit there are also other types of shops on this road! However this is the first time I’ve ever come across a row of haberdashers and ‘haberdashery’ is such a great word I simply had to rename the street!  If you would like to see an original photographs of one of the shops do follow the link above, it will take you to a great blog of Lisboa with photographs from the 1900’s.