Looking for those Jarman Shoes, A Morning in Grey Street

About three months ago one of our mountain biking mates, Ian, reminded us of how when we were teenagers in the 1970’s we used to go into Grey Street to buy our Levi’s and Jarman’s. We all had a good laugh reminiscing how we used to bargain with the shop owners. “Is that your best price”, “That’s my best price”, “We’ll go next door then”, “No, wait” was a typical conversation.

Ian said “Okay, let’s set a date” which we duly did.

The day finally dawned and after a good cappuccino we headed off to Grey Street and a great morning shopping for Jarman’s. Ian was looking for a burgundy pair and I was looking for a brown suede pair and a navy and white two tone pair to convert into golf shoes.

We parked at Pine Parkade, took a stroll up Pine Street past the pissoire to begin our search. Our first stop was Soli Omar who has always been a great outfitter and nothing has changed, his shoe selection was excellent but there was lots to see and do so after a chat to the guys there we headed on.

We crossed the road, popped into Karida’s where Ian found his burgundy brogues and then headed deep into Grey Street, now Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street, where there was lots more to see including informal traders hawking their wares

After visiting a few more shops and checking out the shoes the boys were getting hungry which called for a visit to Little Gujurat. Little Gujurat was superb, all sorts of wonderful delicacies were on offer including samosas, puri patha, veda, bhaja and a wide variety of veg curries

After an excellent meal we walked down Victoria Street, now Bertha Mkhize Street, and really just browsed, I guess we just wanted to cover all bases and make sure we didn’t miss anything. Then it was back to Grey Street via a couple of arcades and a few more shops where Ian found a great black pair of Johnson and Murphy’s who we were told on great authority had taken over from Jarman’s. I found a navy and white pair of Crockett and Jones but wanted to speak to a cobbler about putting spikes on the soles and using them for golf. The guy we were referred to said it could be done but wasn’t too sure about what it would cost and I didn’t want to spend the money not feeling confident about the end result – more research will be done

We did find brown suede brogues for me at a “good price” and despite the owners best efforts to source a pair from his one of his other branches no size 11’s were in stock so we will have to wait for our next visit which rest assured won’t take another 35 odd years.

After 4 hours of great entertainment we had to call time on our adventure and head back to the suburbs. It was a successful morning and while we didn’t break the bank, Ian emerged with two great pairs of shoes and although I didn’t buy anything watch this space for our next foray into Grey Street.