Hermione Granger

Ms Malabul

Year Six History

04 September 1990

The Curio Shop at Holborn

In 1567, Charles II gifted the Duchess of Portsmouth a curious building built out of salvaged ship parts, to be used as a dairy.

Ms Ducharme teaches us in English about tautological place names such as Torpenhow Hill, which is said to mean Hill Hill Hill Hill when the languages it has gone through are translated. She said the origin lies with people asking what a region is called. When the local people say "that is a tor" meaning, "that is a hill," and the person asking in their Celtic tongue calls a hill a "pen," the name becomes Tor Pen. Then when a Norse speaker, to whom a hill is a "howe," asks, he is told "that is Tor pen," and it becomes Torpen Howe. Finally, an Anglo-Saxon, speaking English, asks and it becomes Torpenhow Hill.

This is not to pad this report out: this dairy, later on a shop, has never been named. It was called "the curio shop" or "the curio shop on Portsmouth." as the years passed, and it is now almost four-and-a-quarter centuries, it naturally became known as "the old curio shop," or "the old curiosity shop" as it was referred to in the 19th c. It became famous through the efforts of Mr. Charles Dickens, writing in the series "Master Humphrey's Clock."

It did a steady business until the market area it is in was purchased by the School of Economics. Several years before I was born, it became an antiques shop, and officially closed a bit before my time. Rumours about it included housing a new department of the School of Economics, being purchased by a South African billionaire and shipped to that country, and being repurposed to sell Japanese designer shoes. Its current status remains officially in limbo.

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Eager to see a piece of living 16th c. history, I travelled to Holborn station and visited the shop on Portsmouth. In passing, I will write it is interesting it was never cal, led the ship shop, the dairy shop, or most likely, the Portsmouth shop, but it was not.

Much to my surprise, it still seemed to be open, and to have reverted to being a curio shop. It had but one employee, a girl who seemed no more than seventeen years of age. There was no opening sign, nor were any hours posted. The shop girl had no register to work with; apparently, she operated out of a small cash box, and hand-wrote the receipts with a quill pen. The whole thing made me feel as if it hadn't changed since the time of Mr Dickens.

She waved me in, and I wandered about the store. In all honesty, most of the items for sale, which were definitely from all parts of the globe, were incomprehensible. As I left, the shopgirl finally spoke to me.

"You heard we were closed, yes? Before you were born, even, I reckon?" she asked.

I admitted that was the case.

"A bookish thing like you tends to believe whatever she's told, I think. It won't serve you well," was the reply. If I hadn't heard Ms Malabul and Ms Ducharme say similar things, I would have taken offence. As it was, I decided to politely agree, since I was leaving, anyway.

"You should come back tomorrow. We get books in on Sundays, and you're the very type we cater to," was the last thing I heard as I left. The jangling bells attached to the door, which had not rung when I entered, somehow did so when I left.

This bit of London history ended up being quite fascinating. I see that I have run out of space, since you encourage us to be concise. If I have further experiences with the curio shop, I will mention them if they're germane to my topic in another history essay. At any rate, I have learned that you cannot always depend on papers or books to tell you the historical facts: you must sometimes, occasionally, see for yourself.


Works Cited

Jollidodue, A. Ne vous inquiétez pas, les non-magiques ne pourront pas lire ceci de toute façon., Paris: Presse de Sorcière Maladroite,1978.

Bâtonsec, H. Les idiots habituels que je finis par enseigner. Flintshire: Gwasg Argraffu Gwrachod Creulon UP, 1968.


Author's Note: Hermione's primary school, as many in England, follows a 6-year (or 7 counting Reception) system, so primary runs until and including Primary 6. There are regions where primary concludes in Primary 5, and even some in Primary 4, but this school is not one of them. In other words, it's closer to the Australian and American systems than it is to the French system. If your primary school in England matriculated after Primary 5 and what would have been Primary 6 was middle school for you, I apologize for any confusion.