About  Catlin's


CATLIN'S STORE has been established at 71 High Street Lewes since 1915. 
It was until that date part of an Elizabethan hall house, the other parts 
being what are now numbers 72 and 73. 
 
The building was converted in 1915 by the then owner, Mr. Blagrove, to provide business and accommodation for his three sons who were away at the war.

72 became a watchmaker’s, 73 a photographer and picture-framer’s. 71 was destined to be a tailor's, but this was the son who did not return. 
 
Signs of its intended purpose may be detected in the unusually high window, 
where the tailor would have sat cross-legged at his task. 
 
Mrs. Blagrove ran the shop as The Central Tobacco Stores and a Blagrove was 
connected with No.73 until the 1950's. 
 
The shop was eventually let to F. E. Hall, by which name it was known until 
2000, although the Hall family severed their connections with the business 
in 1986. 
 
Only tobacco products were sold until 1956 when confectionery and greetings 
cards were introduced, spreading into what had been the owner's parlour. 

Catlin himself comes, on his mother's side,  from the Catlin family of North 
Wales who ran theatres along the Welsh coast, and it is fitting for a man who 
has managed theatres in London's West End that a theatrical name is 
associated with the business today.

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