Ever since it closed in 2005, folks have missed the Bermudian department store Trimingham’s. Fodor’s 1961 Guide to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda stated that the store had a “wide selection of bargains including doe-skin gloves, perfume, English handbags and Indian Madras sportswear.” At the time, Bermuda prices were so good that you could subsidize the cost of your transportation to Bermuda with judicious purchases at its retailers.
The store opened in 1842, and was known not only as a traditional department store for Bermudians, but a top stop for visitors.
Other great Bermudian retail brands still around to look out for, and support, include:
- William Bluck & Co., a China shop that opened in 1844. (It’s still around.)
- The jeweler Astwood-Dickinson (still around)
- A.S. Cooper & Sons, Ltd., which stands for Alexander Samuel Cooper, and is the successor company to Bermuda Finishing and Supply Company (still around).
Other Bermuda retail brands:
- The Cedar Shop
- Hildred, the children’s shop
- The English Sports Shop
- Peniston-Brown Co., Ltd.
- The Bermuda Shop
- H.A. & E. Smith, Ltd. (gone)
Other retailers included:
- Vera P. Card Ltd, on Front Street, selling linens and Swiss watches
- Masters Ltd, with just about everything including French perfumes at a 55 percent savings
- Bamboo Gate, selling bulk Madras prints
- Calypso, which was described as the “Hamilton Birthplace of Bermuda Calypso Fashion”
Let’s not forget the Furness Bermuda line, and its great ships the Queen of Bermuda, Monarch of Bermuda and Ocean Monarch, which sailed from Piers 95-97 in the afternoon and arrived in Bermuda 40 hours later, with schedules perfectly timed for weekend jaunts. Perhaps there is a ship that might get on the Bermuda route regularly as it is now a year ’round destination.
At one time B.O.A.C. flew jet-prop Britannias from New York. It would be darned amusing if British Airways still flew the route, though right now they only fly from Gatwick to Bermuda. New Yorkers would pay a premium to fly on a 3 p.m. flight from Kennedy to Hamilton.
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The English Sport Shop is alive and well on Front Street.
Fifty years ago I got a sweater in Bermuda from H. A. & E. Snith. It finally wore out and I’d like to get a new one. Can you help?
Martin Rabb
Wish I could Martin…its always a challenge to find another when the product lines change. Sometimes there is Ebay but its hit or miss.
Try eBay or Etsy since items from those shops turn up fairly regularly.
I just found a sweet Burmuda bag with the wooden handle and the inside lining has Triminghams all over it! Thrift shop for $1 I am researching this company and will be heading to Bermuda inOctober for my first visit.
My family went on a summer vacation to Bermuda in 1968. While at Trimingham’s my parents bought me a woolen sweater dress. It was all natural and very warm. The quality of the merchandise was very high.
The Bermuda Shop was located on the corner of Reid & Queen Streets, opposite where the Phoenix used to be located. It was owned by Gibbons Company and sold more up-market clothes than their other shops – Gibbons Company (for Men) and Woman’s Shop. I don’t remember the year it closed, but it was a very long time ago.
There are pictures to be found on old postcard sites.
I think that The Bermuda Shop was not actually in Bermuda; it was located on Madison Avenue in New York, as I recall.