Videoland, 52 Springfield Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2PD John’s Videos, 25 Dobson Road, Langley Green, Crawley, Sussex VMV Video, 99 Raglan Street, Lowestoft, NR32 2JU Videostar, Black Rock Video Store, 2 The Broadway, Whitehawk Road, Brighton Video, 140/144 Fratton Road, Portsmouth, Hants. St Ives Video Services, 10 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall Telespot, 1150 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8TE Video Village, 92 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 Oscars Videos, 35 Bear Street, Barnstaple, EX32 7BZ S & R Video, 796 Chesterfield Road, Woodseats, Sheffield West End Video, 19-21 Church Street, Church Gresley, Burton-on-Trent
JF Drake, 219-221 Queens Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 3AE
Irene and Joe’s Video Movie Club, 50 Dalton Road, Barrow-In-Furness Video City, 28 Marian Square, Netherton, Liverpool, 元0 5QA Park Lane Video, 75 Park Lane, Hornchurch, Essex Videosyncratic, 101 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 3THĪce Video Club, 45 South Market Road, Great Yarmouth Video Vision, 3 Owen Street, Town Centre, Tipton, DY4 8EZ Because like the format itself, we must never forget. Be them hairdressers, chip shops, restaurants, charity shops, furniture stores and alike. So with the help of Street View, and as part of my preservation obsession with the format, I wanted to document the old addresses that you find on tapes and show how they appear today. There’s a wonderful traceability with ex-rental VHS. Then the store eventually closes and, with many exchanges in between, the tape winds up in my collection. So when I see a video store’s address slapped on the tape, my mind starts to wonder about this box being rented over and over again, moving from its store to a different home each week.
I also think about where this tape has been, and what store it first started out in. When I pick up a videotape, I too see the artwork and plot but I also wonder about what obscure trailers will play before the movie. When people pick up a DVD or Blu-ray they see the artwork, extras and plot synopsis.
I became fascinated by this and wondered what these stores would look like today. And that branding can be seen either on the reverse or spine of the cover, in some cases even on the tape itself. Most video stores branded their stock with a sticker or stamp bearing the address of the shop, much like a library does with books. I purchase my tapes from all over the country, and with them being mostly ex-rental, find it quite amazing to think that they were once apart of a video store from somewhere in the UK. With the fall of Blockbuster, the final nail in the movie rental store coffin, I was thinking of when all of those outlets are empty, what would be put in their place – More fast food chains? It also got me thinking of how future generations will grow up not knowing that our favourite place to visit on a Friday or Saturday night is now where they get their hair cut, or even eat. I know it’s childish but I can still picture the tapes on the wall, and how the shop once looked in its prime. I occasionally still go there for a meal and request that we sit next to where the horror section once stood. My local store was called Video Vision and is now an Indian restaurant. There are so many different aspects to VHS that I love, and none more so than any connection to a video store.