Next door to Casino Shoes and Percy Ingle is a shop that sells spices. It used to be known as Ummers, though over the years there have a been a succession of middle eastern young men in charge, each with slightly less of a grasp of English and diminishing social skills. I suspect that the original Ummer is now long gone.
It is still a good shop. They sell a good wide range of spices, chutneys, soup mixes, Asian cooking mixes, dry cakes, nuts, pulses and rice in large quantities. People from outside London would cut off their arms to have a shop like this in their High Streets.
At one time the spices were priced so as to represent a genuine bargain, and the sign in the window saying "Probably the Cheapest Prices in the High Street" was no idle boast. However, now other businesses have caught up with them and the place is looking a little sad to me. The range has not really expanded over time and the same brands can be had elsewhere, sometimes for less, at shops like Ambrosia (where cloves in the 50g packs cost 69p), Madina Supermarket, the Turkish Shop or HMS Bazaar. Bulk Thai rice is cheaper at Orientex and the Basmati at a number of other places now. The Turkish shop sells bulk nuts at about the same price and has a slightly wider range - raw as well as roasted cashews, for instance. I buy these as they are ideal for making my own Sri Lankan style deviled cashew nuts.
They do sell other things which are not edible- beauty products like henna, for instance, but the range does not compare with Hollywood Cosmetics.
Still a good shop, and they still expose Sainsbury's spice offers as the near criminal profiteering based on consumer ignorance that it actually is, but the shop is in danger of going backwards if they do not keep up with developments elsewhere on the High Street and spruce up their appeal.
[See an updated post here: 8 August 2009]