PCE Fabricss has now closed and been refitted as Saeed's Fabrics.
As such the site has been transformed, because when I first mentioned PCE Fabrics in November 2007, it had absolutely no writing on its frontage, that I would have to treat it a bit like the Wig From Nowhere and call it the Store with No Name.
The shop at 96 High Street, next door to Faris's Supermarket, was actually called P.C.E. Fabric Store. Even that fact was not obtained easily.
On looking into it and talking to the owner at that time I was alerted to the interesting phenomenum that is the fabric and haberdashery industry in Walthamstow.
I nearly did not discover this though, becaise on entry, my gaze had at first been directed to a tall Afro-Caribbean man who was moving among and examining the many rolls and bails of cloth like an expert. I wrongly assumed it was his business. He didn't seem to mind my mistake and kindly directed me to the back of the shop where a group of women were happily discussing some complicated purchases. I eventually identified the owner in their midst, a lady leaning on the long measuring stick which I am learning is a rod of knowledge and authority, as well as a tool of the trade, in the fabric shops on our High Street.
She told simple me that this was 'the fabric store', which no doubt was enough information for her customers, who bought her cloth at from 75p to two pounds ninety-nine a meter. She was unfazed when I reminded her that there is another shop called the Fabric Store less than a minute's walk down the road. 'Oh, but we are the P.C.E. Fabric Store.'
That clarified, all I could conclude, as a non-expert, is that she rans one of a cluster of such fabric shops which people outside Walthamstow bemoan are fairly rare nowadays. There seem to be plenty of rolls to choose from, here or at the other Fabric Store, Textile Centre Ltd., the New Fabric Shop and at Hussain Fabrics.
The shop then went through a very long refit for many months and has only today openned as Saeed's Fabrics.