At 110A High Street, Children's Empire was a prime position at the end of the lower part of the High Street, where the street is crossed by the Palmerston Road (the extension of which very few people know is actually called Willow Walk). This is an important junction, as there is a major pedestrian crossing point over to the next section of the market. On the opposite corners are Sainsbury's, Hair and Beauty UK Ltd and B.A.D.Warehouse.
Children's Empire sold the kind of clothes which children have to wear when their parents want to show them off on their best behaviour at formal gatherings. Spruced up and wearing the clothes of this store, many a child has been traumatised by the fussy attentions of proud mothers at church, temple, synagogue and mosque; the whole ordeal necessitated by the admiring presence of distant adult relatives. There are at least 31 such places of worship in Walthamstow.
Like our choice of religions, there was also an unfeasibly extensive range of suits, waistcoat and matching tie ensembles and best frilly frocks (even floor length dresses with velvety tops and white collars in stock). All for the embarrassment of the suffering little darlings, whose only consolation is that everyone else has to put on the stuff.
None of these hapless children are likely to envy their peers, unless they ran into the lucky little emperor whose parents kitted him out with a pair of tiny jeans I once saw in the window, at the cost of thirty pounds or so.
Prices were much more reasonable once the shop decided to take the "Closing Down Sale' route, with large white lettering in the windows announcing the impending doom of the business. This sale went on for weeks, but eventually came to an end. The shop was refitted, apparently as a clothes shop aimed at adults who don't like nice clobber, called Storm City.
[Updated 10 November 2009]