Since 1460, the du Pré family has lived in Jersey.

Yet, in 1928, my father, Derek du Pré, having worked at Lloyds Bank Jersey for two years, was posted to their Southampton branch. He was just twenty and didn’t want to leave his beloved Jersey.

Dad loved sailing and adventures, but his parents believed it to be a good promotion. Unhappily he left Jersey and as he was to find out later in life this action was to sever the family’s 500 years of history and connection with this jewel of an island.

Luce’s Eau-de-Cologne

My grandfather, James Wilfrid du Pré, had a scent-making company with his brother Harold. Luce’s was at 42 King Street, St Helier where Harold, a perfumier of outstanding talent, perfected Luce’s Eau de Cologne winning gold medals in Cologne much to the extreme annoyance of his German competitors.

Harold also created Eau-de-Cologne in stick form, calling it Frozen Eau-de-Cologne. Perfect for ladies to keep in their handbags and dab on glowing foreheads in hot weather.

Pipettes and flasks

As children, my two sisters and I remember the wonderful smells in the shop and the laboratory at the back where perfumiers, huddled over pipettes and flasks, created perfumes for ladies many of which made the journey from the mainland just for their Luce’s perfume.

Sadly, the business began to decline in the 1960s, finally being sold to Elegance which subsequently was also consigned to the great graveyard of failed companies in the sky.

No 42 is now a clothing shop. Its original and intricate shop front replaced with sheets of plate glass.

When I asked its manager if I could tour the building I was told that although the upper floors had never been touched in decades and were a delight to behold, Health and Safety forbade non-employees from the building. You can guess what I thought.

To stand and stare…

As Lin and I stood and gazed at 42 King Street, once a thriving perfume business spilling exotic smells into King Street and now just a clothing shop, memories flooded back. I said quietly, half to myself, ‘I wonder what happened to the old pump organ on the top floor that grandfather use to play, and I wonder what happened to those prize-winning recipes for Eau-de-Cologne?’

St Helier’s Royal Square

Lin and I walked into St Helier’s Royal Square where I was reminded of Dad’s story of the Victory V embedded in the granite walkway.

Apparently, during the Nazi occupation of Jersey in the second world war, parts of Royal square were being repaired. Never noticed by the occupying forces, even as they trooped over the square, a victory V was laid and remains to this day.

Liberation Square

As we returned to the marina, we walked through Liberation Square and stood looking at the sculpture, commissioned and erected to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Jersey’s liberation from Nazi occupation.

Originally designed to show islanders releasing doves of peace, it came under considerable criticism. The outcry was that any doves would have been eaten by starving German soldiers. The sculpture was altered to show islanders raising the British flag as had happened on the day of liberation.

Central Market

I mustn’t forget that we’d been to Central Market in Beresford Street. This is a large indoor market and always ablaze with colour. In the centre is an ornamental fountain which completely froze in the late 1880s. To preserve the goldfish that swim in the fountain, they are removed in winter and kept warm.

Opened in 1882, the high domed victorian Central Market is in full use everyday with 45 stalls of flowers, fruit and vegetables, butchery, bakery and wine.

You’ll also find Jersey-specific goodies, such as Des Mèrvelles (Jersey Wonders – small rich cakes), De Nièr Beurre (Black Butter, an apple preserve from the cider-making industry), and, of course, rich Jersey milk, butter, and thick double cream which, in Guernsey, is known as skimmed milk.

You may also find a bulb of the exotic Amaryllis Belladonna, originally from South Africa, but brought to Jersey where it’s now grown and known as the ‘Jersey Lily’.

Jersey’s fish market is a few doors down the road in a separate building, and is abundant with fish and shell fish caught locally by Jersey fisherman.

‘Nuff said

I find I could go on and on reminiscing about the old bus turntable, the mailboats and Captain Large, the crane that used to lift our old Wolseley 12hp car (NPL 403) from the mailboat to the shore, the shame that Portelet Bay now an array of stark white blocks of flats across its cliff top, and the spoiling of St Helier’s harbour with multi-coloured apartments.

But enough is enough. Maybe that’s why I’ve come to live in Guernsey, instead.

Piers
from the Saloon of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

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