Nostalgia: The London Armoury

[David Nimrod]

I can't imagine how bitter I'd have been, had I been a gun owner at the time...

That bitterness never leaves... being totally stitched up has that effect

[Sim G]

I love reading stories like this, as the handgun ban was well before my time as a gun owner! Could you really get a Glock for under £400?!

You could get them a lot cheaper at the time David bought his. That was 6 months after the Dunblane massacre and well into the debate/rail roading....

There were some very expensive pistols changing hands for very little money relatively.

[mag41uk]

Here he is - still not smiling!

http://www.myspace.com/georgestaden

[ArcofZen]

Here he is - still not smiling!

http://www.myspace.com/georgestaden

Wont open on my work internet.. 'adult content?'

[ordnance]

I love reading stories like this, as the handgun ban was well before my time as a gun owner! Could you really get a Glock for under £400?!

It sounds like a lot of smaller gun shops went out of business as a result of the ban. Kinda feels like it shook every single aspect of the shooting community to the core. I can't imagine how bitter I'd have been, had I been a gun owner at the time...

You still can get a Glock for under £400, they must of being more popular back in the day you rarely see them at the range now.

[ColinR]

Tom Collins shop was in New Kent Road about half a mile from The Elephant and Castle. I bought all my handguns from Tom although the shop was closed for a while after Tom was welding up some fairground targets and set off some black powder which injured him and damaged the building. The shop was called The Southern Armoury and I also belonged to The Southern Armoury Gun Club which shot on the old Running Deer and adjoining pistol range once a month. There was obviously a close connection between Lewis Collins and Tom as Lewis would often shoot with us. As would goon Michael Bentine between his forays teaching South American armies how to shoot pistol. Tom was basically a Gypsy with close connections to fairgrounds throughout the UK and supplied those moving duck targets. He also supplied Blashford-Snell's many expeditions. All in all a very colourful character who also had a superb collection of Winchester rifles. He once showed me a gold plated Sterling sub machine gun he had specially plated for some Arab Prince. A great loss to the shooting community.

[FredB]

Being involved with the design of military vehicles, I used to get invited to the Defense Equipment Show. One year, Stirling had brought out a revolver and I sought out their stand to have a look at it. On the reception desk was a chrome plated sub machine gun. I was admiring this when one of the staff approached and said: "what you really want is one of these", producing from under the desk a green leather case. In the case was a gold plated sub machine gun with with gold plated spare magazines and a gold plated bayonet. As I was handling it, an extremely tired looking squaddy approached, with his eyes popping out of his head. "It won't get you promoted lad" said the Stirling rep. "No, but it will definitely get you bloody noticed!" the squaddy replied.
Apparently this kit was a best seller in Arab countries---Stirling made hundreds of them.
I thought the revolver was pretty poor and it turned out not to be a success.
Fred

[David Nimrod]

Apparently this kit was a best seller in Arab countries---Stirling made hundreds of them.

Hmm... speaks volumes about the Arab attitude to their newly acquired wealth aaarggh

[Chapuis]

ColinR I am confused, looks like the old memory is playing tricks on me . I'm certain you are absolutely correct when you say that Tom Collins ran the Southern Armoury but which company ran the banner line "The Original London Armoury"? I will have to try to look it up in some old Guns Review magazines that I think we have still hanging around the rifle club.

What you say about Tom coming from a showground background ties in with what he said about coming from Dowlais Top originally. One of the show families had winter quarters at the top of Dowlais years ago. Tom certainly had the typical showman's look about him, black (Grecian 2000 ?) slicked back hair. Also the story about the gold plated Stirling, well there was a picture of that in Tom's scrapbook.

Around that time there were quite a few gold plated guns around. I remember one of the last Anno Domini meetings at Bisley and a company with a stand full of them. Gold plated Stirlings, H&K 91 rifles, Mac 9 machine pistols, Uzis and a host of gold plated pistols including some very elaborate 1911s.
That year there were a number of semi auto Mac pistols on sale on a few different stands and I'm not certain if it is correct but I am told that the NRA thought that one or two of the sellers had overstepped the mark with regard to the type of goods being offered for sale and asked them to take them off display. Now I'm pretty easy going as regards military type firearms but even I had to admit it was starting to look a little bit like a bazaar where soldiers of fortune would shop.

Colin while we were in his shop Tom also told us a story of the shop once being part of a much bigger enterprise and of a factory/warehouse that used to be sited somewhere nearby. He also mentioned some sort of tie up with Interarms , do you remember what the story behind that was?

[ColinR]

Like you my memory is not all it used to be, but I do have a slight recollection that The Southern Armoury and The Original London Armoury might have been one and the same. Without a doubt Tom would have pushed the point that he was the 'original'. I cannot remember any connection Tom might have had with Interarms, but again memory might be at fault. I was then a rep for Philips and lived in Dulwich, so South London was part of my territory and rather than spend the afternoon at the cinema I would go see Tom and invariably make tea for anyone else wasting time away and listening to Tom's wonderful stories sitting on boxes of .22 and shotgun ammunition piled up on the customer side of the counter. On several occasions Tom would give me a chitty and I would collect a load of guns from The London Proof House. Going to the LPH was a real experience seeing every type of gun available piled on benches or hooked up on the wall. There was also a bed of sand where a dozen or so black powder barrels would be proof fired at the same time. Everything to do with shooting was so much more laid back then and somehow more accessible, though Tom's way of business was without a doubt 'Original'.