It was 1958 when Santokh Singh left the family home in the Punjab of Northern India, to join his uncle living in Alexandra Road, Balsall Heath. A 22-year-old metal working Lathe turner, his mother’s brother had been in Birmingham since 1952 and encouraged Santokh to come to Britain.
Quest for a Better life
He began his quest for ‘a better life’ with a job as a Brake Fitter at Snow Hill station. Santokh wanted a business of his own, and began travelling to East London to buy from spice merchants, Indian food wholesalers, and from the vegetable market in Spitalfields. He travelled back to Birmingham with Asian spices, Okra (Ladies Fingers), Aubergine (Egg Plant), Black Bean, various Lentils, and large amounts of Garlic. He loaded his bicycle with exotic food and delivered directly to his customers door. This was done while he was still working at Snow Hill.
Santokh’s wife, Harbans Kaur, joined him in 1961, she is the lady in a Janet Mendelsohn‘s photograph of the shop (1968), with Daughter, Manjinder, at the entrance to Victoria Place. The family lived above the shop. Three of his brothers joined the venture for a new life in Birmingham in 1966, and it was this that led to the shop name. Customers would refer to Santokh and his brothers as ‘Uncle’. And the shop as ‘Uncles` . This reflected the friendly interrelationship the Singh` family had with their customers and beyond that, the community. And so ‘UNCLE’s’ name was established.
Uncle’s Family business
Santokh and Harbans had a family of seven children. The youngest, Surinder remembers his childhood as a mix of work and play. After school they would play active roles in the shop. Pricing goods, sweeping and mopping the shop floor, restocking shelves etc. Surinder recalls playing at the back of the Highgate Road shop:
‘The layout was as back to back housing. There were bomb buildings (or ‘bomb-pecks’ we would call them) to play on. We played tag, hopscotch, marbles, throwing two pence coins against the wall. We would make play swords from thin balsa wood strips, taken from tomato crates, the handles would be taped together. We made go-karts from milk crates, planks of wood, axel and wheels from an old pram, and rope attached for steering.’
Surinder Singh
Uncle’s, famous for being the original supplier of the iconic pressed-steel Birmingham Balti dishes, shut down after an impressive 60-year run when owner Surinder Singh retired. Blogpost from ‘Journey’ project, Balsall Heath Local History Society.
