Bexley small mall and comic shop.

 This was a part of my childhood that until recently, I'd entirely memory holed.  In Bexleyheath, there was a parade of shops going down from the clocktower. Sort of past Marks and that. 

What got me thinking about this was comics gate. The bring decent stories back to comics guys and the realization that in the UK, our comic progression basically went something like Beano* > 2000AD > Viz. Then when the 90's hit there was X-Men / Batman cartoon's on TV or the Defenders of the Earth that dumb show with Firestar from the 80s for older kids.

We knew who the Marvel / DC superheroes were, sort of, just not from comic books, but from  films and games. Superman was Christopher Reeve and the guy who could spot the damage smoking fags could do. Same with Michael Keatons Batman. At a pinch we'd know the popular ones but not who the franchise it belonged to.

So how is this relevant to local history. There was a comic shop there, off the broadway as you travelled down towards the small mall opposite the cop shop and council offices. I knew of no one who actually went there apart from an old boss, who was a comic nerd. It stuck in my mind as apart from this, I knew of no other places like it growing up. We got all our comics from the local newsagent, along with Panini football stickers and wham bars.

The small mall was also quite a nice place to visit, past the actual shopping centre, roughly starting where Poundland is now if you visit. The comic shop was opposite near enough, to give you an idea of location. 

They had a few shops in there selling things like discount sweets, I think DR Who stuff, and definitely console games,  I remember there being a copy of F91 Gundam for Super Famicom being there as well as Ballblazer as an American cart with appropriate middling review in Super Play. 

The discount sweet place definitely did Christmas stuff too, as we got boxed sweets and Turkish Delight when Xmas came around.

It was  redeveloped around the late 90's about the same time Safeway disappeared from the main centre. Its now part of the outside shopping area and car park along with a Poundland and Sainsburys. 

*Deep breath, You may not have started with a Beano. Depending on choice, it may be a Dandy, Whizzer and Chips, Beezer or Bunty and Mandy if you were a girl. Later you'd progress to Look-in or Smash Hits or some sort of game mag. 

Zzap 64 ,Your Sinclair or Amstrad Action if a computer guy or Mean Machines / CVG if you leaned more console wise.