Eldan @ 988 Pollokshaws Road

The other week a friend of ours hoover started making a crazy whirring sound and billowing out black smoke. It kinda looked like an F1 car wheel-burning on the starting line. Rather than wait for it to drop its handbrake and shoot off round the room they switched it off and I then suggested just the place to get it fixed.

Eldan on Pollokshaws Road has always interested me. Its like a shop from a different time. I love its exterior all dark red wood with projecting yellow wooden lettering. There's a hand crafted care and pleasing aesthetic quality to this signage that is lost in the modern multi-colour laminated fascia signs that most shops have these days. The door is also rather lovely, with a bright yellow sunburst design that was popular in the 50's.

Inside the shop, it is also an experience and again shows its old school roots. The shop is atheistically bare, just simple wooden walls and floor but it is full of household equipment. The repair room through the back is stocked full with stacks of hoovers, many under repair but some for sale. Every wall is covered in methodically laid out spare parts/ hoover bags etc and by the window there are tons of washing machines and tumble dryers and old fridges, freezers and cookers all of which have been carefully repaired and are either awaiting collection by their owners or are peering out the window like little puppies trying to catch the eye of a passing someone who will take them home and look after them.

James who runs the shop also adds to the character of the shop. He is a huge and friendly man and he towers over you when you enter the shop with hands so big it looks like he could pick up a machine in either one like giant cranes.

I handed over the hoover and a week later, once the spare parts had arrived, it was back in full working order. Unfortunately, the parts were quite expensive as it required a whole new motor as someone had not been clearing it out properly and the air intakes were blocked and the old motor had burned out. The labour wasn't too much though and it was still a lot cheaper than going out and buying a new one so our pal was pretty pleased.

Eldan is definitely a store from another era, you can't imagine people opening shops like this anymore but I wish they would. For one thing as James says, the manufactures don't make it easy to get the spare parts anymore and they have cut their initial production methods down to the minimum in a drive to bring down prices so the machines themselves are not as well made as they once were and are not built to last. Gone are the days of our parents when a washing machine could last thirty, forty years, now if it makes it two years longer than its warranty we are impressed.

But in an age when "recycle" and "re-use" are key buzz words surely we should all be encouraging manufacturers to revert to the old ways when products were made to be handed down and "renewed". Until that happens though, you can keep your machines running for longer by taking them for a visit to Eldan.

Eldan Electrical‎

988 Pollokshaws Rd
Glasgow City G41 2HA
0141 649 5862‎

PS - Having the spoken to the current owner James, he advised that the shop is called Eldan because it was originally set up by a husband and wife ELla and DANiel. I'd always wondered.