18 May 2026

A beloved independent retailer who spent more than five decades serving his local community has died after a courageous battle with cancer.

Derek Lewis, who ran Glickman's ironmongers on Tottenham High Road for 53 years, passed away peacefully at his local hospice earlier this month. He was known locally for his saying: "If you couldn't find it in Glickman's, it probably does not exist."

 

Derek first walked through the doors of Glickman's as a 13-year-old schoolboy, working four evenings a week after school and eight hours every Saturday. He went on to take over the business in 1998 and remained at its heart until retiring in 2015. The shop itself was a Tottenham institution, having traded on the High Road since 1932 on the site of an ironmonger established in 1880, serving the community for over 80 years. In 2002 it proudly marked 70 years of continuous trading, standing as one of the oldest surviving shops in the area.

 

Glickman's was known for its traditional, old-fashioned service, stocking everything from everyday tools and hardware to a vast and often surprising range of additional items that drew customers from far and wide. Among its biggest accounts were the local council schools and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, whose ground stood just 50 yards from the shop's front door. Derek served generations of the same families over the years, and it was a point of pride that he never stocked anything but quality.

 

Derek was also chairman of the local traders association on Tottenham High Road and remained a fully paid-up past member of Bira in retirement, because he believed in supporting local.

 

His wife Corinne, to whom he had been married for 50 years after the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, said: "He was a lovely, lovely man, very caring. He worked there for 53 years from just after he left school. He always tried to buy local - he believed that we should support your local stores."

 

She added: "We didn't have a computer. The most advanced thing we had in the shop was a fax machine. But it worked for us."
 
 

Outside the shop, Derek threw himself into community life. After he and Corinne moved to Bournemouth following retirement, he became churchwarden at their local church, treasurer of an Austin A30 car club and an enthusiastic gardener. He is survived by Corrine, their two children Charlotte and Russell, four grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

 

Jeff Moody, Chief Commercial Officer at Bira, who has known him personally for over 30 years, said: "Derek was exactly the kind of retailer that Bira exists to champion - someone who gave more than half a century to his shop, his customers and his local community. He will be very fondly remembered by all of us at Bira."

 

Derek's funeral takes place on Tuesday 26th May. 

The family are raising funds for Macmillan Caring Locally

The independent hospice charity that provided Derek with exceptional care in his final days. Donations support the Jolley Trolley - which offers patients a drink and a takeaway on Friday evenings - as well as daily newspapers and the upkeep of the hospice garden. 

Make a donation
 

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