The artist, Alan Edward Robbins, produced a watercolour of the scene in Albion Street in 1981 when the shop was calling itself The Treasure Chest.
It was a familiar presence near the corner of High Street North for many years, selling a potpourri of antiques and second-hand memorabilia. Its owner would often stand outside the shop, chatting to passers-by.
The shop was demolished in 1983 and its site became the entrance to the new Eleanor Cross shopping precinct developed by the local builders Robinson and White. The photo on the right is a view of the scene today, with the unchanged Amici restaurant building just visible on the left.
The painting has been shown to Dunstable and District Local History Society by Sue Heley whose husband was local photographer Philip Heley. He had an office above DSC Electrics in Albion Street and was given the painting by the artist who lived in Leighton Buzzard. Mr Heley died in 2007.
The history society has been unable, so far, to trace the name of the owner of the Treasure Chest. Reminiscences on social media talk fondly about the excitement of finding copies of the old ABC of British Bus Fleets on sale there for a mere 10p each.
The nearest equivalent in the town today might be Mannucchi’s antiques shop, which was in Wood Street, Dunstable, in the days of the Treasure Chest. Mannucchi’s moved to the old Lloyd’s Bank premises in Station Road in 2005.
Dunstable Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society.