Building Our Past

The Legacy of Freeman, Hardy & Willis

Posted on February 26, 2016 by buildingourpast

Market Place, Hitchin: detail of mosaic sign. (R. Baxter)

Introduction

Boot and shoe dealers were amongst the first chains of shops to emerge in the mid-to-late 19^th century. Many sprang up when footwear manufacturers decided to eliminate the middleman and sell their products direct to customers through their own retail branches. A few, like Timpson, subverted this commercial model by starting as retailers and only later branching into manufacture.

Early chains included Freeman, Hardy & Willis, Cash & Co, Lilley & Skinner, Stead & Simpson, True-Form, Lennard and Milwards. Following in their footsteps in the 20^th century were Barratt, Manfield, Saxone, Lotus & Delta, Dolcis, Peter Lord (Clarks), and many more. Once household names, most of these have long gone. They thrived in an age before imports effectively destroyed Britain’s native footwear industry, severing the link between the factories and their outlets.

This series of posts on the shoe shops of the past begins with Freeman Hardy & Willis, whose fascia was a common sight on British high streets until the company’s demise in 1996.

Sandwich, photographed 2009

The Story of Freeman, Hardy & Willis

Freeman, Hardy & Willis was created in Leicester in 1875 and formed into a limited liability company with £20,000 capital in December 1876. Described as ‘boot and shoe manufacturers and factors and leather merchants’, it was named after its three directors: William Freeman, Arthur Hardy and Frederick Willis. Rather remarkably, Hardy was an architect by profession. Soon after incorporation, in 1877, the partnership was dissolved and the company merged with E. Wood & Co., a manufacturing firm established by Edward Wood (1839-1917) in the 1860s. As Chairman, Wood assumed responsibility for the subsequent success of Freeman, Hardy & Willis. He became a local worthy, receiving a knighthood in 1906 and serving as mayor of Leicester on four occasions.

Pearl granite stall risers and mosaic floor at Bideford, c.2000. (K. Morrison)

Shops bearing the Freeman, Hardy & Willis signboard began to open by 1879, if not before. Early branches included Leamington Spa, Lincoln and Leeds. These outlets retailed own-brand footwear for men, women and children and, like most multiples, sold for ‘ready money’ (cash) only. They were stocked from a ‘handsome warehouse and manufactory’ built in Leicester in 1876-77. Occupying the corner of Rutland Street and Humberstone Road, the building was constructed by Gilbert & Pipes, local builders, at a cost of £6,100. It was fitted with up-to-date machinery, including Wright’s blocking machines, Gimson’s presses and Grimes’ lift cutters. The manager was John Butcher. No evidence has turned up, but one wonders if Arthur Hardy was the architect.

Freeman, Hardy & Willis’s works on Rutland Street, Leicester, in 1878

Growth was astonishingly rapid. By 1887 Freeman, Hardy & Willis boasted 130 outlets. This grew to 150 by 1890, 200 by 1894, and 300 by 1903, when the London chain Rabbits & Sons was acquired. Later takeovers included Pocock Bros. and Hall & Co. These acquisitions helped Freeman, Hardy & Willis expand to 460 shops on the eve of war in 1914. In the early years the firm was advertised as ‘The Boot Kings’, ‘The Boot People’ or ‘The People’s Boot Providers’, but by 1900 it was claiming to be ‘The Largest Boot and Shoe Dealers in the World’. By then the shops had separate ladies’ rooms and repair departments.

Repair Depot, Orchard Street, Canterbury. This building probably dates from c.1925-30. Behind the façade the workshop was lit by north-facing lights in a sawtooth roof. (c.Historic England)

Information about Freeman, Hardy & Willis’s building and shopfitting activities is not easy to come by, though disparate archives exist and this might be a fruitful field of study (for someone else, some day!). Evidently some properties were bought outright whilst others were leased, and the majority were converted or refitted rather than being new-build. The most tangible remnants of the shops are mosaic tiles on the floors of entrance lobbies, with the initials ‘FHW’ rendered in various styles. In addition, a very splendid mosaic sign survives on the canted corner of a building that housed the Hitchin branch from c.1900. The shopfitter F. E. and G. Maund was responsible for the branch in Forest Gate in 1898, and may have worked for the firm on a regular basis.

Market Place, Hitchin, Hertfordshire. (R. Baxter)

Hitchin. (K. Morrison)

Leavesley and North - Copy In 1908 Freeman Hardy & Willis announced that it was discontinuing manufacture in London – presumably a reference to a factory inherited from Rabbits & Sons – to concentrate on its Northamptonshire factory, which was in the throes of extension. The Kettering Boot & Shoe Co., which had supplied Freeman Hardy & Willis since 1879, was taken over directly in 1913 (factory dem. 1996). Jonathan North (1855-1939) was appointed Sir Edward Wood’s successor as the Chairman of Freeman Hardy & Willis in 1912 and subsequently, in 1925, Leavesley & North Ltd was acquired. In 1928 Freeman, Hardy & Willis was bought out by J. Sears & Co, which traded as the True-Form Boot Co of Northampton. Once united, True-Form and Freeman, Hardy & Willis – which maintained their separate identities – had 720 shops.

Letchworth, 1930s: note the date 1877 in the window.

Freeman, Hardy & Willis’s Rutland Street headquarters was bombed in 1940. Following a close study of American warehouse methods, a new modern office block – Enterprise House – was erected on the old site in 1955-57, to designs by Lewis Solomon Son & Joseph. This was converted into a hotel around 1970, but the site is currently being redeveloped yet again.

FHW Humberstone RD PP AA026667 July 2001

The Rutland Street Headquarters in 2001. (c.Historic England)

Catford.

One particular Freeman, Hardy & Willis shop caught the imagination of the architectural press after the Second World War. This was the Catford branch, built in 1953 to a design by the modernist architect Patrick Gwynne (1913-2003). Set on a corner, the recessed shopfront featured display cases wrapped around structural columns, suspended signs, and staggered display shelving. The shopfitting was by A. Davies & Co of London, who were also responsible for the Putney branch of the late 1950s. The architects of Putney were Bronek Katz & Vaughan, who also worked for Bata. Bronek Katz & Vaughan had probably been commissioned by Nadine Beddington, who became Freeman, Hardy & Willis’s advisory architect in 1955. From 1957 until 1967 she was the Chief Architect to Freeman Hardy & Willis, True Form and Character Shoes, all part of the British Shoe Corporation (BSC).

The BSC was the brainchild of Charles Clore. As Chairman of J. Sears & Co, he sold a great deal of shop property in 1953, raising millions which he invested in diverse businesses. The umbrella company was renamed Sears Holdings in 1954. It acquired Character Shoes, a 50-strong chain, in 1954, then Curtess Shoes, Manfield, with 180 branches, and Dolcis, with 250 branches, in 1956. These were bundled together as the BSC, with six factories and 1,500 shops. Saxone and Lilley & Skinner, which had merged in 1956, were acquired by the BSC in 1962.

The former Leominster branch in 2000. Note the lobby floor as well as the ghost lettering on the fascia. (K. Morrison)

By the early 1990s times had changed. A struggling BSC was restructuring and Sears was selling off hundreds of poorly-performing shoe shops. Changing footwear fashions and cheap foreign imports had transformed this area of retailing. Freeman Hardy & Willis was sold to Fascia for £11.7 million in 1995. Fascia’s collapse a year later brought about the closure of all remaining Freeman, Hardy & Willis shops. Just scant traces of the firm survive, notably its mosaic tiling, but not enough to leave a strong impression of a distinctive and lasting house style.

Click here to read about the boot and shoe industry in Northamptonshire.

Posted in Shoe Shops | 22 Comments

Lipton’s: ‘A Beautiful Study in White’

Posted on February 21, 2016 by buildingourpast

Chesterfield

Introduction

Lipton’s headquarters of 1896

A self-made man, Sir Thomas J. Lipton (1848-1931) opened his first provision shop in Stobcross Street, Glasgow, in 1871. His shops multiplied, their openings trumpeted with stunts and fanfares, and Lipton quickly made his fortune. But it was his decision to grow, manufacture and sell tea – starting with the purchase of estates in Ceylon in 1889 – that made his name so famous around the world.

By 1889, Lipton had 150 shops, known as ‘markets’. When ‘Lipton’s Market’ opened in Cardiff in 1891 the façade was almost completely concealed by gigantic lettering proclaiming: ‘The Largest Tea and Provision Dealer in the World’. In 1896 Lipton’s new London headquarters, designed by Mark W. King, opened on City Road. This replaced older offices on nearby Bath Street. Illuminated throughout by electricity, the building accommodated 1,000 members of staff, including the architect’s department where the plans and specifications of shops were dealt with. It still stands next to Moorfields Eye Hospital, but has been modernised.

The grocery counter, Chesterfield

The Aberdeen Journal considered the new branch on Union Street worthy of description in 1908: ‘Magnificent oak fittings have been placed in the shop, while the artistic tiling and beautiful marblework complete a harmonious and pleasing scheme of adornment. A smart cash railway system has been introduced . . .’.

Lipton had 500 shops by 1919. In 1927 it was decided to close unprofitable branches and to update the look of the shops. The Cornishman reported: ‘It is understood that the green-tiled shop fronts which for many years have been a familiar feature to Cornish shoppers, and indeed to shoppers in almost every town in Great Britain, are to disappear. These fronts – the recognised mark of a Lipton’s shop – are to be replaced by new fittings, equally distinctive, but more in keeping with modern ideas’.

A few years later, in December 1932, the North Devon Journal reported that the Barnstaple shop had been modernised: ‘The entire shop has, in short, been gutted from floor to ceiling, all the old wooden fixtures, plaster, and paper, being superseded by polished marble and mahogany counters, marble shelving, and an ornamental tiled floor, with walls and ceilings to correspond. The new scheme may be described as a beautiful study in white, and the appearance of the handsome shop is greatly enhanced by a series of new electric lamps, with flood lighting in the windows’.

Chesterfield

In 1929 Lipton Ltd was one of a group of provision merchants (including Home & Colonial Stores [and its subsidiary, the Maypole Dairy Co.] and the Meadow Dairy Co.) which formed a central buying organisation called Allied Suppliers Ltd. Two years later, in 1931, Home & Colonial purchased Lipton. In 1960 the Home & Colonial group – distancing itself from associations of Empire – restyled itself Allied Suppliers.

Chesterfield

Lipton retained its separate identity and embraced self-service in the early 1950s: for example on Kirkgate, Leeds, in 1952. Most of its premises, however, remained small in comparison with contemporary Tesco or Sainsbury outlets. It never developed large superstores. In 1982 Allied Suppliers, including 600 Lipton shops, was sold to Argyll Foods. Gradually the shops were rebranded as Presto. The last 84 in the UK closed on 26 September 1986, though two branches remained open for a time in Gibraltar.

Spandrel of main entrance to Lipton’s offices on City Road (1896). The figure appears to be in Indian costume and is depicted against foliage – presumably tea leaves! (photo: R. Baxter)

Surviving Traces

The interior of Lipton’s, 16 Keptie Street, Arbroath, dating from c.1908. Courtesy of Lindsay Lennie.

Just one historic Lipton’s interior is known to survive in Scotland. This is 16 Keptie Street, Arbroath. From local newspapers it is clear that Lipton occupied this shop from 1908 until 1927, when the business relocated to 152 High Street. The tiled interior – probably dating from 1908 – has been attributed convincingly to the tile layer James Duncan by Lindsay Lennie. It incorporates thistles and shamrocks. Incidentally, Lipton’s yacht was named ‘Shamrock’.

A detail of the tiling at 16 Keptie Street, Arbroath, with the letter ‘L’ for Lipton. Courtesy of Lindsay Lennie.

Detail of tiling at 16 Keptie Street, Arbroath. Courtesy of Lindsay Lennie.

The best preserved Lipton’s shop in England is undoubtedly Jackson’s the Bakers, 7 Central Pavement, Chesterfield. A remarkable survival, probably from the 1910s or 1920s, this retains the shopfront and the interior, almost completely intact. Outside, there is a sash window to the left of the lobby entrance, and fixed glazing to the right, with mosaic tiles on the floor. The stall risers, tiled in dark green – perhaps the old style abandoned in 1927 (see above) – were damaged when the Lipton name was removed.

Jackson’s the Bakers, Chesterfield

Chesterfield

On the left-hand side, inside Jackson’s, is a long tiled counter, with marble slabs behind, for retailing fresh produce such as bacon, ham, eggs, cheese and butter. This is comparable with the counters in David Greig shops of the same vintage. On the right is a wooden counter, with wooden shelves behind, for the sale of groceries such as tea, coffee and preserves. Above this runs the slogan ‘THE BUSINESS ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SETS’. The tiled walls are decorated with swags in green-tiled frames. According to the Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society these tiles were probably manufactured at Wade’s Flaxman Works in Burslem.

Lipton’s entrance lobby, Stornoway, c.1930

Lipton’s black and white chequer floor survives in Chesterfield. Identical tiles survive in the gated lobby of the former Stornoway branch, on the corner of Church Street and Cromwell Street. I have hazy childhood memories of the bright, hygienic interior of that shop, which truly was ‘a beautiful study in white’. The salesmen wore white shop coats and bustled about with pencils tucked behind their ears, cutting and weighing goods, wrapping them in white paper bags, and scribbling down the prices for the ‘girl’ at the cash booth to tot up. Memories of this shop flood back at the sight of the floor in Chesterfield.

Stornoway

The Legacy of David Greig

Posted on February 14, 2016 by buildingourpast

Hitchin

Introduction

Conditions were ripe for the success of multiple (chain) retailing in the late 19^th century, including provision dealers and grocers such as Home & Colonial Stores, Maypole Dairies, Lipton’s, Sainsbury’s and David Greig. From a base established in Brixton, south London, in 1888 David Greig expanded to include around 220 shops. These were located throughout London and the Home Counties, with some scattered at far west as Wales and Torquay.

Hitchin

The company made a fairly successful transition into the supermarket age after the Second World War, though never on the scale of its more confident rival, Sainsbury’s. After being taken over in the early 1970s, its freehold properties were sold off: a classic case of asset stripping. Within a few years the name had vanished from the high street . . . . but not in its entirety. For even today the words ‘David Greig’ and the monogram ‘DG’ can be spotted occasionally on façades and mosaic floors, while the company’s plump thistle logo – a nod to the family’s Scottish antecedents – might be seen on the pilasters, consoles and stall risers of shopfronts. Some rare and precious tiled interiors also survive. One of the best is now the Georgian restaurant ‘Kartuli’ at 65 Lordship Lane, Dulwich. Another, at 177 Streatham High Road is a Caribbean restaurant, and is a Grade II listed building.

Lordship Lane. According to the Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society, the tiles for David Greig shops were manufactured by H & R Johnson.

The Story of David Greig

The date of the establishment of the David Greig chain is considered to be 1870, when the founder’s mother opened a small provisions shop at 32 High Street, Hornsey, north London. His father, David Murray Greig (1841-1931), originally from Leith in Scotland, worked as a cabinet maker for the shopfitter Frederick Sage & Co of Grays Inn Road. While the shop in Hornsey was initially in the charge of Mrs Greig, by the time the Census was taken in 1881 D. M. Grieg was himself described as a ‘provision dealer’. He had evidently joined in her enterprise. Fine decorative tiling survives at either end of the shopfront of 32 High Street, and the historical significance of the shop is commemorated by a green plaque.

Deptford

David Greig (1866-1952) decided to strike out on his own as a provision dealer in 1888, and acquired a corner shop – previously a grocer’s shop – at 58 Atlantic Road, Brixton. He and his father fitted up the premises themselves, but the surviving tiling and thistle logo are later in date. The principal lines of merchandise were butter, cheese and eggs, with bacon sold at a counter in the open window, probably a sash raised over a marble slab. In 1889 Greig married, and the couple lived over the shop. His wife, Hannah (‘Annie’) Susan Deacock (1863-1941), later published an account of these early years in her book, My Life and Times being the Personal Reminiscences of Mrs David Greig (1940). Like Greig, she had a background in the retail trade, having worked as a child in her father’s dairy – later a David Greig branch – on Leather Lane, Holborn. From their young days the Greigs counted John Sainsbury and his wife – who also had a dairy in Holborn – amongst their friends.

Around 1890 Greig opened a second shop at Loughborough Junction, near Brixton. This was probably the small shop at 232 Coldharbour Lane where a wooden ‘David Greig’ fascia with ‘Brilliant cut’ gilded lettering has recently been uncovered beneath a modern sign for a futon workshop. It was followed by a third branch, a shop selling poultry and pork on the opposite side of Atlantic Road. Many other David Greig shops subsequently opened in the Brixton area, and beyond.

Deptford

Reflecting their commercial prosperity and growing family, in 1894 the Greigs graduated to a three-storey terraced house called ‘Montrose’ at 55 Josephine Avenue, Brixton. In 1901 they moved again, to a larger house at 51 Brixton Hill, before finally, in 1912, settling at The Red House, Southend Road, Beckenham, Kent. This mansion had its own museum and expansive grounds; neighbours included the Robertsons of marmalade fame and the Craddocks, later to excel as TV cooks. In addition, the Greigs had a seaside villa at Westgate (acquired c.1914) and a country house, Oversley Castle in Warwickshire (acquired 1919). The founder was followed into the business by his son David Ross Greig (1891-1964), who became the Chairman. Until 1972 key board positions were occupied by members of the Greig family – whether direct descendants of the founder or cousins – and they remained the principal shareholders.

Lordship Lane

Although he could draw on the skills of his joiner father, David Greig probably engaged in building work, as well as specialist shopfitting, from the 1890s. Exteriors were often clad in polished pink granite, as indeed were Sainsbury’s shops. Like other provision dealers, David Greig’s shops featured large sash windows with marble slabs to either side of the doorway; those who traded additionally in dry goods, like Lipton’s, generally had a fixed window to one side and a sash to the other. Two long counters ran the length of the shop to either side of a central gangway with a black-and-white chequered floor. A shop of this exact type survived completely intact until very recently on Deptford High Road. To the rear was the cash booth and a cold store. The walls and counters were clad in decorative tiles in rich ochre and oxblood colours, and the thistle motif was prominent. By the time of the First World War if not earlier, own-brand goods with the ‘thistle’ label – including groceries – were sold in David Greig’s shops.

Hitchin

By the 1920s David Greig’s architects’ department was headed by Philip Woollatt Home (1877-1947) who had designed kitchenless houses for Brent Garden Village in 1909-11 and was in partnership with William Hollis until 1912.

Home’s name crops up in relation to David Greig stores in several locations throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including Exmouth Market, London (1924), Windsor (1927), Basingstoke (1930) and Clacton (1932-33). He may have been responsible for installing Greig’s pioneering experiment in self-service in 1923. Home also designed the Hitchin branch, with its faience front, in 1929.

Around 1928 David Greig’s headquarters moved from Ferndale Road, Brixton, to ‘The Scotch House’ at 145 Waterloo Road. This imposing listed modern building was designed by Payne & Wyatt, with a façade on the model of Selfridge’s store. It fell victim to façadism around 1979-80, with all but the front elevation being demolished to make way for a new development. Part of Greig’s depot to the rear on Webber Street was photographed prior to demolition.

The most celebrated building associated with David Greig’s business is the store at 23 St George’s Street, Canterbury, designed by Robert Paine & Partners and built in 1954. It is listed (at Grade II) as a ‘butcher’s shop’, though described at the time as a ‘grocer’s shop’. Significant alterations were made when the premises were taken over by Superdrug around 2000. A rather wonderful painting of 1954 by Gordon Davis depicts the construction of the shop, with its distinctive row of ‘floating’ gables, in a quarter of the city which had suffered particularly badly from bomb damage during the war.

Canterbury

Canterbury in 2009

Moving into the world of the supermarket, David Greig had to expand its merchandise beyond its traditional specialisms. In 1962 it amalgamated with Colebrook & Co, a chain of butchers and fishmongers with shops throughout the south and Midlands. Expansion and modernisation were clearly on the agenda and in 1963 the company advertised in The Times for a ‘qualified architect to assist in development and maintenance of shop property spread throughout Southern England. Age about 30.’ I have not identified the successful candidate.

In 1972 David Greig was taken over by Wrensons Stores, a Birmingham supermarket group led by Martin and Peter Green. The price was £10 million. At this time David Greig had 156 shops with an annual turnover of £30 million that can be compared with Tesco’s £300 million and Sainsbury’s £262 million. Wrensons was subsequently renamed David Greig. Before long six freehold stores (Bromley, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Ramsgate, Torquay and Plymouth) had been sold for £1.9 million, and the Waterloo Road headquarters was on the market at £3.25 million.

Lordship Lane

In April 1974 a controversial bid was made for the David Greig Grocery Group by Combined English Stores (CES). The initial bid of £12,250,000 million later dropped to £8.5 million, yet CES shareholders voted against the acquisition. This was immediately followed by a successful bid of £6 million from Fitch Lovell (Key Markets), largely recouped – in the usual dubious but time-honoured way – by selling shop property worth £3.4 million. By the end of 1976 only 85 David Greig shops remained. Despite talk of opening new shops under the David Greig name, before long the chain was extinct. The survival of so many examples of David Greig’s shopfitting 40 years later can only be ascribed to its superb quality.

Hitchin

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Posted in David Greig, Grocers, Provision Dealers and Dairies | 80 Comments

Main Street and High Street in Tinted Postcards of the 1930s and 40s

Posted on February 6, 2016 by buildingourpast

Lincoln Avenue, York, Nebraska in a ‘CT Art-Colortone’ postcard of the late 1940s, detail.

In the 1940s, the American variety retailers F. W. Woolworth & Co and S.S. Kresge stocked ‘linen’ postcards of their downtown stores. Most of these cards were ordered by individual store managers from the sales agents of the Curt Teich Company of Chicago. They were manufactured by a process known as ‘CT Art Colortone’, which had been in use since the early 1930s. In fact, Woolworth was ordering these cards by 1935, since some of the earliest examples show the ‘5 and 10 cent’ signage, abandoned in that year. Fortunately, the date of each view can usually be determined from its series number. The technique was emulated by some of Teich’s rivals, but went out of fashion in the early 1950s, superseded by polychrome printing.

Fifth Avenue, New York City, in a ‘Colourpicture’ postcard.

With their bright colouring, sharply-focused signage and embossed ‘linen’ weave, these cards have the appearance of miniature artworks, rather than the black and white photographs on which they were based.

Woolworth ‘Wonder’ Store, Seattle, Washington. The building was completely air-conditioned and had terrazzo floors. It featured columns of ‘Gold Grain Tennessee Marble’ and had three ‘fully equipped lunch units’. The card was manufactured by a local company: C. P. Johnstone Co.

Lincoln Avenue, York, Nebraska.

What makes the linen postcards from the early 1940s especially fascinating is the realisation that equivalent images of contemporary European shopping streets simply do not exist. In American cities, Woolworth and Kresge had no need to tape display windows in case bombs exploded nearby. Kerbs (or rather, curbs) and posts did not have to be daubed with white stripes so that drivers could navigate through nightly blackouts. And the availability of fuel meant that automobiles were plentiful. Older vehicles were often airbrushed out, and the presence of glossy sedans with hard tops, long bonnets and shining fenders – often diagonally parked – heightens the modernity of the scenes. Looking at these cards, Europeans may have felt as if they were gazing into a parallel universe.

Postcards of streetscapes had been produced in a similar style, albeit using different techniques, in 1930s Britain. It might be argued that these aimed to impart some American glamour to British high streets.

Burton Newcastle crop

The profoundly deaf artist Edward William Trick (1902-91), who studied under John Shapland in his home town of Exeter, painted watercolours which formed the basis of many cards manufactured by Valentines. The majority of these depicted well-known tourist spots: idyllic landscapes, piers and promenades, boats and harbours. Amongst these picturesque views, however, were important buildings (town halls, castles, churches) and some shopping streets. The style is rather chocolate-box, reminiscent of illustrations in Ladybird books or children’s jigsaw puzzles.

Northumberland Street in Newcastle is depicted in a Trick postcard, with Burton’s store in the foreground. As in Woolworth’s and Kresge’s postcards of the 1940s, new cars are particularly prominent and give the view a modern edge, matching the fashionable art deco style of Burton’s store. Street details are fascinating. The guard rails, for example, reflect the increasing dominance of the car, obtained by imposing new restrictions on pedestrians, usually in the name of safety. Just beyond Burton’s, Woolworth’s store is identifiable by its vivid red signboard. This was built in 1936, casting some doubt on the Valentine’s series numbering, which indicates a date of 1935. Burton’s splendid store has unfortunately been demolished.

Inverness BFC Parr The appeal of Inverness to the typical visitor was certainly not its modernity, rather its charm as a traditional Highland town. Here it is depicted by another Valentine’s artist, B.F.C. Parr. Again the series number implies a date of 1935. As yet, art deco store fronts like Burton’s in Newcastle had not disrupted the gentility of the High Street, and the prevalence of retractable awnings was distinctly old fashioned. Nevertheless, it is notable that the cars are up-to-date and a new-fangled traffic light is prominent in the foreground. Perhaps the town fathers thought that such amenities would attract the touring motorist. The only multiple retailer with an obvious presence here is Boots, a company much less aggressively modern in its approach to buildings than Woolworth or Burton.

I find these tinted views of mid-20th century shopping streets irresistible, and shall continue to seek them out in charity shops and at card fairs.

Posted in Streetscape, Woolworths | 1 Comment

C&A Modes Part IV: The Last Decades

Posted on January 18, 2016 by buildingourpast

Plymouth Drakes Circus MF000123 August2000 (1) — C&A, Drake Circus, Plymouth, in August 2000. (K. Morrison)

Like many other multiple retailers, C&A increasingly leased units in large-scale commercial developments during the 1960s and 1970s. Branches opened in the Lower Precinct in Coventry (1965), the Merseyway Centre in Stockport (1968), the Arndale Centre in Doncaster (1969), Drake Circus in Plymouth (1971) and in many other purpose-built shopping centres. In tandem with this, C&A continued to take over suitable older premises (such as Murfitt’s in Hounslow in 1964), and to build its own new stores. Several of these – for example in Ilford (1960) and Preston (1961) – took the place of cinemas or theatres, buildings which were falling into disuse in great numbers at this time. In addition, some of the older pre-war stores were extended and furbished. The deep arcade shopfronts were gradually replaced with clear-view windows, providing more internal sales space. From 1957 all branches included a menswear department.

Leeds Boar Lane MF000103 June2000 — C&A on Boar Lane, Leeds, in June 2000. (K. Morrison)

Stevenage in 1998.jpg — C&A in Stevenage in 1999 (K. Morrison)

The architects North & Partners continued to work for C&A until around 1970. One of their last works was an extension to the Birmingham store which opened in 1971. The interior, by Maurice Broughton Associates, featured boldly-patterned carpets, futuristic light fittings, a coffee shop and a ‘Gear Cellar’ with an ‘amoeba-shaped’ fitting room. C&A was now using the same fittings across all its European chains, right down to cash registers, storage bins, dark brown plastic signs and brown/beige terrazzo flooring. Brand names included ‘Sixth Sense’ for women and ‘Westbury’ for men.

Leach, Rhodes & Walker, a Manchester firm of architects who had hitherto specialised in offices, began to work for C&A in the late 1960s. Their first collaboration may have been in Sunderland (1969), where Leach, Rhodes & Walker designed a shopping centre in which C&A took a unit.

Norwich Gentlemans WalkMF9802777 May1999 — C&A in Norwich in May 1999. (K. Morrison)

C&A, Newcastle, in 2000. The building was shared with BHS. It has been redeveloped for Primark. (K. Morrison)

Around 1970 a new faith in artificial lighting and ventilation meant that retail architects were spurning curtain walling in favour of blind façades, to the detriment of so many high streets. Leach, Rhodes & Walker designed several stores in this manner for C&A. These had dark brown brick cladding, often divided into panels by an exposed concrete frame. Examples were built in Huddersfield (1969), Norwich (1970) and Newcastle (1974). In Norwich, apparently in earnest, C&A declared: ‘The design of this new branch was such that it blended beautifully with two nearby medieval churches, and the attractive Haymarket surroundings’. Leach, Rhodes & Walker continued to work for C&A for many years. The Chester store of 1970, however, was designed by Building Design Partnership, who happened to be consultant architects to the city. They may have been selected for this project by C&A to hasten the development through the planning permission process.

Exeter MF000124 Aug2000 (2) — C&A in Exeter in August 2000. (K. Morrison)

C&A’s store in Chester, now Primark. (R. Baxter)

Truro 2.jpg — C&A in Truro. (K. Morrison)

C&A had 55 UK stores in 1972, when it celebrated its Golden Jubilee, and 100 in 1985. Most of the newest stores were in shopping centres. The company peaked with 120 stores, but this had reduced to 109 by 2000 when the decision was taken to withdraw from the UK. Redevco, C&A’s property arm, retained the company’s freeholds and continued to look after the portfolio.

Hull MF000118 July2000 (2) - Copy.jpg — C&A in Hull. (K. Morrison)

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C&A Modes Part III: War and its Aftermath

Posted on January 14, 2016 by buildingourpast

Five of C&A’s UK stores were destroyed by bombing: Oxford Street (‘Bird Street’), Southampton, Sheffield, Portsmouth and Birmingham. A higher proportion of the company’s German stores was lost, with just two out of 17 stores surviving.

Replacing the stores on home ground in West Germany was a priority for C&A. In Britain, rebuilding and expansion was slower. Building licences were in force until 1954, and both materials and labour were in short supply. Unable to erect many new stores, C&A identified some suitable existing buildings. All of these were relatively new and modern. Amongst them was a store named Ronda which had been established in Croydon in 1933 by a member of the Brenninckmeyer family. It was rebranded as C&A in 1946. Others included an imposing brick building in Leicester (1946) and fashionably modern stores in Brixton (1947) and Peckham (1949).

C&A’s Peckham store of 1949. (K. Morrison)

Sheffield MF000132 Aug2000 (1) — C&A in Sheffield, photographed in August 2000 (K. Morrison)

Special licences allowed rebuilding in particularly devastated cities and so North & Partners (formerly North, Robin & Wilsdon) were able to design new C&A stores for Portsmouth and Sheffield. Stylistically, with their vertical window bays, these resembled the firm’s stores of the late 1930s, such as the branch in Nottingham. The windows at Sheffield had margin lights, a rather old-fashioned feature that was repeated at several later C&A stores, such as Birmingham (1956).

Southampton MF000097 June 2000 — C&A in Southampton, photographed in 2000 (K. Morrison)

One of the first C&A stores to be designed in a post-war spirit, with a large panel of curtain walling above a solid canopy, was Southampton (1955). The spandrel panels under the windows were clad in mottled grey-brown tiles which became something of a C&A signature. They recurred at Bradford (1959), Hull (1960), Middlesbrough (1960), and also on Oxford Street, London (‘Bird Street’, 1959), which was the last of the bomb-damaged stores to be rebuilt.

By 1960 C&A had begun to display its badge on a sweeping neon multi-coloured fin that projected at right angles from façades: distinctive branding that was impossible for shoppers to miss.

Bradford MF000105 June 2000 — C&A in Bradford, photographed in June 2000. (K. Morrison)

Hull MF000118 July2000 (1) — C&A in Hull, photographed in July 2000. (K. Morrison)

Middlesbrough MF000115 July 2000 - Copy — C&A in Middlesbrough, photographed in July 2000. (K. Morrison)

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Eating Out at Woolworth’s

Posted on January 7, 2016 by buildingourpast

F. W. Woolworth & Co Ltd established a new tradition when the Liverpool store (Store 1) opened in November 1909, by including a first-floor tea room with windows overlooking Church Street. Behind the scenes lay a kitchen and a ‘waiting room’, where waitresses collected orders. With its chandeliers, tall palms and mirrored overmantel, the Liverpool tea room was one of the most elegant ever operated by Woolworth’s, resembling those in local department stores. This successful idea was quickly exported to America, where the first ‘refreshment room’ opened in 1910.

The refreshment counter at Portsmouth, Store 35, which opened in August 1914. (K. Morrison)

The restaurant advertised in the window of Woolworth’s Kingston upon Thames branch in 1920. (Historic England)

As new branches were added to the British chain in the years leading up to the First World War, some were given perfunctory tea or refreshment bars rather than tea rooms or restaurants with waitress service. In 1920 the first eight soda fountains opened, and before long Woolworth’s began to position ice cream counters beside entrances. In the ensuing decade, however, many of the early restaurants closed, including the one at the Kingston upon Thames branch, shown here, and the space was added to sales areas.

A special menu from Woolworth’s self-service cafeteria in Bristol, to celebrate the Silver Jubilee in 1935. (K. Morrison)

The new self-service cafeteria advertised in the windows of Woolworth’s Doncaster store around 1930. (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

Around 1930, the American self-service cafeteria system was introduced by Woolworth’s at large stores such as Oxford Street in London, Doncaster and Bristol. Seaside stores devoted more space to refreshments than town-centre branches, and the new Blackpool store of 1938 – the largest in the chain – had three vast cafeterias. The bread-slicing and buttering machine in the cafeteria kitchen was capable of producing 55 slices per minute. In addition to these cafés, Blackpool offered a variety of freestanding counters and kiosks dispensing drinks and snacks to holidaymakers. These included a milk bar and a mineral bar. To draw custom from afar, a large neon sign reading ‘Woolworths Café’ was displayed at the top of the store’s corner turret.

The Bank Hey café in Woolworth’s Blackpool store (1938) could seat 380 customers. (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

The ice cream and minerals counter at Blackpool in 1938. The front was of Vitrolite. (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

One of Woolworth’s quick lunch counters – modelled on those in American stores – in the early 1930s, probably Liverpool. (K. Morrison)

As well as having cafeterias in the 1930s, large city-centre Woolworth’s stores such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh had luncheon counters – or ‘quick lunch bars’ – yet another American idea. Customers could perch on red-topped stools at the counter to partake of a quick meal. The post-war equivalents of the quick lunch bars were called ‘Diamond Bar’.

New stores built after the Second World War had large cafeterias with shiny chrome fittings. Several, like Bristol, were located on mezzanine floors, overlooking sales areas, so customers could plan their shopping as they ate. A lower standard was established in the late 1950s at Guildford, where the café had rigidly fixed seating that tilted like cinema seats. Counters often had a Formica frontage enlivened by a distinctive diamond pattern. By the mid-1960s, it was usual to incorporate local references in the decoration of cafés, such as dragons and castles in Cardiff.

The mezzanine cafeteria in the Bristol store of 1952. (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

The Guildford cafeteria of 1958, viewed from the servery. This design was replicated at many Woolworth’s stores in the late 1950s and 1960s. (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

The ‘Guildford-type’ cafeterias were superseded by ‘Harvest House’ restaurants in the late 1960s. These were rather more comfortable, with carpets and spot-lighting. This concept endured until the company was sold by its American owners to Paternoster Stores (Woolworth Holdings) in 1982. However, kitchens and bakeries were already being swept away as food was increasingly brought in ready-prepared. Some people might have memories of ‘Kwik Snax’ in the 1970s and its more literate successor ‘Quick Snacks’ in the 1980s. The company even dabbled in the brand new American ‘food court’ concept at Reading in 1982, but this progressive experiment was never repeated. A new generation of cafes, simply called The Café, with a peppermint-blue theme, endured through the 1990s and 2000s: these are the Woolies cafés that most people will recall today.

A typical 1970s Woolworth’s cafeteria, in the Eagle Centre, Derby (1975). (Reproduced by permission of Historic England)

Quite a contrast to the cafeterias of the 1970s: a much lighter and brighter generation of cafés was rolled out in the 1990s. This is Milton Keynes. (c. Historic England, John Laing Collection)

For more about Woolworth’s stores, including the tea rooms and cafés, see my recent book Woolworth’s: 100 Years on the High Street

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C&A Modes Part II: Toying with a House Style

Posted on January 3, 2016 by buildingourpast

IMG_6370 - Copy — C&A, Oldham Street, Manchester. (Shaws of Darwen)

The first completely new store to be designed by North, Robin & Wilsdon for C&A occupied a corner site on Oldham Street in Manchester (1928). This was faced in cream-coloured faience (glazed terracotta) and adopted a simplified classicism with art deco touches, such as chevron decoration at the top of the piers and on the panels beneath the windows. This was an early appearance of art deco on the British high street. As elsewhere, C&A’s sales departments spread over three floors, with staff rooms above.

The most admired feature inside C&A’s Manchester branch was the oak staircase. The lighting for the stair was attached to newel posts which rose through the building. Glass screens separated the stair compartment from the showrooms on each floor. ‘Modern French glass of an attractive design’ was used for the sliding doors of the lifts and for the top lighting. While the woodwork throughout the store was of oak, the walls were given a rough lining of a ‘new material of a very pleasing texture’ called ‘Marb-L-Cote’.

The notion of adopting a uniform house style for stores seems to have been under consideration by C&A in the years around 1930. Three stores were erected according to one pattern, in Peckham (1930), Lewisham (1931) and Southampton (1936). These were of red brick, with pre-cast stone dressings and geometric art deco ornamentation. The company cannot have been entirely happy with the results, since a different design was produced – as ever, by North, Robin & Wilsdon – for the stores in Sheffield and Newcastle (both 1932). Stylistically, with their central towers, neon lettering, vertical emphasis and faience cladding, these looked across the Atlantic to America rather than to continental Europe. They clearly derived from North, Robin & Wilsdon’s office building at 2-4 Dean Street, London, built c.1929-30.

Sheffieldcrop — The Sheffield branch of C&A, which was bombed during the Second World War. (K. Morrison)

Other new C&A buildings of the 1930s were very different in concept, suggesting that the company was content to settle for a heterogeneous approach to architecture.

Kensington (1932), for example, was neo-Georgian. The Portsmouth store (1938) had a convex frontage in Portland stone, with fluted aprons and fins. An extension to the rear of the Birmingham store (1937), in Union Passage, was given full blown streamline moderne treatment, with recessed upper storeys and horizontal bands of windows inviting the inevitable (if rather clichéd) comparison with an ocean-going liner.

Birmingham MF9901434 Dec1999 (2) — C&A, Birmingham, in December 1999 (K. Morrison)

The Nottingham store opened just after the outbreak of war in autumn 1939. Like Portsmouth it had a solid canopy over the shopfronts: now de rigeur to reduce reflections on glass and shelter window-shoppers. At Nottingham, however, the usual plate glass was substituted with smaller panes: presumably in anticipation of the Blitz.

Gamages C&A Marble Arch - Copy — C&A, Oxford Street, c.2000

Not all of C&A’s pre-war stores were purpose built. Amongst older buildings acquired by the firm were Renton’s on Princes Street in Edinburgh (1936) and the former Gamage’s building at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street (1939). The Marble Arch building served as C&A’s UK headquarters until 2001.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Jonathan Clarke for providing me with information about the interior of C&A in Manchester.

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C&A Modes Part I: Getting Established

Posted on January 3, 2016 by buildingourpast

Bristol MF9901442 1999 — C&A in Bristol in 1999. (K. Morrison)

Despite adding a bright splash of primary colour to British high streets, with its rainbow logo and blue/red oval badge, C&A gained a reputation for selling rather dowdy clothes. An association with cheap polyester haunted the company from the 1970s, and efforts to reach out to the young and fashion-conscious generally backfired. The company withdrew from the UK in 2001, but continues to thrive in Europe.

C&A left a legacy of store buildings which shoppers still visit on a regular basis. Founded in the 19^th century by Roman Catholic textile dealers (Clemens and August Brenninkmeyer) from the German-Dutch border area, the company entered the British market with a splash when it opened close to Selfridge’s on Oxford Street (‘Bird Street’) in 1922.

C&A specialised in outerwear for ladies, maids and girls. Within a few years, however, the word ‘maids’ was dropped from C&A’s advertising and millinery had become an important new line (hence the nickname Coats’n’Ats). When a second London branch opened in the old Hyam’s building on Oxford Street in 1925 it was briefly called ‘Canda’, just in case the market could not sustain two C&A branches so close together. But that pretence was dropped in 1927.

Parnall 1924 — C&A’s shopfront in Liverpool, made by Parnall & Sons in 1924. (K. Morrison)

The first provincial branch opened in a wing of Woolworth’s new development in Liverpool in 1924. Interestingly, C&A’s architects, North, Robin & Wilsdon, had previously designed several stores for Woolworth’s. The common factor was the commercial estate agent Hillier, Parker, May & Rowden, who found premises for both firms and maintained a close professional connection with North, Robin & Wilsdon.The first provincial branch opened in a wing of Woolworth’s new development in Liverpool in 1924. Interestingly, C&A’s architects, North, Robin & Wilsdon, had previously designed several stores for Woolworth’s. The common factor was the commercial estate agent Hillier, Parker, May & Rowden, who found premises for both firms and maintained a close professional connection with North, Robin & Wilsdon.

Liverpool MF9901439 October 2000 — C&A in Liverpool, photographed in October 2000

In 1929 North, Robin & Wilsdon remodelled an old building in Leeds for C&A with the aid of a (sadly unidentified) ‘famous French architect’. The elevations were updated with art deco touches, including triangular-headed windows – a feature repeated on an office block at 2-4 Dean Street, Soho, London, designed in the same year by the same architects with Considère Construction Ltd.

The shopfront of the Leeds store was given a broad marble surround that lent a modern Parisian air. All of C&A’s shopfronts were in the form of arcades which penetrated deeply into the ground floors of the stores and were lined by extensive display windows populated by carefully lit mannequins. These arcades were created by the country’s very best shopfitters, including Parnall & Sons and Fredrick Sage & Co. Interiors were entrusted to Elliott’s of Reading.

IMG_6366 - Copy — C&A’s arcade shopfront in Manchester, c.1928 (Shaws of Darwen)

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Building Our Past

The Legacy of Freeman, Hardy & Willis

Introduction

The Story of Freeman, Hardy & Willis

Lipton’s: ‘A Beautiful Study in White’

Introduction

Surviving Traces

The Legacy of David Greig

Introduction

The Story of David Greig

Main Street and High Street in Tinted Postcards of the 1930s and 40s

C&A Modes Part IV: The Last Decades

C&A Modes Part III: War and its Aftermath

Eating Out at Woolworth’s

C&A Modes Part II: Toying with a House Style

C&A Modes Part I: Getting Established

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