That was an amazing story Jalima and I have watched the reunion video on YouTube many times since the story became known. Changed times indeed.

Beatties in Wolverhampton used to have models parading round.

In the early 1950s my aunt took me shopping to a posh ladies' outfitters in Park Street , Bristol. She wanted to buy a pair of nylons which must have been a pricy item at that time. The assistant carefully removed them from their packet and laid them out on an illuminated glass counter to check that they were perfect. How times have changed.

Maggs?

Sorry. I was only about five at the time so I can't remember the name of the shop.

Ah yes, Beatties in Wolverhampton too!
My posts sound like my life in department stores - my mother must have liked shopping
Although I don't think we visited very often, they must have made an impression.

Even in the 80s I can remember Owen Owen selling expensive brands of stockings. At that time I would buy tights from M&S, C&A, BHS, etc., but if I wanted stockings to wear with my sexy lingerie sets, I'd head for Owens. You could buy them in so many different sizes (often by shoe size), leg length, and lots of different denier and there was just something special about this. The truth is though the expensive stockings were no better than the cheaper pairs and just as likely to ladder!

I was paying for the experience and that's what those old department stores were about.

My wedding dress ame from Beatties

I have such lovely memories of buying my wedding dress in Jenners Edinburgh. Never thought of going anywhere else for it. What a lovely place it was then. Sadly changed now. After fittings etc we'd go straight to the fifth floor tearoom for coffee and the best ever scones all baked on the premises.

How well I remember Bobbys my grandmother took me and my cousin there, we also loved a knickerbocker glory. My grandmother always went very smartly dressed complete with hat, it all felt very special.

I remember my friends and I being refused entry to Cavendish House in Cheltenham by the very smart door man. We were students at the time (and probably dressed as such !) but little did he know that the mother of one of our party was a shareholder. As far as I know she did not tell her rather formidable mother. This was in the 60's

My SIL bought her wedding dress in Beatties of Wolverhampton.
I bought mine in Pophams in Plymouth, a small department store which was not taken over by one of the high street giants and, I think, became a Green Shield stamp shop.

My great aunt, in her youth, had worked in Jenners, on the glove counter. The sales girls lived on the premises - a dormitory on the top floor. I loved the department stores in Edinburgh. My parents had an account in Patrick Thompson's (PT's) which we were allowed to use - within reason! The red duffel coat I wore throughout my university life and later through pregnancy, came from PT's. My University red gown was bought at Forsyth's - a very 'proper' department store - and my name was printed on a leather label inside the yoke. I was offered a summer job there but had already accepted M&S - a bad choice, for them as for me, but that's another story.

JALIMA I remember when Dingles, John Yeo and Spooners were built after the war. The first escalators we children had ever been on were in Dingles. we had a marvellous time riding up and down. These shops were built on bombed areas in Plymouth. Until then the shops were in big houses around Plymouth which had survived the bombing. They were fascinating warrens of rooms and corridors for a five year old to explore. Does anyone remember the British restaurants which were opened to feed the population during and after the war?

Liaise I remember MIL telling me that when FIL was on his way home on leave he reached the top of Haldon Hill and saw a glow in the sky and knew it was Plymouth on fire.
I didn't know the shops carried on in the big houses around after the bombing.

That's really interesting Liaise. Wonder how it all worked just moving a dept store to big empty houses. Another aspect to wartime Britain!

Where were the houses that were used Liaise?
Presumably they must have been just off the city centre, how fascinating!

Yesterday I came across this photo of Owen Owen after the bombing of Coventry. I think it must have been taken from in front of the cathedral ruins. Sad times.

Not sure what happened there.

I have been thinking about how it all worked and the ladies department that I went to with my mother was up in Muttley Plain in the old house mentioned earlier. Other departments must have been located in other parts of the suburbs wherever they could. Where are your parents when you need all this information? Many shops opened up in Nissan huts in the bombed areas. We children played in the bombed buildings for years (no health and safety rules then). We thought everyone lived like we did. I think many did because DH was brought up in Coventry and lived similarly. He has just unearthed a book called BLITZ OVER BRITAIN by Edwin Webb and John Duncan which he probably bought second hand or over the Internet. Quite informative if you could find a copy

I wonder if the old house where the Ladies dept was located was the family home of the owners? These old stores all seemed to be family businesses or had started as family businesses. That ethos seemed to permeate anyway.
We always knew the bosses where I worked were part of the family. They seemed such distant and somehow glamorous figures.

Hoppers in Torquay. The first time I went in straight from the boat. Mucky jeans, anorack. Hair in a pony tail, deck shoes ( no pearls)
They were very reluctant to sell me a rather expensive suit until I'd produced (and they'd checked) my gold card.
After that, every time I went in I was treated like royalty " oh hello Dr ----, how nice to see you. We've just got these couple of new outfits in that we think you might like!"
I was usually straight off the boat and very wind Blown!

A bit like this

Gorgeous! When I worked in Jenners in the 70s and someone produced a card for payment we had to discreetly phone 'tube desk' (where we sent the pneumatic shuttles of cash to) to ask if it was OK. They'd ask us what the customer was like eg fur coat or good jewellery or well spoken etc. After this whispered exchange it was usually fine to take a credit card payment. They probably thought 'Ooh, got a boat eh? Must be well off, and a Dr too. Lovely!'

I had a Saturday job in Goslings in Richmond in the mid sixties which was one of those old department stories which was housed in a series of shops, so that floor levels changed as you walked through. I worked in the jumper and blouse part of Ladieswear and once had to wear a cardigan from stock on a hot summer day as I had come to work in a SLEEVELESS dress. What a hussy! The cardigan went back into stock at the end of the day?. The shop closed for the duration of Winston Churchill's funeral and the staff were gathered together in the ladies underwear department to watch it on TV. It would have made an episode of Are you being served ?

A sleeveless dress! You hussy you! So what was wrong with a sleeveless dress?

Liaise we watched a BBC documentary a few years ago about the bombing of Coventry and I was shocked at the amount of destruction and how awful it was both during and afterwards. I remember saying to my DH that it should be shown in schools.

Galen did you manage to keep a straight face or did you just smile sweetly? I wonder if they would have recognised you wearing the suit?