Web Page  No 2162

31^st May 2015

Woolies Commercial Road. Portsmouth

After the war rebuilding of the Commercial Road branch was one of the priorities of the F W Woolworth company. There is not a lot written about the rebuilding but I have found several photographs in the Woolworths Virtual Museum. So as a change from the normal web pages this one is mainly photographic.

The first picture shows an original drawing for the proposed front of the building. This must have been drawn sometime in the late 1940’s as the new shop opened in stages from 1950 to 1953. During this time the company started to experiment with different display techniques and Portsmouth was the flagship store for these experiments hence all the photographs.

In place of the single height personal service island counter, new "gondolas" were installed with tiered shelving, allowing several layers of shopping in the same bay. This allowed the stores to stock a wider range and to introduce bulkier products. The best of the new lines were squeezed into the stores that had not been modernised by bolting extension bars onto the existing personal service counters. The same basic approach is still employed by retailers across the world today.The second picture shows that the work had really started and the foundations were being put in. No much in the way of mechanical aids, mainly manual labour.

Looking at the outside of the building from the Charlotte Street end we can see from the following two pictures the modern looking bow end to the restaurant on thefirst floor, so beloved by my mother. 

Now here are a few shots of the restaurant, bacon and egg for 1/9d seems a good price, no wonder there were queues to get in. The final picture in this series was taken in 1965 in the kitchens.

As I said the store opened bit by bit and the next picture shows the frontage in 1950 but obviously the first floor was yet to be finished. The next picture shows it in the 1960’s.

I spoke of sales areas earlier, the next series of pictures shows the store in 1953 and 1965, what did your mum buy in here?

The final picture shows the store just before closure, a treasured part of any High Street was now gone.

I have another eight pictures to go on and I will put them on over the next few weeks.

Thanks to the Woolworths Virtual Museum for the pictures etc.

 

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Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

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