Do you have a favourite department store?

Ooops, 1969??‍♀️?

annsixty oh yes! Kendal and Milne in Deansgate. I still call it Kendal's. Mother's favourite shop. She bought me an expensive dress there for passing my 'O' levels. When we were very young she went every week and when we were on school holidays, the waitress would always make sure there were strawberries for my sister and I. That must have been early 1950s.

JL is my go to store. I prefer the Liverpool branch. The eating place in the Cheadle store is now most unpleasant and chaotic.

David Morgan, Cardiff

They shut shop a few years ago

Gammages, East London. We used to be taken to meet Father Christmas there. Think it burnt down many years ago.

Jenners, Edinburgh

Yes gagajo Bonds of Norwich is a great store love it .have moved away but go back for regular top up of Bonds

Jenners in the old days when it was Jenners

'Murrays department store of distinction' of course!
Or Jenners before it was sold to House of Fraser as the start of a downward slide ?

I went into Brown's of Chester a couple of weeks ago. It was always a rather "naice" shop for the Chester ladies wot lunch. It's now part of Debenhams and is no longer the jewel in the crown for Chester. It's more like a church jumble sale these days.

Kalu
1069?
Gawd! You're getting on a bit. One foot in the grave...more like both ?⚰️??
Yes, the Philharmonic, still going strong.
Their gents is famous for the decor.
Let me see...I take it you meant 1969, that would make me 24. I was married at 23 and living in Formby at 24.
Liverpool was a great place to have a social life when I started work at JL aka GHLee Liverpool.
Lots of interest and amazing stories went on. I met Eric Mason, a 'mate' of the Richardsons in a club in town, the Blue Angel. Yes indeed. Edgy times. ??

Chewbacca
My wedding dress was from Browns, Chester. Grecian style in white silk.

I wonder whether Affleck & Brown is/was Affleck's Palace, a place I loved visiting.

I wonder whether Affleck & Brown is/was Affleck's Palace

Affleck's Palace took over Affleck & Brown's building after the department store closed down in the 1970s. The Palace was a number of independent shops, all operating under one roof.

Affleck & Brown were of the same group as Marshall & Snelgrove, which was the flagship store, and they had a sister store called Pauldens, more down market, based on Market Street in Manchester but that burnt down in the 1960s. potted history of Manchester stores

I thought Pauldens became Debenhams still there today.
Am I wrong?

I thought the fire was more towards Piccadilly station in which sevetal young women sadly lost their lives.
I am happy to be proved wrong.

Are you thinking of the Woolworths fire annsixty? They were on the corner of Market Street/ Oldham Street, opposite Piccadilly Gardens.

Y3s I probably am.
Just remember what a dreadful tragedy it was.

We had not been here long and I was very shocked by it.

I used to love Gamages - it was a real rabbit warren of a place, and sold just about everything. I worked nearby in the 60s and often spent my lunch hour wandering through the store.

I used to like Allders.

I go back a long way and can remember Harrods in the days when it was a fabulous department store. The banking hall smelled of money with their deep leather chairs to sink into
They sold second hand books and nobody minded if you tried on the wedding dresses!

Lillywhites for sports clothes, all those shops in Kensington High St
Derry &Toms (with the roof garden), Barkers and Pontings.
Liberty - beautiful like a museum.

The best department store I have visited is in Japan.
www.takashimaya-global.com/en/
acres of everything with service to match.
Sorry but John Lewis just cannot compete!

Gamages, which had the best model railway layout, and Bearmans of Leytonstone; Peter Jones, which stocked my school uniform.

Now John Lewis.

It was an awful tragedy annsixty and it happened only a very short time either before, or after, another terrible fire which took place in the building right next door. It was in that fire that a number of young women were working in the evenings, in one of the upper floors, above a fish and chip shop. The chip shop had had a fire at lunch time and it went undetected until it went up the back of the building, unseen. It trapped the young women working upstairs that you possibly remember. There were some terrible fires in the old buildings in Manchester and very few had fire exits in those days.

Gabriella, I certainly wasn’t around 3 years after the Battle of Hastings?

I was 19 in 1969 so, only five years between us. Had such a great time at the Everyman. Many parties with now known actors doing rep then, Jonathan Pryce, Roger Sloman along with Alison Steadman, a Liverpool girl. We would also meet up regularly at the Phil as most of us shared flats nearby. The legendary gents decor was known by all but I never did get a chance to see it!