dingles ( department store )
rockhey' s department store, 1938. here... - torquay in pictures | facebook
by 1932 alma house had been rebuilt. john gliddon' s business had been replaced by gamis' store and later by dingles, then by denner' s. today it is occupied by beale' s department store .
house of fraser acquires harrods department store group, which includes rackhams, dh evans, and dickins & jones, as well as the famed harrods store in london .
it is 35 years since the department store of plummer roddis in old christchurch shut its doors for the last time .
opening times not supplied. phone house of fraser dingles on 0844 800 3709 .
fraser' s sons take over the store and the store' s name is changed to fraser, sons & co .
by the mid - 1960' s when this photograph was taken, alma house had a new front to both floors. john gliddon' s business had been replaced by gamis' store and later by dingles, then by denner' s. today it is occupied by beale' s department store .
find the exeter buy & collect department on the 2nd floor, next to womenswear .
we open the london city store in 2003, in 2005 stores open in ireland and norwich. jenners & beatties department stores become part of the house of fraser brand .
order before midnight and collect your items in store from 12noon the next day .
dingles (c) wikimedia commons. thomas tait, the architect, also designed the pylons of the sydney harbour bridge .
the company buys bristol store from bentalls and announces planned opening of five new stores .
the director of the department store explains the history of dingles following refurbishment in the 1970s and the installation of escalators. the building is clad in portland stone a well - known in plymouth. in 1935 edward dingle and co ltd purchased the former premises of w j vickery and co ltd of bedford street and cornwall street in plymouth. by 1939 the store had eighty departments and over 500 employees .
in 1988, the name of the company was changed to house of fraser (twelve) ltd, although the store continued to trade into the twenty - first century as dingles of plymouth. house of fraser (twelve) ltd was dissolved in 2011, the store being managed as part of the larger house of fraser group .
the announcement of its closure the previous year had sent a shockwave through the town, coming not long after parent company had changed the landmark name of its other town centre department store from bobby’s to debenhams .
that september, too the announcement was made that the plummers store in boscombe was to shut. then, a few weeks later, debenhams announced the closure of plummers store in old christchurch road .
harrods began expanding beyond its single store, acquiring other store chains, such as dickins & jones in 1814. that store had been established in 1790 on london' s oxford street before moving to its regent street location in 1835. harrods later went on to take over rackhams, founded as a drapery shop in birmingham in 1851 before expanding to become a small, regional chain of department stores. another addition to the harrods empire was the dh evans stores, which had been founded in 1879 and which opened a london store in 1932 .
following record christmas sales in 2014, this year marks the beginning of a new and exciting journey for house of fraser as we welcome our new owners, nanjing xinjiekou department store co. ltd, and continue to grow our online business .
the concept of a department store goes back in history to late 1800' s but has evolved and changed as has the rest of the shops. originally most of the department stores were independent and owned locally in the city they traded. this has been the biggest change in the last 50 years where now a single company may own 20 brands trading in city centres and out of town malls .
two of the best examples of the largest of these department stores could be considered as macy' s in new york and harrods in london .
today the building, adjacent to dingles, is still known as roddis house and the shops fronting the road now include burtons, dorothy perkins, la senza, goldmith’s and accessorize .
2013 sees house of fraser go global! our first international store opens in abu dhabi' s world trade center mall .
in 1953, with hugh fraser' s sons at the helm, we add binns ltd to our list of businesses bought, extending our reach across scotland and into north east england and carlisle. in 1957 house of fraser takes control of luxury department store, harrods .
house of fraser sells 15 leaseholds to joint venture bl fraser set up with british land, netting £170 million; the company announces a failed attempt to acquire allders department store group; three new stores are opened in bluewater, reading, and sulliwell; new fraser and platinum brand labels are launched .
hugh fraser (later lord hugh fraser) is named chairman and managing director of the store and leads the company on a major expansion .
mr harry austin, who had been with the firm for 30 years, closed the store’s doors for the final time in late january 1973 .
department stores are identified by the fact they sell a wide range of products including clothing, furniture, appliances, toiletries, cosmetics, jewelry, toys, and sporting goods .
the store in the square was renamed debenhams on september 23 1972, with a dj called in to perform the ceremony. his name? terry wogan .
the original owner of the old christchurch road store site was r tyrrell and sons, who started a small drapery business there in the late 19th century .
in september 2000, the company bought a store in bristol from the bentalls chain, paying £15. 6 million. at the same time, house of fraser announced plans to open three new stores in london, norwich, and in high wycombe, buckinghamshire. the new stores were expected to open by 2004. by the beginning of 2001, however, the company already had added two new store sites to its list, at croydon and maidstone, and other negotiations were underway to develop three to four new store sites .
through this period we continue to grow, acquiring dingles group in 1971 and gaining new owners, the fayeds, in 1985. in 1994 house of fraser becomes a plc, and is floated on the stock exchange for £484 million. a major refurbishment programme begins .
house of fraser launches new linea in - house clothing fashion label as part of overall strategy to focus on high - end designer fashions; the company opens a new store in northampton .
substantial extensions were carried out in 1938 when the plummer roddis store was formally “opened” again, by songwriter and entertainer ivor novello. but the news that broke in november 1972 that it was to shut early the next year was a blow to many of its 200 staff. some took up other jobs with the debenhams organisation who, by then were the owners of the store .
in 1926, the store occupied 28 - 31 and 33 bedford street and 4 - 6 cornwall street. in 1935, e dingle & co ltd was registered as a private limited company .
the coop in its heyday. the only store to occupy a whole block of the abercrombie plan. the underside of the canopy was originally painted bright yellow whilst the interior contained a domed banking hall and a stage for dance bands in the cafeteria .
the new central library was well liked with its excellent facilities & our
boys
remembered how a lady there would read them stories. department stores opened up in the town accompanied by' 60' s rock music & they recounted the free trips for residents on the saltash ferry - originally steam powered, then diesel .
on 4 october 1944, the admiralty took the decision to scrap all of the plymouth decoys. at the clearbrook site, to maintain secrecy, the lights, generators, switchgear, shelter fittings and any above ground wiring are likely to have been removed to a regional store. *
macy' s, bloomingdale' s, marshall field' s, l. s. ayres, famous - barr, filene' s, foley' s, hecht' s, the jones store, kaufmann' s, lord & taylor, meier & frank, robinsons - may and strawbridge' s
like many of the other small independent retailers the traditional hardware store / ironmonger (uk) has been affected by the changes in the retail sector with large chain stores such as lowe' s, home depot and mennards in the us and b and q and jewsons in the uk, as it is difficult to compete on price or choice, to make things worse super retailers like walmart also target the same sector with departments inside their superstores .
the likelihood that the freehold of alma house had remained with the (west coker branch of the) penny family is, perhaps, reinforced by the fact that the next occupant was draper and outfitter benjamin penny. from his advertisements (see below) it would seem that penny used alma house as a base for his funeral services as well as a drapery and clothing department, certainly from 1882. in 1888 benjamin penny was advertising his' new combination funeral carriage' for hire from alma house (see below). benjamin penny carried on business at alma house until around 1908 .
by 1998, house of fraser once again appeared to be in a strong position to grow. the company now began targeting fresh expansion through the addition of new stores. a first store was added in northampton in 1997, while three more were slated to open by 1999. by the beginning of 1998, the company announced its intention to add 30 more stores in an expansion program that was estimated to reach a final cost of more than £300 million. yet the company' s expansion plans were hampered by a lack of financial muscle .
yet sir hugh fraser took over the house of fraser at a time when the british consumer was beginning to abandon the country' s large - scale and often stuffy department stores in favor of smaller, trendier shops. the house of fraser' s' large stores and failing sales led to too much sales space and too large a stock burden. the collapse of the economic boom in the mid - 1970s, the result of the arab oil embargo of 1973, hit the company all the harder. the company continued to make acquisitions during the 1970s, building its chain to more than 90 stores; yet by the end of the decade, the chain had lost much of its luster .
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nellie boote' s laundry in market street in operation, the women dashing away with all manner of smoothing irons as clothes are sorted, mended, washed, ironed and sorted again .
the neeb sells an electrical future for modern homes and industries in the 1960s .
the looms of lancashire: how the upheaval of the industrial revolution created the thriving textile industry .
the first self - service petrol station and the first parking meters pop up in the south west of england .
santos football club bring brazil' s world cup talent to home park in plymouth with pele playing his almost beautiful game .
reporter michèle brown visits london' s western hospital, where a computer is on the medical staff to help doctors with routine doctor \ patient consultations .
one of the most gruesomely memorable of all british anti - smoking promos depicts fat oozing out of nonchalant smokers' cigarettes .
the social and political revolutions of 1968 seem a long way from the musings of a moderate tory on the nhs and government .
straight - talking anti - smoking promo, which introduces us to janice, a 51 - year - old woman who uses a ventilator to breathe .
a well - to - do woman is unable to answer her child’s cries due to a coughing fit, in this exaggerated anti - smoking advert .
a child' s life is save through a blood transfusion and this incident demonstrate s the need for blood donors .
the south west film and television archive (swfta) is the regional film archive for the south west of england. established in 1993, swfta' s core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of westward television and tsw (television south west). the archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s .
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came here for a snack at about 2pm was nice and quite. staff were friendly, helpful, and polite got our cutlery and took our tray to a table as i was pushing a wheel chair didnt even have to ask they just took it makes a change nowadays so thank you .
my wife had lasagne, which was bubbling in it' s dish. i had fish and chips, which were only lukewarm. 2 mains for £12, and both were decent sized portions. very pleasant staff (all female on our visit) .
went in for a lunch with my wife, the thai curry i had was tasteless and bland, no spice no flavour. my wife' s chicken in some sort of sauce was dry, even the sauce was like paste portion size was very small to .
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we have laid the foundations for sustained long - term growth - - through our programme of refurbishments, our plans for new stores, our continuing focus on international designer brands, and our ever - greater understanding of customers' needs .
hugh fraser and james arthur found draper' s shop on glasgow' s buchanan street .
house of fraser plc goes public; the company by then has 15 stores .
sir hugh fraser, son of lord hugh fraser, takes over as chairman of the company upon his father' s death .
sir hugh fraser sells suits (scottish universal investments) to roland
tiny
rowland, giving the south african conglomerate chief a 30 percent stake in house of fraser .
rowland attempts to acquire full control of house of fraser, but the attempt is rejected by the british government .
house of fraser sells off 12 medium - sized stores in a management buyout; by the early 1990s, the company drops from 110 stores to just 56 stores .
the fayeds sell their entire stake in house of fraser in a new public offering of the company .
fraser began adding new stores in the years following the war, and by 1948, the year the company went public, fraser had already built up a chain of 15 stores. the following decade was to see still stronger growth, primarily through acquisitions .
in 1984, rowland
parked
his 30 percent of house of fraser with egypt' s fayed brothers - - or so he thought. in 1985, the fayeds turned their back on rowland and reached an agreement with the house of fraser to acquire the rest of the company' s shares. for this, the fayeds paid £600 million. rowland counterattacked, convincing friends in the british government to launch an investigation into the fayeds (the investigation, the results of which were never published but later leaked, asserted that the fayeds had misrepresented their wealth at the time of the house of fraser purchase). yet the sale stood and house of fraser was taken off the public market .
despite the company' s new commitment to organic growth - - and despite its failure to acquire allders - - it had not ruled out other acquisitions. as chief executive john coleman told the guardian in march 2001 :
consolidation would still be a good thing. we are about as small as you can be [ to operate efficiently ] and there are lots of smaller players out there who cannot afford the investment in a systems and supply chain that we' ve put in over the last five years. there would be significant costs you could take out. we could support another 20 or 30 stores .
principal subsidiaries: house of fraser (stores) ltd. ; house of fraser (finance) ltd; bl fraser ltd (50 %) .
principal competitors: arcadia group plc; debenhams plc; harrods holdings; james beattie plc; marks and spencer plc; n brown group plc; new look plc; next plc; otto versand gmbh & co. ; selfridges plc .
cole, cheryl ,
fraser' s high street hopes ,
birmingham post, september 26, 2001, p. 17 .
deshmukh, anita ,
the more, the better ,
birmingham post, september 28, 2000, p. 24 .
finch julia ,
house of fraser is in shopping mood ,
guardian, march 29, 2001 .
griffin, jon ,
the fight is on ,
evening mail, september 26, 2001, p. 24 .
- - - - - - ,
house of fraser expands ,
evening mail, march 28, 2001, p. 43 .
hughes, chris ,
house of fraser looks brighter ,
independent, june 15, 2001, p. 23 .
jagger, suzy ,
house of fraser ,
mirror, september 26, 2001, p. 23 .
pottinger, george, the winning counter: hugh fraser and harrods, london: hutchinson, 1971 .
yates, andrew ,
house of fraser plans £300m expansion ,
independent, january 19, 1998, p. 18 .
source: international directory of company histories, vol. 45. st. james press, 2002 .
alma house, situated in high street to the immediate east of the mermaid hotel, was, most likely, originally built in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century as a private town house of two storeys and three bays. certainly by the early part of the nineteenth century it had been converted into shop premises .
a known early occupier of alma house was draper joseph penny, born in west coker in 1821, who ran a draper' s shop at alma house from 1845. in 1851 was listed in the census living above the premises with his wife mary, a draper' s assistant, a draper' s apprentice and a house servant. joseph ran his drapery at alma house for eleven years before selling his business (although most likely not the freehold of the premises) to albert edwards in may 1856. albert edwards ran his drapery business from alma house for the next twenty years or so, before moving his business into 8 high street (mentioned above) .
john gliddon was a tailor and outfitter, specialising in ladies' millinery and gentlemen' s hats and by september 1908 was running his drapery at alma house. he was the local agent for the cloth from puller & sons, the perth dye works. as his predecessors at alma house, gliddon also ran all aspects of the undertaking business; from mourning wear for all the family, to appropriate cloths to drape over the coffin and bier. it even hired out funeral carriages and horses .
john gliddon died on 27 march 1947 aged 66, but the business continued. edwin snell' s directory of 1954 listed john gliddon & co of 3 high street twice; as
milliner & ladies' outfitters
and as
undertakers
. gliddon' s later had an outlet in princes street .
a double notice placed in the 13 may 1856 edition of the western flying post by both the outgoing joseph penny and the incoming albert edwards .
a typical albert edward advertisement, placed in the 22 december 1857 edition of the western flying post. albert would advertise very regularly throughout his occupation of alma house .
albert edward' s advertisement in the 30 june 1865 edition of the western gazette .
by the time this advertisement for the opening of the new town & county supply stores in high street (later the premises of thomas clements) was placed in the 14 july 1882 edition of the western gazette, benjamin penny was owner of both the new t & c stores as well as the drapery in alma house on the opposite side of the road .
benjamin penny' s advertisement in whitby' s yeovil almanack advertiser of 1888 .
a typical benjamin penny advertisement, this in the 4 may 1894 edition of the western gazette .
this postcard of high street, probably dating to the 1930s or 1940s, shows alma house at dead centre - the short, two - storey white building with a parapet and awnings .
the centre section of the previous photograph enlarged to show alma house at centre .
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way back in 1849, hugh fraser and james arthur opened a drapery shop at the corner of argyle street & buchanan street in glasgow. by 1941, what started as a small, local shop acquired a number of businesses in scotland and became house of fraser ltd .
during this time, we take on a number of stores, some of which go on to become the brands you love to wear today; including dickins & jones, rackhams & cavendish house .
between 1997 & 2000, we launch our now renowned house brands including womenswear, menswear & homeware collections by linea and a womenswear collection by therapy .
with executive chairman don mccarthy, chief executive john king and the rest of the highland group team now running the show, we launch 12 new house brands, each with their own identity and target market, they quickly develop a following .
they began with two shops that had become four by 1896, including a millinery and ironmongery business .
it became known as plummer roddis and tyrrell and then plummer roddis in 1898 when the tyrrells relinquished their interest. a few years later, alterations were begun on the gervis place side that took until 1916 to complete .
the property on old christchurch road was sold to a pension property unit trust company .
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over the last 40 yrs the changes we have seen to our high streets and local shops have been as drastic as any in technology .
when i was young most of the shopping was done in traditional shops including the local butchers, bakers, grocers and newsagents .
over the years as supermarkets appeared some of those traditional shops closed down and small corner shops selling many of the same things started to appear, often staying open much later than the new supermarkets .
as the supermarkets stayed open for longer and longer hours even many of the small corner shops disappeared. as the supermarkets (hyper markets) have grown larger and more have appeared other areas of shopping which have been affected include clothing, hardware, car spares and many other areas .
we have created this section hoping to get memories from those who ran and those who shopped at the traditional butchers, bakers and greengrocers and your views on what we have lost due to these changes .
as consumers we have gained through better prices often more consistent quality and often better choice but are we really better off .
the growth of the supermarket has been the success story in our times, when they first appeared some specialised in fruit, vegetables and food items and others went for the opposite way with non food as the core of the business, but slowly they have converged and built bigger and bigger out of town stores and now sell anything from paint to toys to a mouse for your computer to fresh bananas. as they have grown a few very powerful forces in supermarket retailing dominate the market in each country .
walmart in the us has become the countries 2nd largest employer selling any and every thing in massive super stores and have caused many small specialist retailers to close as they cannot compete with pricing, and walmart has also expanded into other countries sometimes buying existing supermarket chains and expanding them. many consumers do complain about the loss of local specialist stores in their towns but are often the same people who shop at walmart .
tesco are the dominant player in the uk with large superstores in out of town shopping areas with easy and free parking and like walmart in the us continue to expand in the uk and abroad, but in comparison to walmart in the us do still have a number of major competitors including asda walmart, morrisons, waitrose etc .
in canada the dominant supermarket chain is loblaw companies limited but due to its trading under some 15 different brand names with 1600 stores most people think that metro is the largest with some 500 plus supermarkets .
woolworths limited is the largest supermarket chain in australia and new zealand trading under it' s own name and other trading names and is the largest food retailer in australia and new zealand .
as supermarkets and hyper markets become bigger and attack other areas of retailing (i. e. car tyres batteries and car spares) we will continue to see changes to our traditional shops with many not being able to compete and others changing to suit any niches that the big supermarkets do not want to enter, also we must remember that many of these giants of retailing have created an internet presence that goes beyond the goods they sell in their stores to attack even more market sectors .
the traditional corner shop has evolved by trying to find areas where the larger supermarkets have left an opening including longer opening hours, local produce, wider range of books and magazines, better choice of sweets and confectionery, lottery ticket sales, but as supermarkets continue to change and evolve it is becoming harder to find an area that can be profitable .
the large supermarkets are also changing by building smaller express stores often as part of a gas / petrol station which can provide the longer opening hours .
over the last few years many of the corner shops have been run by immigrants as they are willing to work the long hours and have an extended family willing to help with the hours needed to survive, but they are also starting to adapt to the market changes and are moving into the petrol / gas stations which also require long hours to succeed and adapt the sales area to create a corner shop inside the confines of gas retailing business .
if you ever watch a programme about the 50' s or 60' s you realise how much the art of advertising has changed and how the art of selling through advertising has changed, this applies to tv advertising, movie advertising, newspapers and magazines .
when i think back one of the most striking changes is how much the tobacco industry advertised before governments realised the high cost on our health of smoking and have closed of most areas of advertising and sponsorship to tobacco companies trying to protect the younger generation from the effects .
the other change i have noticed is how differently women are portrayed between the 50' s and now as women were not a significant part of the workforce so were target ted in a different way .
they also produced a special christmas catalogue that was full of toys and became known as the
wish book
, for kids perhaps because of the number of toys in it .
over the next 50 years hundreds more home shopping catalogues appeared which would be sent to peoples homes and they would choose the items and order and pay for them and up till the advent of the internet were a common way for shopping for those who did not live in a city .
in the uk the home shopping catalogue appeared much later in late 1930' s when john moores the founder of littlewoods football pools decided he wanted to do something new after his success with the football pools .
avon cosmetics was one of the few companies that flourished in both the usa and the uk using agents who would earn commission on each sale, they would take the latest catalogue together with samples for smell etc to a ladies home and leave the catalogue for 1 week and then go back to collect the order, many women who spent time at home used avon as a way of meeting new friends at the same time as earning a little money .
the idea of tv shopping is an extension from the original adverts on tv where the problem for the advertisers was they could only have a short time to make their pitch for the product they were selling .
over the years a number of additional options have become available including using a full programming slot as an infomercial on major tv channels where they could fully demonstrate the product and it' s virtues, another option that appeared together with the growth of cable tv was a channel dedicated to selling products together with providing the ability to buy instantly through the telephone or on the internet .
in the 50' s, 60, s, 70' s and 80, s the normal way to buy milk was for delivery by a milkman who would start very early in the morning and milk would be delivered 365 days a year. some of this was due to the lack of fridges in many houses to keep the milk cold and fresh in the summer and this ensured fresh milk delivered each day. over the years as more homes had fridges to keep the milk fresh longer and more shops started selling milk often cheaper than the local milkman, they have all but disappeared .
many people never realised the additional service that came as part of milk delivery, they provided contact for older people to the outside world and it would often be the milkman who would find an older person in some sort of trouble and identify family or authorities to provide help .
of the many traditional shops that existed i personally miss the small corner sweet shop the most, many of the areas that have been taken over by supermarkets have improved choice for the consumer, but the loss of the traditional sweet shop has not improved choice in general the sweets on supermarket shelves are the same in every supermarket whoever owns it and is very limited .
the most likely place to find the a traditional grocer is in the local markets often selling local produce that are in season and this then allows them to compete in this area with supermarket prices .
in canada the post offices have become a mix of company owned offices and franchise owned and is run by canada post .
the traditional independent toyshop that existed many years ago has nearly disappeared but has been replaced by large chains due to the increased buying power, but even they have come under pressure from the larger and larger supermarkets in out of town shopping areas that are creating larger and larger toy sales areas and during the christmas season when the highest percentage of toys are sold increase the shelf space selling toys at discounted prices .
together with the changes in toy shops over the years, some toys that have been sold for many years for example barbie' s are still selling well today and a new breed of toys has appeared driven by the cheaper cost of electronics ranging from small hand held computer games and electronic teaching tools for children which are both fun to play with and educational .
when i was much younger most kids used bicycles as the main form of transport the roads were quieter and safer and our bikes were solidly built often with only 3 gears .
in the us co - operatives such as ace hardware or true value can still compete by using the combined buying power of a large number of small retailers to compete on price, and can still offer the personal service and knowledge to compete with the majors .
in the uk it has become harder and harder but many small traditional hardware shops do survive through the help, time, knowledge and assistance they can provide for the man or woman wanting to do maintenance of their homes which cannot be obtained from the larger organisations .
the traditional shop selling fresh fish like the local butcher has suffered with the changes in the retail industry and supermarkets in particular, when combined with new food regulations from government it has become harder and harder to compete and survive. the public buying habits have also changed as younger consumers appear as they are used to seeing their fish all preprocessed ready for cooking .
as the market has matured a number of specialist shops targeting specific areas of fashion i. e. lingerie, goth, accessories, formal have evolved and there is also specialist targeting by age, men' s, women' s, teenagers, childrens, and infants .
furniture shops are possibly one of the lesser affected shops from the changes in retailing and they appear to have survived and prospered, i suspect due to the choice they can offer over the other forms of retailing and that the consumer is often looking for furniture in their homes that goes with what they see in their minds also because unlike many other areas of shopping they are willing to spend more time and money to make the furniture in their home a personal thing to reflect their personality, also the range of styles and quality is only limited by the craftsman .
the plymouth blitz, concentrated in seven devastating german air raids over march and april 1941, left plymouth reportedly the most heavily damaged city in the country and destroyed its medieval centre .
in this bleakest period of the war when much energy was focused on sheer survival, plymouth city council looked to the future. plymouth would be rebuilt but not merely rebuilt – it would be re - imagined: redesigned and reconstructed as a city for a new era in which rational planning served the needs of the common people .
on 1 september 1941 the city council agreed that a redevelopment plan be prepared. that plan – a plan for plymouth – was prepared by sir patrick abercrombie, the leading town planner of the day, in conjunction with the city engineer james paton watson. it was ready by september 1943 and approved by the council in the following year .
so far, so good but history is awash with abandoned blueprints and failed ideas. plymouth made good on these aspirations. firstly, it lobbied parliament – in conjunction with many other local councils – for the comprehensive planning and compulsory purchase powers vital to large - scale projects enshrined in the 1944 town and country planning act .
and then it acted. it was the first british city to begin reconstruction in april 1947; the first new buildings opened in 1951 .
abercrombie’s plan was visionary, owing most to the designs of new delhi and canberra and the 19th century beaux - arts ideals which shaped washington dc and paris. the city centre itself would be divided into functional precincts reflecting varied urban roles including retail, offices, culture and civic government .
however, it was the design of the city centre which was most radical. the war had destroyed old street patterns already strained by modern demands. they were replaced by an orderly grid centred on one grand axis running north - south from the railway station to the grand open space of the hoe surrounded by a ring road connecting the major transit arteries. to professor jeremy gould this was (1) :
an egalitarian grid, spacious, airy, uncomplicated, accessible and gapingly open to all – the very model in stone, brick, glass and metal of the post - war welfare edifice .
time and the judgment of altered aesthetics are not always kind to plans of such ambition and scale. there may appear some merit to the criticism of those who have complained subsequently of a certain cold uniformity; there is more so to those who note neglect and decline. to gould, what is needed now ‘above all is a little love’ and this blog at least will give a little love to the vision and original execution of the plan for plymouth .
the architects certainly were not so naive as to ignore the potential missteps inherent in such planning. in fact, street elevations were ‘composed en masse as a series of highly contrived symmetries and asymmetries, with major to minor rhythms. ’ (2) corners and terminations were equally carefully contrived to please the eye. the images below show the real aesthetic quality of plymouth’s streetscapes – a far cry from the brutalist label sometimes attached .
derry’s cross (c) plymouth: 20th century city. the western section contained the offices of the new nationalised industries .
whilst slower, more organic – messier – growth might have given a more comfortable and ‘human’ feel to the plan, plymouth didn’t have this option. instead the council chose boldly not only to face but to embrace the future and create a new city (3) :
plymouth represented the architecture of the future – clean, bright, democratic and, most of all, optimistic .
much of the architecture remains stunning and captures still the optimism of the era .
national provincial bank (c) plymouth man. bronze doorways, granite - clad columns and a venetian glass façade – a fitting termination to royal parade .
pearl assurance house (c) plymouth man. part of the grand gateway to armada square from royal parade and the great square in front of the civic centre .
civic centre and council house (c) plymouth man. 14 stories high, lavishly finished, the civic centre ‘expresses the aspirations of a confident authority at the height of its powers’ .
in the affluent fifties and sixties, such optimism may have seen well - placed. 50, 000 worked in the dockyards, plymouth was doing well. now that number is just 2, 500 and the city has fallen on harder times. the future envisaged in the 1940s didn’t quite materialise and the city is having to reinvent itself once more .
that, in a sense, is true of the city centre too. straitened finances combined with an antipathy towards the modernist architecture of the post - war period led to serious decline. but plymouth is resilient and that is changing. a new generation is overseeing a ‘scale of regeneration’ claimed as ‘second only to the post - war regeneration period’. (4 )
the coop lives on but there was a time when up to 25 per cent of the adult population were members .
there are more listed fifties’ buildings in plymouth than anywhere other than london. jeremy gould and the architecture centre devon and cornwall are fighting for it despite recent funding cuts. english heritage is defending it as a city ‘as representative of its time as bath and york. ’ (6 )
this is great. but the task for all is to ensure that the label twentieth century city is not an epitaph to the past but a call to the future which captures the dynamism and idealism of former generations and gives momentum to the present .
( 2) jeremy gould and the institute for historic building conservation, ‘ the architecture of the plan for plymouth ’, september 2006 .
the essential online source is plymouth: twentieth century city. my grateful thanks to the architecture centre devon and cornwall for making available the text and photos of this site and their hard - copy heritage trail buildings guide. visit the city and support their efforts .
the online encyclopaedia of plymouth history contains information on a plan for plymouth and much else beside .
a wonderful documentary film on the plan, the way we live (1946) is available on youtube. its director, jill craigie, met michael foot, mp for plymouth devonport, whilst shooting the film and they married three years later .
commentary and stills from the film and the images of the original artwork included above can be found at cyberheritage. co. uk .
my thanks to plymouth man for allowing use of some of the images to be found in his informative and well - illustrated celebration of postwar plymouth on flickr .
other contemporary images above are taken with permission from simon cadman’s twentieth century society flickr page on plymouth .
am going to enjoy this piece. plymouth city centre not always appreciated, especially town hall buiding, council desperate to demolish it. luckily it’s been preserved, but council poor custodian ,
hope i did it justice. i know it’s been a struggle to get the city centre the recognition it deserves .
the centre of plymouth is an abominable disaster. it encompasses all that is dreadful about 1950s architecture. abercrombie et al did more damage to plmouth, and in the centre the council demolished more buildings than the blitz. pull the lotdown, including the new appaling drake circus complex and get a proper architect…. !! !
great article! do you know if the pannier market was part of the original plan for the city centre, or was it designed much later? it appears to me more genuinely modernist that the stuff off royal parade, which exhibits traces of art - deco .
i don’t what the naysayers want from all of this – opulent gothic and / or neo - classical architecture one would assume, or mock - tudor facades perhaps. the new drake circus complex is awful though .
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architects for social housing (ash) has been set up to respond architecturally to london’s housing crisis .
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nigel went on to describe how the stones fell into different categories such as – manor, parish & town, military, leats and waterworks, turnpikes, commemorative plaques, railways and private boundaries.
e dingle & co was a department store chain with its flagship store in plymouth , england . it is now part of house of fraser group . 
e dingle & co was a department store chain with its flagship store in plymouth, england. it is now part of house of fraser group.
e dingle & co was a department store chain with its flagship store in plymouth, england. it is now part of house of fraser group.