Woolworth's in Carr Street once
had a store in keeping with their 1950s livery and appearance. It is
visible at the far right in this photograph of crowds awaiting the
Queen's motorcade during a royal visit to open Civic College in July
1961.
1961 photo
courtesy The Ipswich Society
One can just make out the Art Deco upper storey. [UPDATE 202.1.2025: 'This a shot of it when it was shiny and new. Might have been taken on the opening day in November 1923. Ben Squirrell:']
We assume that this version of the store had a basement; when it was torn down, a larger brutalist block store was built on the site: 26-32 Carr Street. Many will recall visiting Woolworth's basement and ground floor spaces, but in the way of mis-management and being bought and sold by companies who didn't know what to do with the chain, eventually the basement space was blocked up and then the whole national chain went bust just after Christmas in 2007 with the loss of 27,000 jobs.
The rear of the building is on the car parking area of tarmac stretching from the Tacket Street entrance up to Cox Lane. This is the area which was once the site of the Steam Brewery built by Charles Cullingham; the Steam Brewery Inn on Upper Brook Street – with the alleyway by the Can-Can bag shop – was so-named after the takeover by Tollemache (after 1887). The shadow of the screwed-on "WOOLWORTH'S"lettering can be seen above the original rear entrance to the store (a few steps up to the ground floor, a few steps down to the basement floor). What a bleak elevation, leveaned only by a glance to the east to see the rear of the disused Co-op. Blimey.
2015 images
The true glory of the cheap and cheerful emporium that was Woolworth's of the 50s and 60s (see also Nanci Griffith's brilliant song Love at the five-and-dime) is now a pound shop with, at one time, a 99p store in the basement. Bliss.
A pound??? American, Frank Woolworth's, original British store in Liverpool and its successors were known not only for their scrubbed wooden floors and gas lighting but also for their 3d and 6d (threepenny and sixpenny) items. So: the original Poundland, then. In their homeland, they were five and ten cents stores, hence 'the five-and-dime'.
Woolworth's trivia: Frank Woolworth's middle name was Winfield, so the brand name for all 'own brand' products sold in the shops was Winfield.
On the other side of the car park is the rear of the Christ Church Congregational Church.
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Historic Lettering
©2004 Copyright throughout the Ipswich Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission
1961 photo
courtesy The Ipswich SocietyOne can just make out the Art Deco upper storey. [UPDATE 202.1.2025: 'This a shot of it when it was shiny and new. Might have been taken on the opening day in November 1923. Ben Squirrell:']
'3D.
AND 6D. STORES F.W.WOOLWORTH
& CO. LTD.
NOTHING OVER 6D.'
The company used a deep red background on the main sign
with shaped gold lettering in clightly condensed serif'd
large-and-small caps looking back to Victorian shop-fronts and forward
to
the more 'commercial' sans-serif caps of the sixties and seventies.
The cornice and pediment are pure Art Deco. In
retrospect, Woolworths were early forerunners of today's plethora of
'cheap as chips' chain stores (B&M, Poundstretcher, Poundland
etc.).
Joe Cohen's slogan: 'Pile it high and sell it cheap' could have been
applied to Woolworths. to the right of the shop-front is Cross Keys
Lane, named after the Carr Street hotel (as shown on our Symonds page).We assume that this version of the store had a basement; when it was torn down, a larger brutalist block store was built on the site: 26-32 Carr Street. Many will recall visiting Woolworth's basement and ground floor spaces, but in the way of mis-management and being bought and sold by companies who didn't know what to do with the chain, eventually the basement space was blocked up and then the whole national chain went bust just after Christmas in 2007 with the loss of 27,000 jobs.
The rear of the building is on the car parking area of tarmac stretching from the Tacket Street entrance up to Cox Lane. This is the area which was once the site of the Steam Brewery built by Charles Cullingham; the Steam Brewery Inn on Upper Brook Street – with the alleyway by the Can-Can bag shop – was so-named after the takeover by Tollemache (after 1887). The shadow of the screwed-on "WOOLWORTH'S"lettering can be seen above the original rear entrance to the store (a few steps up to the ground floor, a few steps down to the basement floor). What a bleak elevation, leveaned only by a glance to the east to see the rear of the disused Co-op. Blimey.
2015 imagesThe true glory of the cheap and cheerful emporium that was Woolworth's of the 50s and 60s (see also Nanci Griffith's brilliant song Love at the five-and-dime) is now a pound shop with, at one time, a 99p store in the basement. Bliss.
A pound??? American, Frank Woolworth's, original British store in Liverpool and its successors were known not only for their scrubbed wooden floors and gas lighting but also for their 3d and 6d (threepenny and sixpenny) items. So: the original Poundland, then. In their homeland, they were five and ten cents stores, hence 'the five-and-dime'.
Woolworth's trivia: Frank Woolworth's middle name was Winfield, so the brand name for all 'own brand' products sold in the shops was Winfield.
On the other side of the car park is the rear of the Christ Church Congregational Church.
©2004 Copyright throughout the Ipswich Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
No reproduction of text or images without express written permission