Owen Owen

Have you any idea why they picked on Coventry, in the late 30`s Midland Red? I wonder if it was coincidence that Red House Motor Services also had operations in Liverpool and Coventry?

Sorry, Greg, I don't. Perhaps Coventry was identified as a large town with no similar type of store?

The Anti-phoenix rising from the council's ashes.

Prof, The picture above [125], March 1954, doesn't make sense with your picture of June 1953 [648 Broadgate] the store opened in '54. Now I remember the doors being complained about, but I seem to remember there were stairs at the back of the building that led to the pots and pans floor that were very short and people stumbled on them - that gave more complaints than the doors. Anyone recall the same?

On the City council planning website there are the 1951 plans for 'Broadgate block H' which would become Owen Owens. Included is a plan of the ground floor (UG as it was on the lift buttons), and apart from the escalators, this shows two stairways on the W wall (one by the lifts and one by the doorway to the 'tunnel'), and there was one outside the SE corner of the store into the Trinity Street subway. There is also one in the NE corner which I believe was staff only. There were two others that I don't recall, one near the NW corner (haberdashery) and one inside the store at the SE corner which oddly was entered between the inner and outer sets of glass doors there. From my recollection these last two were not there or were inaccessible in the late fifties?

From what I have read, the Leofric opened in 1955. Is it possible that Owen's was completed before the end of 1954? We have 1yr difference from the opening years.

mcsporran I have no idea about plans etc, but '51 the building was over three years old in construction then, and there were many alterations. I was a young man then and had no time for lifts, ran up and down stairs, and there were stairs. Long time ago, but I feel there was a pots and pans dept in the basement - may have changed to food. The front doors were opened by the Mayor and had a long brass curved plate to open, if on one door or both I can't remember, Dreamtime Hey I run (hobble) into doors now but not back then, you should have kept your eye on the door and not the boy behind it.

Scrutiny, Owen's opened Oct 1954 - Leofric 1955

I previously posted this: Official opening of new store, 1 Oct 1954 Advertisement Photograph

Cheers, scrutiny Lots of photos here

Midland Red. Great photo's but most after my time. Confirms what I posted - pots, pans and buckets where in the basement. A great shot from West Orchard showing the extent of the damage well down the Burges. I was told around the time of the opening there was a department that sold cane baskets of all sizes, shopping, laundry etc - to advertise they had some Hindu with a flute to entice a snake out of one of the cane baskets, but a young boy took out a mouth-organ and began to play, the snake went wild and slithered onto the floor, scattering the housewives screaming. Have no idea if any truth in the story but it amused me at the time.

I remember that staircase very well, it was at the entrance halfway down the arcade at the side of the store. Down and over to the left was the cafeteria where they did excellent milk shakes. We always used the downstairs cafe, never the Midway which my mother thought too 'posh'. My mother loved Owen Owen and never visited the city centre without going there. She always said that the loss of the old store in 1940 had far greater impact on the people of Coventry than the bombing of the cathedral, which few people used anyway. Looking across the lower ground floor to the right in the photograph, in later years that was where the bakery was. When I lived in Broadgate it was my 'corner shop' and I would go down the steps to the entrance next to the bakery at opening time for delicious hot bread. I wonder if there is still anywhere in the city centre that bakes on the premises now.