Owen Owen

MisterD-Di. But do you remember when it was built? For I don't remember it at all, the staircase I knew was inside, part of the building from the beginning, I'm almost sure it was on the back wall. Yes, it was the first biggest shop to open after ten years of waiting - bound to be at the forefront of people's minds.

No, I don't remember it being built, I think I was only about a year old when it opened. The staircase in the photo was certainly inside the entrance halfway along the arcade, as the entrance was between two floors. One thing I do recall is that the stairwell area was always lovely and warm when you entered on a cold day.

As far as I recall those stairs were always there. I seem to remember that there was usually a display at the bottom between the steps either side. Yes, it was always very warm, in fact if you went on a cold day all wrapped up in hat coat and scarf it would get too hot and stuffy. There used to be a department that sold fabric for dressmaking and I could not bear to stay long in there.

I remember those stairs because my mother fell down them having tripped on a plank of wood left there by a workman. She spend a night in hospital and later received compensation

Annewiggy, I agree with Rob, such small print those old papers I would think, I admire your patience. For me there is much more depth. Owen Owen became a dream the day the other died, and you should think in terms of your mother, aunt or any middle aged or older woman that used the stores in those days. Our dream was a brand new modern city and shops, and as the war and years went by it became a reality - when we saw the first bricks and foundations go in it became a bigger dream. For long years housewives had suffered long queues, shortages and rations and now it seemed it was at an end, and modern shops, full of goods would now appear. When the day came there were long queues to see this dream. The mayor cut the tape, the doors opened and they were met by hot stuffy air - no air conditioning. They searched for the department they needed - no escalator. The dream was fading. Many middle aged ladies and older persons had never ever seen a lift, let alone enter one - they were afraid of them, so back to the old way of stairs. The dream faded more There were no seats or chairs where they could rest a moment, there was no smokeless room in the cafeteria. One cramped gents toilet on four floors. The goods were there, but the new building. No, the dream fell flat. And yes, stairs to each floor and some were dangerous.

In the 70's any young man daft enough to walk through the perfume section of Owen Owen on his own would often get sprayed with about half a dozen different perfumes. Adding to all the perfume that was already in the air the resulting smell was a pretty powerful mixture that hung around you for ages. Quite often you would meet somebody several hours later and they would say "You've been in Owen Owen haven't you?"

As I newcomer to the Forum I should like to tell you all how much I have been enjoying all the posts about the prewar Owen Owen building. My grandfather Gerald de Courcy Fraser was the architect for this. He was best known as the architect for the Lewis's store in Liverpool and others in David Lewis's empire. Owen Owen was also a Liverpool business which decided to branch out just before the war and after much thought chose Coventry for this new venture.

If you haven't already seen Coventry on Britain From Above, there are some nice shots of Owen Owen in relation to its neighbours, eg Coventry centre in 1939 - login in to zoom in Oh, and hello too

Reedwarbler, Interesting, I often wondered about him, what his thoughts were, what he put in his design. Europe was about to explode, he would be in the position to know the building could be knocked down if war came. He would have a huge problem, a building to last, or temporary. The building had little glass, a solid building, for a nation that was forward thinking. It didn't get knocked down, but it did stand up to terrific heat. The Shakespeare Theatre was much the same, big solid walls - the previous one burnt down. We're designers worried about fire? Did he have anything to do with the design of that building? Wonder if he put pen to paper to anyone of his thoughts?

I suppose the likelihood of war must have been in everyone's mind. The new Owen Owen store was announced in the Midland Daily Telegraph on 23 January 1936, and there was a half page drawing "courtesy of the architect Mr. G. de C. Fraser". The same page carried an ominous photo of a dozen people in gas masks at a training session. But the correspondence between the architect, Owen Owen, and the City Council gives no hint of war. Everyone just wanted a very modern building the town could be proud of. In style the huge wedge-shaped building was similar to the stores that G de C had been building for Lewis's in Liverpool, Glasgow and Birmingham. The Liverpool Lewis's was also bombed in the war, and in 1947 it was rebuilt by my grandfather's company as a dignified stone building in much the same style (unlike the post-war Coventry Owen Owen).

But Owen Owen and Trinity Street where not the main talking points in Coventry in 1936. We had a prince, about to become king - he had several mistresses, slept with a number of society wives, much preferred big game hunting in Africa to meeting Ambassadors and the like, too busy for royal duties. The other prince had no training for royal duties, and Europe was in turmoil.

Why did they choose Coventry? While I was researching my grandfather Gerald de Courcy Fraser, the architect of the pre-war Owen Owen building, I found In Coventry Archives (at the Herbert Art Gallery) a brochure issued by Owen Owen to announce their plans to the people of Coventry. It is not dated, but is probably the pamphlet unfavourably reviewed by the Midland Daily Telegraph on 06 March 1936. The document is copyright, but I have been given permission to quote from it, crediting Culture Coventry Trust/Coventry Archives together with the reference CCA/3/1/6415. The document has the architect's drawing of the new store, and explains why Owens came to Coventry: Owen Owen, Limited, and T. J. Hughes & Company, Limited have made remarkable progress during the past eight years in a most competitive retail centre, and in an area that was suffering severely from industrial depression. The Directors considered that it would be prudent, as soon as it became practicable to do so, to broaden the basis of the Shareholders' investment, so that the future development of the concern should not be confined only to one industrial area. They, therefore, sought an outlet in a centre dependent for its prosperity on circumstances and industries rather different from those of Liverpool. After careful investigation they decided that Coventry offered scope for a store of medium size doing a popular class of trade, and that it satisfied the conditions for which they sought. So they entered into negotiations with the Corporation of Coventry, as a result of which the Corporation have granted to Owen Owen, Limited, a 99 year lease of an island site in the centre of the city, on which the new store will be built. The illustration above gives an impression of the building as it will appear when completed. The architect is Mr. G. de C. Fraser, F.R.I.B.A. The new building will occupy a triangular site bounded by Broadgate, Cross Cheaping, Ironmonger Row, and Trinity Street. It will comprise six floors, the lowest of which, 32 feet below the level of Broadgate, will be used for the reception and despatch of goods. To avoid any break in the line of show windows, which will be continuous all round the building, the goods vans will enter the sub-basement by means of an inclined roadway and tunnel under Ironmonger Row. Cantilevered steelwork will reduce the number of columns to a minimum, and thus leave unusually large uninterrupted floor spaces. There will be two restaurants, one for Quick Lunch service in the Basement, and one fully equipped restaurant adjoining the Roof Garden. Escalators and Lifts, as well as staircases, will serve all floors. The system of air-conditioning and ventilation throughout the store will, we believe, mark a great advance on anything previously installed in a store of medium size in this country.

Construction underway in 1937