Owen Owen

Interesting to see the building contractors were a Liverpool company where Owen's other (head) store was.

Must have found the right site at the right time to get that contract.

MR. But Owens took some of Palmer Lane including the Pilgrims Rest site and buried another piece of Coventry history.

I know that, Kaga - not sure why you're calling me out on this?

Midland Red Hi, ouch. Not really. Just thought to remind people there was more than just Ironmonger Row. I don't think the site had been built on since Pilgrims, there was also a lot of iron posts with rings that had held chains for cattle pens, not sure if it was in Palmer Lane or in the Market Place? Those houses on the left, were they demolished or left until the bombing?

Owen Owen with café on the mezzanine floor if I remember.

Hi Prof, I remember the café being in the basement albeit with views down the Burges at the bottom of the 'slope'.

Hi Wearethemods. There was indeed the café in the basement, with views of tall cranes everywhere as buildings were going up quickly - that was before the "slump", as they used to call it, before they coined the term recession. My mum and I used to go there every Friday after shopping. But that café was for ordinary, common people like us. Somewhere higher up the building, there was indeed a mezzanine, as Prof correctly states, but that was more of a restaurant for the posher people; I believe it had waiter/waitress service, with presumably a higher price to match, which is why we never set foot in the place. I believe it was called the Midway (or Medway...?), as it was midway between floors. Again, I don't recall use of the Italian mezzanine in those days.

Midway

I seem to remember a posh hairdressers in Owen's as well as you went up the escalator to the first floor on the right. Did not use it myself, I used to go to a hairdressing school behind Woolworths somewhere near the market. Could get a cheap hairdo but took ages!

If I remember correctly I think there may have even been three restaurants - the self service one on the lower ground floor, The Midway in the middle and an even posher one higher up. The Midway was the one I used most. It had Ercol furniture in it!

I worked at Owens during a school holiday, maybe 1964. My friend and I were in ladies' dresses and I think we tried everything on during our stint there. I went to Bishop Ullathorne Girls School from 59 to 65 and the buses used to drop us off in Broadgate. Three of us usually went into Owens and we loved to try the perfume in the fountain. Once, someone reported us for this. As we had uniforms and house colours, it was easy for the school to deduce who the criminals were and we got a proper dressing down.

Hey! You're confusing the issue, the past posts were the first Owens - by the second Owens nothing was new any more. Can you imagine the contrast the first Owen Owen created in 1936 - the little old ladies had never seen a moving staircase, most were afraid of them, nor had they seen such a large store with new seductive displays and such luxury. We kids were hurriedly rushed past the ladies departments. But for the younger ladies it was paradise or something like, for my sister and her friends just hitting teenage it was a huge attraction. It also meant I would be taken into town more, but this shop was made for spending, a new and better system evolved for the assistants to take a more leisurely time with the ladies and give them what they thought they wanted. I believe more people came in from the country, because it was more worthwhile, so this had a big effect on other shops and sales - this must have made the council feel they had done the right thing with building Trinity Street. But the first moving staircase had been before the turn of the century in London. This had no steps, just a moving canvas, That must have been a riot - can you imagine, one fall and a bowling pins effect!

This photo is interesting Neil. It was eventually demolished and site surrounded by tall sheets of corrugated iron, but if on a double decker bus you could see the exposed basement! This remained until the new store cutting off Cross Cheaping replaced it.