Debenhams building


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@philmayfield  I agree with Lizzie about getting a bus.  I appreciate you couldn’t get a bus into the city from where you live, but you could drive to the outskirts and park on a little road near a bus route (Sherwood area?) then catch one of the frequent buses into the centre.  

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Memories of Griffin n Spalding  mu mum was a seamstress and before I came along she worked at Debenhams factory on Castle blv that belong to Griffins this is were all the wedding dresses were made. 

I've possibly mentioned this before but when my mother was a child, her mum was employed by Bairnswear to test new knitting patterns for baby clothes, using their yarns. Grandma was very skilled in kn

@MRS B how dreadful for your Aunty not knowing where her husband had gone… I think that is a very cowardly way to end a marriage!   @mary1947 I suppose it’s just that expensive shops have ne

We never go into Nottingham these days. There’s nothing there to attract us. It’s easier to drive to Downtown near Grantham where we can get just about anything we need under two roofs. It’s a bit further than Nottingham but it’s  a quick drive down the A1 from Newark and free parking all day. We probably only go twice a year and everything else, apart from the local farm shop, we buy online. We only shop for what we need, we don’t regard going round the shops as an adventure! :biggrin:

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1 hour ago, MargieH said:

@philmayfield  I agree with Lizzie about getting a bus.  I appreciate you couldn’t get a bus into the city from where you live, but you could drive to the outskirts and park on a little road near a bus route (Sherwood area?) then catch one of the frequent buses into the centre.  

Exactly Margie.  We have a bus every 3 or 4 minutes into and out of town right from the end of our road.  Mind you, in the past year I’ve rarely got on a bus, if I need to go into town I walk.  
But don’t park on our road Phil, cluttering it up! 

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I think our nearest park and ride is still operating from the race course but it seems a bit pointless having to get out of the car, do your shopping and then carry it back to the ‘bus. As I’ve said, there’s absolutely nothing we would go into central Nottingham for these days. Most purchases can be bought from the surrounding ‘sheds’ so the farthest we need to go is Victoria Park at Netherfield or to the retail park in Newark. Morrison’s deliver weekly and a really good farm shop is 10 minutes away, Fiskerton village shop and post office is 5 minutes away. If we’re buying larger items like cars, or getting them serviced we always go to Lincoln as the dealerships are easily accessible on our side of the town and only 35 mins away. M and S have a food shop/filling station in Southwell 5 miles away and there is also a largish CoOp plus two garden centres. Pre lock down we would occasionally go to Lidl or Aldi in Bingham, primarily to see what gadgets there were on the middle isles! We enjoy being out here in the middle of the valley, uninterrupted views of hills, woods and farmland all around. We will have lived for 60 years in the area this year and I’m still not the oldest inhabitant!

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25 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

 As I’ve said, there’s absolutely nothing we would go into central Nottingham for these days. 

 

There are very few places to go and buy anyway. As mentioned in another thread, the area south of the Market Square - down Albert Street, Lister Gate, Broad Marsh - is a total ghost town. There are virtually no shops still trading in that part of the city centre. The only area with any life is Vic Centre and the streets near there.

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6 hours ago, Arnold Mick said:

I'll be popping into the Dog & Bear for a couple of Worthingtons, then across the road into The Fountain for a Home Brewery bitter and that'll do me! Doubt there'll be any queuing. 

Arnold Mick not sure if the Fountain is still there  If they are still there then you will have to fetch your own Home Brewery bitter. Don't know from where.

and Why!! WHY have they called "YATES"     Slug and Lettuce  what an insult 

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In the last 20 years I have been into Nottingham city centre once. I went to visit the archives for research. That was very interesting and pleasant. I came off the motorway and parked at Phoenix park then caught the tram. I did stop off in the market square but it was not like the place I knew and loved as a child and teenager. Farmers shop had been demolished (yes it was very old and in need of repair), and  no Toby's or Pearson's. I stick with the memories of how it was. This is just one of the many reasons why I enjoy this forum. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Market St was created in 1865 by the widening of Sheep Lane allowing R and E Dickinson and Fazackerley to extend their Long Row shop.

The store was later known, as Fazackerley. Griffin and Spalding, and is now the Nottingham branch of Debenhams. 1936 Griffin and Spalding The Long Row store took out one of the first full-page advertisements of the Evening post. It promoted Ladies Fashions, fashion labels including Braemar, Dorville, Linlaw and Rodex. A Rodex camel topcoat  with horn buttons was available for six guineas (£6. 30). 

1961 Debenhams owners of Griffin and Spaldin in Long Row acquired the neighbouring Mikado Cafe for £200,000 later the building was demolished. 

1978

Debenhams launched a £200,000 facelift to silence rumours that the city store was closing.

 

Memories of Griffin and Spaldin / Debenhams.

In 1937 my mum was taught by Debenhams Factory how to make and sow Wedding dresses and headresses.

the factorys address was Castle Boulevard Nottingham  and 91 Wimpole st London W1

in 1965 I brought my White Satin Material from Griffin's for mum to make my wedding dress also the rose headress. 

My Dress cost about £4 00 no cost to the dress maker as it was made with love. (unless mum wanted to get me out of the house) 

My Headress cost £3 10/-  which at the time my wages were £5 00 a week.

 

Any one else got memories of the great store? 

RIP Griffin and Spaldin  and Debenhams.

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Bought a T shirt from there last week.

£22.50 (£75).

Baseball cap £3.50 (£14)

Who pays £75 for a T shirt ?

My thoughts are Debenhams priced themselves out of business. Internet did not finish them off.

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We stopped shopping at Debenhams a few years ago. If you ever had to return something, didn’t fit or not suitable etc whereas most high street shops were happy to refund, Debenhams were a complete pain. So we just gave up going there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

l thought  somebody might mention the ghosts in the store. For example there used to be a laundry at the very top of the building.  For some reason there was a platform with no guard rails around it. Inevitably one day the washerwoman fell to her death. To this day if you stand where the laundry used to be you can feel a chill pass through you. That is the ghost of the washerwoman. Of course it might just be very cold on the roof of the store.

 

There used to be a very swanky restaurant where dances were held. If you are in the store very late at night when all is quiet, you can see a lady and gentlemen in evening clothes dancing across the floor. Perhaps somebody who worked in he store knows more details.

 

Incidentally the pediment over the central window on the first floor has some sort of ornamentation over it.   Is it a coat of arms or just a decorative feature by the architect?     

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7 minutes ago, Newarker said:

Incidentally the pediment over the central window on the first floor has some sort of ornamentation over it.   Is it a coat of arms or just a decorative feature by the architect?     

 

It could perhaps be connected with Griffin & Spalding ?   https://goo.gl/maps/w4eNUstpLDi49B7S9

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Talking about grisly endings , this copied  from a previous post on Griffin and Spalding about the discovery of 4 skeletons ( plus an extra skull !) during renovations in 1910 :
 
 
...."A lady asked about a story of a skeleton being found under some foundations of Griffin and Spalding in Edwardian times .
 
Very little info available and the only reference I could find in the news archives was one from a Sheffield newspaper .
 
Turns out there were four complete skeletons  plus an extra skull !
 
At first it was thought the skeletons were the result of a crime but then it was decided they were probably killed by some sort of plague or contagion .
One strange thing is that one skull was "negroid" ,  on a skeleton some 6'2" long . Apparently whatever was demolished for the extension , had been built in the 1850s , so the burials must have predated that .
 
"FOUR SKELETONS AND FIVE SKULLS UNEARTHED by Workmen engaged in excavation for purposes of extensions to the large business premises of Messrs Griffin and Spalding, at the rear of Long Row Nottingham, have unearthed no fewer than four complete skeletons and one skull "
28 May 1910 - Sheffield Daily 
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On 5/5/2021 at 5:54 AM, mary1947 said:

 

Any one else got memories of the great store? 

RIP Griffin and Spaldin  and Debenhams.

Sometime in the early-to-mid 50s my mother regularly took me into Griffins in the afternoons to visit a small theatre they had tucked away in the warren of stairs and passageways. They put on a puppet show with string marionettes and there was always a good audience as I recall. 

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  • 10 months later...

I see that the old Debenhams(Griffin and Spalding) building has been granted Grade 2 listing. At least one they won’t knock down.

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Something needs doing with that building pretty soon. The whole Market Square area is now a bit of a ghost town with so many empty shop units; even in the middle of the day there aren't many people around because there's nowhere to go and no reason to be there.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Debenhams building

Those mannequins are quite scary. I’ve been lost in there too on a number of occasions. I’ve never known a place with so many disjointed floors. Can remember going to the wig dept with my Aunty who was a bit of a glamour girl and used to understudy for the actress Valerie Hobson. I always used to think that if I trod on the glass covered grates on the pavement outside I would fall into some sort of a pit. 

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