Woolworths fire

[Trojan]

electricaldave wrote: I seem to recall that Woollies was in one of the arcades, they had a fire, moved to Briggate, eventually the original premises was refurbed and Boots moved in...or something like that......seems a while ago and I could well be wrong.It was either Queens Arcade or Thorntons Arcade Woolies was on the right looking up Briggate. At least in the eighties it was, but I seem to recall it being on the opposite side of the road in the fifties, it had a cafe on the top floor, and (it's funny what sticks) there were two doors with round windows to the toilets, you went through the door and up a short flight of steps. It is a shame about Woolies, but TBH I'd be hard pressed to say the last time I bought anything there. My daughter worked at the one in the White Rose about ten years ago over Christmas and they didn't seem to know their ar$e from their elbow as long ago as that.

[BLAKEY]

electricaldave wrote: I seem to recall that Woollies was in one of the arcades, they had a fire, moved to Briggate, eventually the original premises was refurbed and Boots moved in...or something like that......seems a while ago and I could well be wrong.It was either Queens Arcade or Thorntons Arcade Oh doesn't the passage of time play havoc with many of our memories eh ?? I think there is a little confusion here actually. I seem to think that Woolworth's was established perhaps before WW2 and was on the right at the bottom of Briggate - it was increased in size after the War when a huge old hotel "Victory" ?? next door was demolished.The place at the top left of Briggate, near Thornton's Arcade, was still, until around 1951, occupied by Marks and Spencer. It was that store that was then taken by Boots when M & S moved down to the huge new building that they still have. Boots of course then left for their huge newer store in the Bond Street Centre and the one in Briggate is now some other lesser famous retail place.

[chameleon]

Trojan wrote: electricaldave wrote: I seem to recall that Woollies was in one of the arcades, they had a fire, moved to Briggate, eventually the original premises was refurbed and Boots moved in...or something like that......seems a while ago and I could well be wrong.It was either Queens Arcade or Thorntons Arcade Woolies was on the right looking up Briggate. At least in the eighties it was, but I seem to recall it being on the opposite side of the road in the fifties, it had a cafe on the top floor, and (it's funny what sticks) there were two doors with round windows to the toilets, you went through the door and up a short flight of steps. It is a shame about Woolies, but TBH I'd be hard pressed to say the last time I bought anything there. My daughter worked at the one in the White Rose about ten years ago over Christmas and they didn't seem to know their ar$e from their elbow as long ago as that. Woolworths was situated in Briggate until the premises where taken over by what is now the House of Fraser store, from the start of my living memory from the early 50's. The cafe on the first floor was an amazing site as I think has been talked about before - I just remember a sea of tables surrounding what I recall was the massive central island of the servery manned by a seemingly equally sized sea of smiling ladies in white coats and hats ready to dish-up your desires.

[BLAKEY]

chameleon wrote :-"The cafe on the first floor was an amazing site as I think has been talked about before - I just remember a sea of tables surrounding what I recall was the massive central island of the servery manned by a seemingly equally sized sea of smiling ladies in white coats and hats ready to dish-up your desires."Another wonderful first floor Woolworth's cafe was in the Blackpool Tower buildings in the old days - an absolutely vast servery providing good grub for reasonable prices - mind you, as several thousand hungry trippers queued up all day every day some of the ladies understandably looked as if they'd prefer to be behind a glass of something nice in The Foxhall or the Manchester

[The Parksider]

The Woolies fire in Manchester was very big news and lead to a number of fire safety laws in fire resistant materials I think. Some staff may have been trapped, some were killed due to the extremely quick spread of the blaze in furnishings materials - again I think!!

[String o' beads]

It really is odd how one's memory plays tricks. Yes, this MUST have been the devastating Manchester fire - I just recall being horrified at the photos in the YEP of women trapped behind the window bars. My excuse is that I was a mere whippersnapper at the time and I probably just imagined it was the Leeds shop.I recall being taken to the upstairs cafeteria when I was tidgy - vast, very canteen like and awfully busy. And then years later they made it much smaller and it had a harvest theme - there was a goldish emblem of a farmer with a pitchfork full of hay on the left hand wall, the walls were papered dark red I believe. During this period I was actually in the queue to pay once when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the place. Had to leave me steaming hot dinner on the tray and never went back in. As I child I also remember there was a massive open circular staircase just inside Briggate entrance, leading down to the record department, with a balustrade around it where all the teddy boys used to stand and watch the girls go by.    

[Uno Hoo]

chameleon wrote: Still sad and hard to believe they've gone though Phill, Woolworths has been aninstitution in its own right for several generations of people, one of those things which was always there. When something like that suffers, it really should be a sharp reminder that nothing is safe for ever.Not always looked upon with love perhaps, the shopping pecking order for large stores always went, Schofields, Lewis's and then Woolworths and the sometimes less than kind description of 'Woolies best' being given to some goods of questionable worth and quality! True what you say about 'Woolies' best', perhaps most remembered in Stanley Holloway's* immortal monologue 'Albert & The Lion'."A grand little lad were young Albert,All dressed in 'is best, quite the swell.With 'is stick with the 'orse's 'ead 'andle......The finest that Woolworths could sell!'*Performed by S Holloway, but actually written by Marriott Edgar.

[electricaldave]

That Manchester Woollies fire is used extensively as part of training for company fire officers, and safety managers.It also featured in quite a number of training videos.The store was originally inspected by the local fire brigade and given a fire certificate based on the items that were being kept there.Over the years, that use was changed, the upstairs was used as a furniture shop, with all the man made foams and fillers that implies.This change of use meant that the fire certificate was no longer appropriate, and there should have been a further inspection by the local brigade and a new set of fire safety measure would then have been required.There is some deabte about the start of the fire, some blamed a discarded cigarette at the time, but the inquiry stated it was most likely caused by an electrical fault.The reason that this particular incident is studied closely is because although the alarms were sounded, and staff told customers to evacuate, the shoppers simply would not leave until the emergency was on top of them, by which time it was too late, some died only a few feet from safety.The inquiry looked very closely at human behaviour in terms of risk and psychology, something that had only really been done in air crashes.http://www.fireservice.co.uk/history/woolworths.phpIt was this particular fire that led, after a lengthy process to the new regulations covering furniture with fire retardent foam and coverings. I think other changes to the fire regulations required the installation of sprinklers in places where large numbers of the public are fully enclosed in a building, on the day of this fire there were hundred of shoppers in there - could have been very much worse.I still use the video as a training aid but its getting very dated now.

[simonm]

Geordie..Stop eating cheese before bedtime!!    

[BLAKEY]

Just a point of interest, which has surprised me, about Woolworths in Briggate. I knew it had been extended, virtually doubled in width, but would have put a week's wage on it being around the late 1940s/early 1950s. I've just spotted a book today though which shows the extension, upwards towards Kirkgate, in progress in a picture taken during World War 11 - so there we are