SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Hard to imagine today but Croydon once had shops that would see customers flying in from Europe and could provide tea for the Queen. DAVID MORGAN looks back to Grants Departmental Store and the halcyon days of the High Street
The Harrods of south London: Grants was regarded as the grandest of Croydon’s departmental stores
In the 1930s, shoppers with a taste for style and with a generous bank balance used to come to Croydon to shop in Grants department store. Or Grants Departmental Store, as the advertisements of the time would have it.
Grants of Croydon was such a draw that some of its customers came from France. The well-heeled clientele would fly into Croydon Aerodrome, take a car into the town centre and be dropped off at the door. After completing their transactions, they might have time for a meal in the restaurant or a spot of tea before being chauffeured back to the aerodrome for the return flight.
Buying suits in Grants’ luxurious showrooms was a regular thing for the discerning continental. Such was the allure of Croydon back then.
Two brothers, Richard and William Grant, established a haberdashery business on Croydon High Street in 1877. Living above the shop, they first expanded by building out into the back garden When the road was widened, they took the plunge and decided on a new four-storey store on the other side of the road.
High Street highlight: Grants was too posh for some shoppers
Designed by architects Metcalfe and Jones, the new store was opened in 1895. Vast sums of money were spent in creating a magnificent building. It quickly became known as “the Harrods of south London”.
In the last years of the 19th Century, it was said that several prominent members of the Royal Family were regular customers at Grants. Adverts around the turn of the century mentioned “opera capes” for sale.
Nikolaus Pevsner, the architectural historian, described the Grants store as having the best frontage of any commercial building of its date in south London. The building, or what remains of it, has had a Grade II-listing heritage protection through Historic England since 1994.
Grants employed personal shoppers who would serve those customers who wanted a special outfit for an occasion. These high-powered shop assistants were skilled in sizing up the customers and, with their knowledge of the stock, could bring dresses, handbags, hats and shoes to be tried on without the customer having to leave their chair.
Today, Turn Up and Be Pampered has morphed into Click and Collect!
When Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip made an official visit to Croydon in 1960, it was to Grants that they went for afternoon tea, accompanied by the mayor.
The store ceased trading in 1985 – the downturn in high street retailing and department stores has been going on for many years.
There are many Croydon residents with long-lasting memories of the store. Old Palace schoolgirls remember going there to purchase their brown uniforms, just as RAF personnel who were stationed at nearby Croydon Airport when it was turned into a fighter base, would go to Grants for their uniforms during World War II.
People who worked locally, in the offices that sprung up around the town centre from the 1960s, might go to Grants’ restaurant for lunch. For some young people, it was their first venture into the world of work with a Saturday job. There are others, however, who never went into the store, saying it was far too posh, or those who went “once in a blue moon for a treat”.
‘Hollywood and London’: Grants added glamour to 1930s shopping
The memory that many people have of the old store is the tubing into which were placed cannisters containing the bill of sale and money to pay for the goods. These cannisters would be rocketed along those tubes to the ledger department, where the sale was recorded. Any change would be counted out, put back into the receptacle and sent back to the department.
If a customer spent a large sum of money or if they were buying on Hire Purchase – a form of credit – then they would be escorted to the ledger office by the shop assistant, where the transaction would be completed discreetly.
In 1975, an article about Grants’ restaurant and catering facilities appeared in the spring edition of Heal’s newspaper. Heal’s was, and still is, a department store, trading today with its flagship premises in Tottenham Court Road and a large shop at Kingston. Their newspaper was described as being a guide to shop merchandise, personalities, promotions, home care and furnishing ideas. They weren’t afraid to talk about their rivals.
From that article half a century ago, we have an insight into how Grants looked after their staff.
Grants’ staff restaurant was up on the sixth floor, where the views were superb. On a clear day you could see half way to Epsom. There was a balcony from which you could enjoy pointing out and identifying various landmarks. When the weather was fine, staff were able sit out on the balcony during their breaks.
The staff restaurant was able to cater for 1,000 people each day. Grants still employed an awful lot of people in the 1970s. A realistic daily average was given as 800. This number didn’t include the senior management and the buyers, though, as they had their own facilities. All the food was cooked in the same kitchen, so the management, staff and customers all benefited from the excellent kitchen facilities. There were just a few “fried-on-the-spot meals” that were prepared behind the counter.
Innovation: the food hall in Grants offered the most modern facilities
The hostess for Heal’s visit was Mrs Florence Coleman, who had been appointed manageress of the staff restaurant in 1970. She proudly sat in the “large, light, well-windowed room” sharing coffee with her visitors and explaining how things were run.
Mrs Coleman was keen to explain that the dishes were varied as much as possible.
Two staples were always on the menu: fish and chips and sausage and chips. These were priced at 11p and 10p respectively. The more expensive alternative on the day of the visit cost 15p. This consisted of creamed turkey and two veg. The choice of vegetables offered was either peas, rice or potatoes and these could be either creamed or mashed.
Salads were made to order, based on sardines, ham, liver sausage or egg.
There was a choice of sweet course which cost 3½p. For a treat, which cost extra, you could have lemon meringue pie.
Not everyone wanted to have a full lunchtime meal, Coleman told the people from Heal’s. “Soup and rolls can make a good midday meal because the soup is always hot,” she said.
Pies, rolls, buns, cakes and sandwiches could be purchased for between 2p and 4p.
To wash down your lunch you could get a tea for a penny or a coffee for tuppence.
The staff restaurant was open each day from 9.30am until 5pm. Morning coffee was supposed to be finished by 10.30, but Coleman explained that if a member of staff was serving a customer and wasn’t able to get to the restaurant in time, then the rules weren’t rigidly applied. “Attention to duty with a customer must never result in the loss of their much needed coffee,” Coleman said.
The main lunchtime was between noon and 2.30pm. Queues were kept under control by the staggering of lunch hours, with the need to keep all the departments properly staffed.
Grants knew that Croydon was very much an area of lunchtime shopping, so they planned to keep things running smoothly both on the shop floor as well as the staff restaurant. The spaciousness of the restaurant also helped to create an ambiance where staff didn’t feel it was too hectic, trying to get something to eat before returning to their duties.
Coleman was in charge of eight or nine staff who were needed to keep the restaurant running smoothly. She didn’t have a large turnover of staff. Her reason for this was because she, herself, was prepared to do anything which needed doing, including washing up, table wiping or cooking.
Repurposed: Grants as we know it today, with the vast multiplex cinema looming over the Victorian façade
One of Coleman’s bugbears was how much time was needed to train people to clear up after they had eaten. Grants’ staff were expected to clear their tables and put their trays back on the collection racks. Coleman was optimistic that she had cracked the problem and that the staff had started to do it automatically.
The most difficult problem was to get the staff to bring back their cups after they had gone outside to have a tea or coffee on the balcony.
Grants also provided a “small dart board” in the restaurant for staff amusement, especially if it was raining. Coleman hoped that other amenities might be added in the future, as there was certainly enough space.
By the late 1970s, however, it was clear that the business was in decline. The visits from the French were by then distant memories, with black and white photographs hanging on the walls to remind folk of the store’s heyday.
Grants did their best to revitalise the store in different ways. In 1948, after the war, they opened a food hall offering delicious takeaway dishes such as chicken salad, prawn salad and lobster. They also opened a cocktail counter where you could buy everything you needed for your party.
The refrigeration equipment which they installed helped them to make a bold claim. It “ensures a degree of hygienic perfection that is as modern as tomorrow”.
After the store’s closure, the building stood empty for almost 15 years, as new owners and uses were sought for it while protecting that remarkable façade. Work was done to convert it into the multiplex cinema and bar and restaurant complex we know today, with the façade restored, including repair of the Victorian stained glass windows, the stonework, the cornices, the window trims and turret and flagpole.
As the powers-that-be wrestle with the problems that beset Croydon town centre today, where are the 21st Century Grant brothers?
Start small, grow big? Visionaries needed. Urgent.
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Archbishop Lanfranc and the Norman Conquest of Croydon
- Christmas Eve marks cententary of the Croydon air disaster
- Broderick’s Minster visit revives memories of master musician
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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