Next to the Lidl stands the former Woolworths building now a farmfoods.
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Paul Seaton the author of "woolworthsmuseum.co.uk"
and 'A Sixpenny Romance, celebrating a century of value
at Woolworths', says of the Longsight Woolworths, store
number 481,"Like so many the building was designed
by B.C. Donaldson, but using his standard template
for a fast, cheap build, adapted to a comparatively
wide frontage. At the time the local authority had
plans to widen the road, reserving the right to
convert the A6 into a dual carriageway, with a
further service lane at the sides, and a dual
tramway reservation in the centre of the road.
(In its way this was the precursor of the Mancunian
Way, and to be honest would have dramatically
improved that section of the A6 in a way that would
still be appreciated today.) As a result the
main store build was set back to the proposed new
building line, with a 'temporary' flat-roofed arcade
section, which could be simply and cheaply removed
without loss of trading when the road scheme went
ahead. The idea was to 'make hay while the sun
shines' rather than requiring shoppers to walk
through a 50 foot void to enter the store.
History shows the road scheme never happened, and,
judging by your photo, the flat-roofed arcade has
survived pretty much intact 85 years after being
erected by Woolworth's own workmen, which isn't bad
considering it was only expected to last from 1932
to 1935!
The redevelopment in Stockport
and consequent migration of trade southwards down
the A6 left the Longsight Woolies only just breaking
even, as the area suffered particularly badly during
the de-industrialisation of the area in the mid
1970s. The nail in the coffin was the opening
of the Asda store, nearby. (Around 1978, I
think, I remember taking several trips there when I
was learning to drive) The Asda was the first for
miles around, and I well remember how extensively it
was marketed in Bramhall (where I lived at the
time), with promotional features and coupons in the
Stockport Advertiser and Stockport Express, and
door-dropped leaflets not only in Bramhall, but
across Hazel Grove, Cheadle Hulme and out to Cheadle
and Cheadle Heath, despite it being a good 45
minutes drive at virtually any time of day.
I can bear witness that the
non-food offer at that store was broader and cheaper
than the Woolies offer, with the Longsight store
appearing positively medieval (not quaint just
awful), compared with the ultra-modern space age
Asda. By 1980 Store 481 was losing money. The
new owners decreed that (after a year's grace for
local staff to try to turn things around), any store
which could not achieve a 'semi-net' profit of at
least 10% of their sales (defined as profit before
any market rental) would be closed. The
Longsight store was freehold, but this was deemed to
have a value of only £50k. it paid no rent and still
made a loss, so it had to go. It was closed at the
end of the trading year 1982-3, with the staff all
offered transfers to either Store 48 in Stockport,
or the recently reinstated Store 4 in Manchester,
the site of the tragic fire on 8 May 1979, on the
corner of Piccadilly and Oldham Street. (The few
colleagues who opted for the latter, suffered the
ignominy of losing their jobs twice, when that store
'retired' on 21 January 1986, while some of the
Stockport contingent stayed with the firm for
another twenty-five years.)"
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