It was January 1963 - the start of a momentous year that would witness the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the Great Train Robbery, and the emergence of a popular music combo from Liverpool called The Beatles.
Here in Newcastle 60 years ago, these customers were waiting patiently for the doors to open at Fenwick's department store at the start of the January sales. "Double-banked queues encircled Fenwick's on Northumberland Street today when the winter sale opened for one week," reported the Evening Chronicle on January 7. "Crowds thronged every department within 10 minutes," and the emphasis was on "quality", the store's advertising manager told our reporter.
"The trend was particularly apparent in the French Salon where women stacked their belongings on the floor and tried on cashmere jerseys at £5 reduced from eight guineas without waiting for a free changing room," our story noted. At a time 60 years ago when the average UK weekly wage was around £15, this would have represented a considerable outlay for most folk, but Fenwick's even then was clearly attracting a relatively well-off Tyneside customer. Also in 1963, unlike today in the age of 'Black Friday' when 'sales' are advertised virtually non-stop, they ran in stores just a two or three times a year and were a bit of an event.
Elsewhere in the Fenwick's sale, shoppers could get their hands on a grey, two-piece suit with embroidered motif selling at 12 guineas (a guinea was a pound and a shilling - 5p - in the pre-decimal currency world). This was "swept from its stand within minutes". Several women engaged in tug-of-war over shoes reduced in price from 89 shillings 11 pence to 69 shillings 11 pence. Model leather handbags were reduced from 6½ guineas to £3. Leather gloves were selling at £1. And crowds stood three-deep stood at the men's shirt counter. And who says shopping frenzy is a modern phenomenon?
Fenwick's, then as now, was a Newcastle retail institution. Last year, the Northumberland Street store marked its 140th anniversary serving the discerning shoppers of Tyneside. As a long-standing city icon, Fenwick's has been around even longer than the likes of the Chronicle (founded in 1885), Newcastle United (1892), and the Tyne Bridge (1928).
It was a garment-maker called John James Fenwick who opened a single shop at 5, Northumberland Street in 1882. The business initially sold silk goods, dresses, mantles, fabrics and trimming, but expansion was rapid and Fenwick and his son, Fred, soon bought up adjoining Northumberland Street properties, numbers 37 and 38 - and later number 40. These formed the shop frontage still used by Fenwick's today. When a ground-breaking form of retail trading was applied where different goods and services were separated under one roof, the new 'department store' concept became an instant hit.
Today the store carries the reputation as the region's foremost retail attraction. With its top-of-the-range household goods, array of high fashion, sumptuous food hall, variety of restaurants and cafes, and annual Christmas window display, the store has been cited as Newcastle’s own version of Harrods. In 2023, Fenwick's - which recently announced its London Bond Street store is to close - retains eight stores across the UK in Newcastle, Kingston, Brent Cross, Colchester, Canterbury, Bracknell, Tunbridge Wells and York, alongside its growing online platform.
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