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.
