A lost Liverpool department store known for selling everything from furniture to clothes and crockery was "one of the best in town."
Businessman Owen Owen was born in 1847 at Cwmrhaeadr near Machynlleth and opened his first store, a draper’s shop, in London Road in 1868.
By 1873 had more than 120 employees, many from Wales, and years later saw his business grow into a national chain - and become an institution in Liverpool.
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In 1924, Liverpool's Owen Owen chain moved from Audley House to Clayton Square into an impressive building on Parker Street that was originally designed as a luxury hotel.
The department shut its doors in 1993 - but its memory still lives on. It later became a Tesco and is due to open as a Flannels store.
Known for selling everything from furniture to clothes and crockery, Owen Owen also boasted a hairdressers and a department downstairs offering speciality food.
The ECHO reported previously how, in his Liverpool years, Mr Owen built live-in hostels to accommodate his employees and paid personally for an annual staff ball, as well as setting up a trust fund for retired staff.
He was also one of the "earliest employers" to give his workers a weekly half-day off and even paid for some sick staff to go abroad to convalesce; others he sent to his holiday home.
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Margaret Foulkes left school at the age of 15 in 1960 and started working at Owen Owen weeks later.
She said: "When you first started you were a ‘junior ‘ on a department. I was assigned to the blouse department and my duties were mostly running around with a duster and generally going on people’s errands.
"Every night at closing time all the counters had to be covered with dust sheets - I hated this job. When you had finished your year as a junior you were moved to a different department. I was moved to the china and glass department and I loved it.
"I bought half my ‘bottom drawer ‘ from this department. Working on this department meant we visited the Potteries in Stoke on Trent many times to various factories, this was brilliant and I loved seeing how the things we sold were made. This is one of my favourite things about the job."
Margaret said she remembers Owen Owen being extremely popular in the city centre and that she returned as a customer often after leaving her role.
She said: "I remember that it was strict atmosphere in store, you couldn’t use people’s Christian names and everyone was addressed as Miss or Mr, even friends.
"Owen Owen was a very busy and well used store in the 60s. I lived in Kirkdale when I worked there which was not too far to travel. You had to clock on and off so you couldn’t be late. Everyone had a ‘clock number’ and I still remember mine.
"I was married in 1966 and even though I still loved my job it was time to move on. In the summer of 1966, I changed jobs and started working in Stoniers.
"This was just around the corner from Owen Owen so I still visited the store to see what it was like as a customer and not staff."
On social media, ECHO readers also shared their fond memories of Owen Owen, from getting their ears pierces to indulging in a Knickerbocker glory.
Pam Evans said: "Mum worked Saturdays as a nurse there. She enjoyed it, met Ken Dodd in a lift doing a promotion.
Nicola Baker wrote: "Got my ears pierced there, the counter was just underneath the escalators as you walked by the window. I had one ear done and there was a bomb scare and had to be evacuated. Early 80’s."
Jane Foo Gibney said: "Christmas with life like human dolls and soldiers marching in the toy dept. Used to love visiting Owen Owen as a kid at Christmas time."
Frances Walton commented: "Fond memories of shopping there with my mum who 'had an account' there. Loved the cafe and watching the occasional fashion parade as we ate!"
Lisa Smith Ward wrote: "Had my ears pierced here. My Auntie took me for my birthday gift. I was 9 years old. It was April 1982."
Irene Cotham said: "Absolutely loved shopping here - having lunch with my mum and children - one if the best stores in town with GH Lee and Lewis’s."
Chris Nicholas commented: "My sister worked in hairdressers at Owen Owen great shop."
Patricia McClure posted: "I loved the lifts, and the red rose restaurant. Also the amazing scented air as I walked through the perfume department."
Gillian Hoose posted: "My mum's memory is that Owen Owen sold nice knitting wool and had plenty of patterns."
Helen Edwards wrote: "The Blue rooms restaurant. It was lovely. My Mum and my aunt used to take us there as a treat in the middle 70s, such lovely memories."
And Carole Ashcroft said: "Cafe did Knickerbocker glories."
With its success, the brand also attracted customers from Liverpool and beyond.
On the Museum of Liverpool website, one former customer said: "A lot of Welsh people used to shop at Owen Owen of a Thursday. They sold things like crockery, furniture and clothes. There was a little shop downstairs where you could buy speciality foods.
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"You would shop in Owen Owen on occasions if you wanted a coat or a dress. If you couldn’t get anything local then you’d go into town. You’d go in Owen Owen where you hesitated going into the Bon Marché or Hendersons. It was more customer-friendly, working class. I didn’t feel inferior going in there."
In later years, the company purchased rival chain TJ Hughes and moved that firm’s Liverpool store into the empty London Road premises.
In its lifetime, the UK business owned 21 Owen Owen stores, three TJ Hughes stores and employed more than 3,000 people.
The Owen family sold the business in the 1980s, but the name continued. In the early 1990s, it acquired five Lewis’s stores, as well as Boothroyds/Broadbents of Southport.
On March 19, 1993, it was announced that the famous Liverpool department stores was to close down.
The ECHO reported: "The doors of Owen Owen, in Clayton Square, will shut for the last time in June. The company, Owen Owen plc - which also includes Lewis's Liverpool store among its 19-strong group of outlets on Merseyside and across the country - has been trying to sell the city centre building that bears its name.
"When the present store, which has been a familiar sight to shoppers since 1925, was put up for sale, Owen Owen blamed the current trading climate. But it was hoped that new retailers would move in, and keep it open.
"However, the company has been unable to find any buyers. And, because of lease agreements which end this year, the decision has been taken to cease trading at the site."
The company was taken over by Philip Green in 1994 until a decade later when he sold his stake in the business to David Thompson.
But, in February 2007, Owen Owen entered administration.
The company no longer exists, but the family spirit of the Owen Owen Group lives on both with the Owen Owen Trust and, of course, in the memories of those who loved a day out in town in Owen Owen’s.
In 2011, former Owen Owen department store staff held the "biggest reunion in 30 years."
In 1993, supermarket giant Tesco was tipped to take over Liverpool's Owen Owen building.
The site was due to become empty on June 5 that year, but stores committee bosses later confirmed that Tesco was to move in.
On June 16, 1993, the ECHO reported how the company announced that day that it had bought the famous old department store overlooking Clayton Square.
The report said the deal was a "big sign of confidence in the city centre" and would create 200 jobs "almost immediately."
A Tesco spokeswoman at the time said: "Metro stores are a new concept.
"It's not there to cater for the bulk buying demands met by out-of-town superstores. It's there to meet the needs of people who are in town for other shopping and need to pick up a few things on the way home."
In recent years, Clayton Square Shopping Centre has seen some big changes to the high street names that occupy its units.
Competition and the changing nature of the traditional retail sector have seen the likes of Tesco and Clas Ohlsen leave premises on the square.
In November 2018, the ECHO revealed that Tesco was planning to close its long-standing store in Clayton Square and that the supermarket giant said it would try to find staff alternative roles.
Tesco revealed it would be pulling out of its Clayton Square site entirely when its Tesco Metro store shuts down for good on January 12.
At the time, Tesco confirmed the lease on its Clayton Square building - which is owned by next-door Sports Direct - was expiring and it would be leaving the site.
In December 2020, it was announced that the city-centre is to welcome a huge flagship Flannels store, with seven floors and a rooftop restaurant.
The new Flannels store is heading to Parker Street, where the brand will take over the iconic Owen Owen building , which has been home to Sports Direct and Tesco in recent years.
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Set over seven floors, the Liverpool shop will feature an all-new beauty destination, a rooftop restaurant and even an entire floor dedicated to leisure, activewear and sportswear. The floor will even include a fitness studio.
Alongside Flannels’ ready-to-wear luxury fashion and streetwear, the Liverpool store will launch the first Flannels Beauty destination.
At the time, Michael Murray, head of elevation at Flannels, said: "We recognise Liverpool as a powerhouse of culture and style - it’s a symbiotic home for Flannels.
"While the idea of the ‘regional divide’ is dead, we recognise that communities are welcoming exciting, much-needed additions to their high streets with open arms.
"Liverpool is the fifth largest retail centre in the country, and in our opinion underserved – we’ll be the first and only multi category destination to mark the city.
"The market has an unmatched appetite for the type of luxury we do best; we’re incredibly excited to deliver a world-class experience to the city and have no doubts on the success of our strategy."
In recent weeks, many will have recognised work taking place around the building and spotted Flannels logo boarded around the site.
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