M&S comes to Lincoln in 1930s
By Andrew Walker
The Survey of Lincoln
Marks & Spencer arrived late to Lincoln. By 1930, the company had 140 stores already open across the country, including shops in Grimsby and Boston.
In 1931, it was announced that plans had been submitted by the company to build a shop in Lincoln’s High Street. This was a significant fillip to the city at a time of intense economic depression.
As the Lincolnshire Echo noted on 4 February 1931, this was ‘evidence of the confidence of national business concerns in the future prosperity of Lincoln.’ The new store, it noted, ‘will add greatly to the appearance of the High Street.’
The shop was designed by one of the company’s favoured architects, Norman Jones and Leonard Rigby of Southport whose practice designed other stores for the company over several decades.
It was built by Bovis, a London-based construction company, which engaged at least 22 local unemployed men on the building project at a time when work was very hard to find. On the first day of construction in April 1931, a further 50 unemployed men assembled outside the site hoping for work but none was available.
The speed with which the building was constructed was impressive. Plans for the store and news of the purchase by Marks & Spencer of the site for £20,000 were reported in February and March 1931.
The site had previously been occupied by Messrs G.W. Henton and Sons, ironmongers and Mr J.H. Miller, a florist at 204 and 205 High Street respectively. The old properties were demolished and a new imposing three-floor neo-classical structure was built in brick, with Empire Stone dressings.
The design and building materials were typical of many stores built for the company during the late 1920s and 1930s. The official opening of the store took place in the final week of September 1931, where it was reported that 80 ‘local girls’ had been employed as shop assistants. In total, it was claimed that 90% of the goods sold would be British, with no individual item sold over five shillings in price.
Over the following six years, the store was extended three times. The third extension, completed in November 1937, virtually doubled the size of the store’s frontage. The company bought and demolished the neighbouring Arcadia café, owned by Stokes’, to the north of its existing premises.
Stokes’ were made an attractive offer by Marks & Spencer, which helped the funding of the company’s new café on the prestigious High Bridge site.
Marks & Spencer’s enlarged shop’s facade was skilfully remodelled, with the extension echoing the design of the original building, and the pediment panel, with the inscription ‘Marks & Spencer Ltd’, was moved across to the centre of the newly enlarged structure.
On 10 November 1937, the Lincolnshire Echo, reported the opening of the expanded shop. It noted that externally a Georgian style was used, that windows were of steel and panels masking the floors were made of cast lead, with enamel colours. Significant attention was also paid to the store’s pioneering internal infrastructure, with an elaborate heating and lighting system, together with customer lifts.
In an age of significant retail change, Marks & Spencer continues to have a very conspicuous presence at 204 High Street, Lincoln.
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