Wigan Album

I remember Pendleburys before the fire, my Mother always made a beeline for the store when we got off the bus at the Market Sq.

Will this be the next big store in Wigan to "Bite The Dust"?

Southport Debs.closes in January.

Probably in another 30 years there will be no big stores on the High Street. As they took over from the small corner shops, now the Internet is taking over from them..

Nice to see the old Pendleburys building from before the fire.
From The Times, Monday August 3rd 1953 . . .
“The premises and stock of Pendlebury and Co., Limited, one of Wigan’s oldest drapery and house furnishing firms and now a subsidiary of Debenham, Limited, London, were seriously damaged last night by fire. Road traffic was diverted and thousands of homeward bound holiday makers watched the firemen fighting the flames.”
The fire was on Sunday 2nd August 1953, which was part of the Bank Holiday Weekend, before they moved the August Bank Holiday to the end of the month in the late 1960s.

Exactly Ron but a great pity. Though I like to see what I am buying so mostly use shops.

I can just remember the fire, but I don't remember the store being so wide. I wonder if part was sold off after the fire. I seem to remember a shoe shop at one time where the second half was. And next to that was M&S. So sad all these stores have closed, can't get over the shock of M&S closing!!! Some are blaming the council for the high rents.... There will be no use coming into Wigan if stores keep on closing. I hope Debenhams keeps going, as one assistant assured me they were ok.

Used to go in to Wigan at least twice a week for a bit of shopping and a look round, but haven't done so for over twenty years now because the town centre is a dead loss.
Even though Wigan is only a ten minute bus ride for me, I go to Chorley or Bolton instead, and so do a lot of other folk, judging by the number of people I bump into who I know, while in those towns.

Veronica. Sorry for the rant below but I think a lot of peop!e are blaming local councils (who have enough to blame for anyway) for setting high business rates/rents etc. To clatify

1) Business Rates (including retail) are set by Central Government based on the local valuation office data. Central Government then makes the local authorities responsible for collecting in and sending it to the Treasury in Whitehall. Sneaky eh ? as you can guess who gets the blame !

2) Many of the older Department stores (Debenhams, BHS, House of Frazer etc actually used to own their premisesoutright, indeed many stores had been built by these companies. However in recent years many of these chains have been bought by Property groups / hedgefunds etc e.g. BHS by Arcadia, Debenhams by Celine etc. These companies then asset strip the old companies by selling off the freehold buildings (often to a subsidiary business) and then forcing the retailer to pay huge rental bills on buildings that they used to own outright. If they pay there way fine, but if they don't then the buildings can be sold on for redevelopment. It's a very cynical business. It's illuminating that one of the UK most successful retailers is Richer Sounds. The owner Julian Richer always buys their premises outright.

I am not excusing local councils everything. I live in North Somerset and they are dreadful, but in reality Councils have little to no say over the setting and use of business rates or rents. Rant over.

PS I also miss the old Pendleburys especially the cafe.

So really it pays to hang on to buildings and not sell Carolaen. You would think they would as owning property is an investment. I believe M&S still have to pay rent on an empty building now that they have moved! It seems things are not so simple in the business world..no wonder the government have money to splash out and waste!

Veronica. If only all businesses operated like Richer Sounds and actually were keen on the business. The problem with most of the institutional companies behind a lot of business these days is that there are only interested in maximising a quick return to their inestrs and then moving on to the next sitting duck. Its the same business modal that has decimated pubs since deregulation in the 1980s. Once the breweries got rid of all their estates of tied houses (themselves to make a quick buck) the new owners (various investment groups generically called pubcos !) got rid of the old manager. They then leased the pubs at sky high rents to self employed tenants who also had to buy all their stock (at sky high prices) from the pubcos. Those that make a go of it simply add to the pubc profit, and if they fail the pubs are usually closed and sold off for redevlopment. Head they win and tails they win. Again its a cynical but succesful business model which is great if you are an investor/shareholder in the parent company, not so great of you lose your local pub/High street store etc.

PS I saw in the comments that M&S has also just closed. A real tragedy. The large one in Weston Super Mare High Street near me closed earlier this year. Its going to be replaced with a charity superstore adding to the 14 or so ready there along with the vape stores and phone shops !!
What a world.

It's terrible for shoppers, not everybody wants to shop on the internet and it's the social aspect that will be missed as well. Talking of investors, what about these people who buy up housing and do them up to rent! They can't lose either, it's one of the best ways of making money. The rent pays the mortgage if they have borrowed and it belongs to them at the end of the day! Some of them are quite young couples with huge portfolios - still who can blame them.... I suppose they have to have the courage in the first place to get into that business. You can learn a lot from the 'Homes Under the Hammer' programme! It can't be all plain sailing though, surely.