So, this week we are again back to an entry in the Industrial Archaeology of South-East London. This time its about a store in Greenwich’s Nelson Road. I was very doubtful about doing it, partly because I am far from sure that shops are part of my ’industrial’ remit, and also because I once had a small book about this chain if shops – Burton’s -and it managed to make them seem not very exciting.. However I looked at a lot of websites- and there are very, very many about Burton’s. There is even an academic book on the firm for sale at an absolutely extra ordinary price. A lot of it was more interesting than I had thought, so perhaps I should stick with it and do this shop this week
So what does SELIA have to say about Greenwich Burton’s? “Gentlemen’s Outfitters. The store is typical of those opened in large numbers by Montague Burton ‘Tailor of Taste’ in the interwar period. This particular branch sports the unusual feature of elephant head decoration at high level. It was opened in 1932. Following Mr. Burton’s policy a temperance billiard hall was opened on the first floor.”
I discovered that the shop is also ’ locally listed’ by the Council. Their entry says: “13 and 14 Nelson Road. Built 1932 (foundation stone lay by Raymond Montague Burton). 3-storey stone faced building, shop on ground floor, residential over, in the inter-war 'Moderne' style. A good example of its style though disrupting the classic regularity of Nelson Road.”
That piece from the council’s listing note may be the most significant. – ‘disrupting the classic regularity of Nelson Road’. I understand objections have been raised at various times, including when it was first built, because it has removed one of the original buildings from the ‘classical’ layout of central Greenwich in the early 1830s - a development by Joseph Kaye for the Royal Hospital, the site owners. The new shops built then were ‘larger, well-lit and contained superior accommodation above …. To provide goods and services to the growing middle class customers needing and expecting both delivery and credit”
Neil Rhind comments in his article on the Kaye development for the Greenwich Historical Society that: “dreadful damage has been done to one corner in 1932 by Montague Burton and subsequent cafe proprietors his (Kaye’s) scheme remains to delight and we trust will last well into the millennium
I don’t know what stood there the 100 years before the Burton’s building was added there in the 1930s. It is noticeable that in street directories covering Nelson Road (also called Nelson Street) number 13 often does not appear in directories. In the later months of the 1890s it was a butcher shop. Earlier there are reports of it being used by builder and there is a minute, dating from 1873, from the Metropolitan Board of Works that they licenced the storage of petroleum there. It may be that the building had been badly treated and needed replacement. I have been told by someone with ‘a half memory … that it was structurally unsound and had to be pulled down’.
Burton’s Shops all have regular signage attributing them to Montague Burton. However the story begins in 1900 with the arrival at Hull of a penniless immigrant from Lithuania - Meshe David Osinsky, aged 15sh. He began as a peddler selling items of men’s clothing. After a couple of years he had a small shop in Chesterfield, selling readymade garments to working men, but soon began offering made-to-measure gentlemen’s suits and other items and opened a workshop where they could be made. In 1909 he married and by 1914 had 14 shops. In 1916 he secured a contract to supply uniforms to the army and he later had contracts for ‘demob suits’ –all items which could be made in bulk. In 1919 he had 36 shops and changed his name to Montague Maurice Burton.
In the late 20th century Burton’s were one of the biggest companies not just in Britain but in the world- the largest chain of tailors shops in the world.
Most Burton shops were made to look distinctive. The firm developed an in-house architects department under an architect from Leeds, Harry Wilson. It has not been easy to find anything about him in lists of British architects - which is remarkable seeing the effect his work had on numerous British High Streets. Wilson was to remain in post until the mid-1930s and in 1937 was replaced by Nathanial Martin who ran it until the 1950s. If possible they used corner sites and many sites which were got cheaply because there was a problem – which Burtons would often be able to solve. They maintained their own Shopfitting and Building departments. Normally stores were built either by local builders or by one of a stable of contractors maintained by Harry Wilson’s architect's department.
Frontages were often clad with an artificial stone - Empire Stone. This was made by a company based in the small town of Narborough, Leicestershire. There is an interesting history of the development of artificial stone but I don’t know where they come in that history. They describe their product as ‘a sort of concrete’ but it was rather more than that. I aware that artificial stone made in the 19th century the Greenwich Peninsula had a complex mix of ingredients and methods of production. Empire Stone seem to have had a quarry but I have not found out what was done with the stone - the recipe – used for the Burton frontages
Burton clearly had an interest in architects and I am very impressed that in 1937 in Worlsey near Manchester, one of their factories was co-designed with the elite Wallis Gilbert partnership. This was a ‘garden factory’ and named as 'Burtonville Clothing Works'. Of course, Burton properties were not just shops; they had several large factories where the clothes were actually made,
In order to attract the right customers Burton’s began a programme of installing snooker halls are above their shops so that many might enjoy the benefits of misspent youth – and look in Burton’s windows every time they did so . These billiard halls were however temperance based and alcohol free.
Generally Burton’s shops were designed to a uniform style in respect of window displays and in the style of lettering on plaques in their shops. They also conformed to a norm inside where a relatively small space was needed for sales – customers would be measured for suits to arrive later from a factory.
There were of course other Burton’s shops within Greenwich Borough besides the one in Eltham Road. The Eltham shop was on the corner of Well Hall Road and in red brick rather than concrete. Woolwich has had a number of Burton's shops since 1922. Two original shops survive in other use and there are of course current sales outlets in Woolwich centre and elsewhere. A shop opened in 1922 at number 60, which is now Marks & Spencer’s, the other – which survives as a café - was on the corner of Hare Street and Church Street. The two Woolwich Burton’s were built by Edge – a local builder based in Woolwich Church Street (I intend to write them up here sometime). Another shop at a Deptford Bridge is extremely near the boroughs boundary
Although Eltham Burtons was built at around the same time as the Greenwich one, it was in a totally different style. It is now a McDonald’s burger café, but there is still a snooker club on the first floor although it is not one which was originally there. For while studio space above the Eltham shop was a dance studio and in 1987 used by Len Goodman of Strictly Come Dancing. There was also a bingo club there for a while.
The Greenwich store is notable for the decorations with elephant’s heads – thought they are also used on other Burton’s shops elsewhere. One website has produced a handy guide to shops with elephant head decoration. They identify 11 Burton shops with elephant heads on them all of them built in 1933. For most elephant heads Halifax wins with eighteen. At the other end of the scale Belfast, Cardiff and Swansea have just two each. Greenwich with 10 is about in the middle of the range. . A friend tells me she has organised walks around Greenwich town centre and one question is always "how many elephants' heads you can see?”
The first floor was supposed to be used for a temperance billiard hall. And I have an advertisement from 1933 which advertises the first floor for rent. “To Let. Large upper floor. Spacious entrance. Suitable for social club, billiard hall. or dance hall; moderate rent.—APPLY. Montague Burton, Ltd., 13-14, Nelson-street. Greenwich .” I am not sure if it was ever used as a club and n today I think is a law firm has offices on the first floor of the Greenwich building
The Greenwich store has memorial plaques about opening ceremonies by Stanley Howard Burton and Barbara Jesse Burton – Montague’s children. Stanley would have been just 20 in 1934 although he had benen opening shops from at least the age of 14. Barbara was a few years older . Greenwich also has still retained mosaic tiled entrance with the Burton’s logo. I wonder how it Is that these have been kept? Is it likely that the various café companies – Café Sol and now Bill’s - would want to keep them? Or is at the insistence of Greenwich Council or maybe even Greenwich Hospital Estates. Whoever it is, perhaps we should say ‘Thank you’.
And …. Anyone who is really keen on the Greenwich Burton’s is able too make their own one by buying a model kit from a website. I am not going to give their web address – but good luck with it IN the Illustration they have put an Odeon cinema next door which – if it has ever been real would upset the devotees of Kaye’s development even more!.
Thanks for info to Neil Rhind, Pieter Van der Merwe, Elizabeth Pearcey, Philip Binns, and particularly John Kennett
No comments:
Post a Comment