Remembering Liverpool Structures - Owen Owen

On February the 24th, 1888, a young Welshman called Owen Owen, coming from a family of Welsh hill farmers, arrived in Liverpool with modest savings (swollen by various loans to about £300) in his pocket, a quantity of conflicting advice in his head and his fortune to make. Weary of working for his uncle Samuel's drapery at Bath he was determined to strike out in a shop of his own where he could give full rein to his ideas, and felt Merseyside was the best place to begin.

This was hardly surprising as the twenty year old Owen Owen had discovered, during an exploratory visit two years previously, trade was booming in Liverpool and there were plenty of opportunities for a man with a little imagination. He opened his first shop, the draper's emporium at 121 London Road, Liverpool, in 1868. This Owen Owen shop, using buildings in Shaw Street to accommodate its staff, was then in the T.J.Hughes shop just a five minutes walk away in London Rd (the 2 shops would be part of the same chain for many years). Owen Owen himself lived in Pembroke Place, a few minutes walk from the London Road shop, for a while. By 1873 Owen Owen had over 120 employees, and a great reputation as a wonderful employer who gave staff half a day off each week and set up a trust fund for retired employees.

The Liverpool store became one of the largest shops in the north and, with more space needed as the emporium expanded, a large purpose-built department store was opened on Clayton Square in the 1920s around the same time as they acquired TJ Hughes. The impressive building was originally designed as a luxury hotel and was designed by W Aubrey Thomas, the architect of the Royal Liver Building. It would have been the first all-new free-standing hotel in Liverpool since the Adelphi Hotel had opened in 1914. Liverpool would wait until the late 1960s for the next all-new hotel and there's been a glut of hotels built since the 1980s, reflecting Liverpool's change to a major tourist destination.

 

The interior of the Clayton Square building was redesigned by Stewart McLauchlan as a department store for Owen Owen which quickly grew into a national chain with the Clayton Square store as its flagship. At its peak they operated more than 30 stores across the UK in locations such as Coventry, Birkenhead and Brighton. The Liverpool shop, which became one of the most iconic names in Liverpool retail history, sold everything from furniture to clothes and crockery – there was even a department downstairs offering speciality food. Blossoming in an era when customer service was paramount, staff took pride in their jobs and were constantly encouraged to keep the high standards expected by its hierarchy. Its hair dressing salon was no different, with a clientele that was a who's who of the city, whose tresses were tended by an ever-willing team of stylists and hard working apprentices who had to turn up on time and in uniform. They even looked after wigs, as they had a contract with the NHS. A subsidiary company, Plumb (Contract Furnishers and Shopfitters) Ltd., was created from its own shopfitting department, and had offices at Bishop Street, Coventry and Kempston Street, Liverpool. Many people have fond memories of their cafe being very distinct, with a lovely smell of food being cooked and a view from the windows of the top of St Johns Market. The Owen family sold the business in the 1980s but the name continued. In 1991, Owen Owen bought several Lewis’s stores, including Manchester, and briefly traded under the title of Lewis's Owen Owen. The company was taken over by Philip Green in 1994 and the Owen Owen store in Clayton Square finally closed its doors in 1995.

The Proposed New Development

On the 28th of February 2007 Owen Owen entered administration with the reason claimed for its demise being the disruption in Liverpool city centre caused by the 'Big Dig'. Now a new development by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group will include Flannels Liverpool, due to open in autumn 2021, with a fitness studio, rooftop restaurant and beauty hall. It will be designed by fashion sector specialist Argent Design. 

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/12/remembering-liverpool-structures-reeces.html