175 Years on Deansgate

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 13 Sep 2011

The store was opened as Watts' in 1832, and became Kendal, Milne & Faulkner when three employees bought out the business and re-opened it in 1836. The founder John Watts had begun a drapery business in Deansgate in 1796 which became prosperous and was later known as "The Bazaar" and expanded onto a site on the other side of Deansgate. The store building of 1836 (on the east side) was reconstructed after the street widening of 1873 by the architect E. J. Thompson. The site of the present store was occupied by the cabinet showrooms, workshops and packing departments. It was purchased by Harrods in 1919, and was called Harrods for a period in the 1920s, but the name swiftly reverted to Kendal Milne following protests from customers and staff. The Harrods group, along with Kendals, was taken over by House of Fraser in 1959. The store continued trading as Kendals until 2005, when, after extensive refurbishment, the store was renamed House of Fraser Manchester. Despite the re-branding of Kendals, the 'Kendal, Milne and Co' name is still clearly visible on marble fascias above the store's entrances. The store is located in a purpose-built Art Deco building on Deansgate, with 280,000 sq ft of retail space, making it Manchester's second largest department store (the largest being Debenhams on Market Street) at 420,000 sq ft. The present store (architect J. S. Beaumont, 1939) operated for many years alongside the Victorian store building on the opposite side of Deansgate (opened in 1873). Kendals was referred to in a scene in Coronation Street. Noticing that Mary Taylor's eyes looked different, as she was trying to convince him to accompany her on a cruise, Norris Cole was told that they were "smoky" thanks to the beautician working in cosmetics at Kendals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendals

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