The Queen's Old Castle Co.

For well over a hundred years the Queen's Old Castle department store was one of the best-known shops in Cork, Republic of Ireland. The site of the store is one of the most historic and interesting sites in the city center. Confusingly, it was originally the site of the King's Castle, one of the two fortresses guarding the entrance to the medieval port of Cork. The original Queen's Castle was further to the north near present day Castle Street and Cornmarket Street. The King's Castle was built in 1206 and functioned until the late 15th century. Following an order from King James I in 1609, the castle was demolished and the County Courthouse was built in its place.

After the opening of a new City and County Courthouse on Great George's Street in 1835 the site of the old County Courthouse/ King's Castle was developed as a department store owned by a man named William Fitzgibbon. It is around this time that the site became known as the Queen's Old Castle, perhaps in honor of Queen Victoria, and the older name King's Castle came to be forgotten until modern historians drew attention to the fact that the original Queen's Castle was to the north of the department store.

From the 1840s to the 1970s. The Queen's Old Castle was one of the most popular department stores in Cork. The ownership of the store changed over the years. Brown Thomas Ltd. and Primark, trading under the name Penneys, were among the last owners of the premises while it was still a department store. Power Securities bought the store in 1978 and converted it into a shopping center consisting of 37 individual shops and restaurants.

Interior view of the Queen's Old Castle department store in 1866

by Mark Matlach

Pyne Brothers

Pyne Brothers was a department store in Lewisham High Road (now Lewisham Way) in Deptford, south east London. The store began as a draper's shop in the mid-19th century and expanded progressively, becoming the centerpiece of Lewisham High Road, which was a thriving shopping street at the time.

The business continued into the 1960s; in the 1980s the premises were converted into flats.

Pyne Brothers in 1891

by Mark Matlach

L.E.P. (Lancashire Electric Power Company)

The Lancashire Electric Power Company was one of the largest private electricity companies in the UK. It was established by Act of Parliament in 1900. The original power station was the Radcliffe Power Station which was opened by the Earl of Derby on 9th October 1905.

The first customer was the Acme Spinning Company in Pendlebury which with 75,000 spindles was the first cotton spinning mill in Lancashire to be designed for powering by electricity. A second power station opened in Padiham in 1926 and a third at Kearsley in 1929.

Following the nationalization of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947, the Lancashire Electric Power Company became part of the North Western Electricity Board, which was privatised in 1990, becoming Norweb plc.

Kearsley Power Station, 1964

by Mark Matlach

Kendal Milne & Co. (Harrods Limited)

Kendal Milne & Co. was a department store in central Manchester which traces its origins to a draper's shop opened by John Watts in 1796. The shop catered for the elegantly dressed women of the era and proved so successful that by 1830 it had expanded into purpose-built premises across the road. In 1835, the business was sold to three young managers; Thomas Kendal, James Milne and Adam Faulkner. The store was re-opened as Kendal, Milne & Faulkner. When Faulkner died in 1862 it became Kendal Milne & Co.

By the close of the 19th century Kendal Milne & Co. had grown into a department store offering a wide range of consumer goods. More than 900 staff were employed and extravagant tearooms, featuring oriental rugs, palms, and velvet-covered seats were the most fashionable venues in town.

Kendal Milne & Co., Manchester

In 1919, the store was bought for £650,000 by Harrods who would maintain it until the 1959 sale to House of Fraser. Expansion continued during the 20th century to include a hairdressers, library, travel and estate agencies, a glass and china department, haberdashery, milliners and a furrier. In February 1939 the store was gutted by fire and a new purpose-built building was constructed at the end of the 1940s. The department store continued to trade as Kendal Milne & Co. until 2005, when it was renamed House of Fraser Manchester.

by Mark Matlach

D. M'Coll

Donald M'Coll was a successful businessman before embarking on a career with the Corporation of Glasgow.

In 1868 he joined the newly formed Glasgow Cleansing Department and in 1883 he was appointed Assistant Superintendent of the department.

In 1892 M'Coll became the General Manager of the Tramways Department and in 1898, on the foundation of the Association of Cleansing Superintendents of Great Britain and Ireland, the value of his work was acknowledged by his being chosen its first President.

Donald M'Coll

The receipt shown is for the Glasgow Police Department dated 20th March 1899(?), so presumably M'Coll was employed there in some capacity at this time. The receipt is for over £2 worth of turnips, though just why the police in Glasgow needed so many turnips is unclear!

by Mark Matlach

Cassell & Co. Ltd.

Cassell & Co. Ltd. is a publishing company, founded in 1848 by John Cassell and currently owned by the Orion Publishing Group.

In 1847 John Cassell established himself as a tea and coffee merchant in London, and soon after started a publishing business with the aim of supplying good literature to the working classes. The company's first publication was on 1st July 1848, a weekly newspaper called The Standard of Freedom, which advocated religious, political, and commercial freedom.

In 1851 Cassell rented part of a London inn called La Belle Sauvage and by 1852 he had expanded the premises and was printing magazines and books. The company prospered for just three years before going bankrupt. In 1855 the printing firm of Petter & Galpin took over Cassell's business. John Cassell rejoined the company as a junior partner after becoming solvent in 1858, the firm trading as Cassell, Petter & Galpin. Petter resigned in 1883 and in 1888 the company name was changed to Cassell & Co. Ltd. following Galpin's retirement and Petter's death. The company's publications during these years included: The Popular Educator (1852-55), The Technical Educator (1870-72), The Magazine of Art (1878-1903), Cassell's Magazine (from 1852), and numerous additions to standard works.

Cassell & Co. Ltd. continued as an independent company until 1998 when it was acquired by the Orion Publishing Group.

Advertisement 1912

by Mark Matlach

St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society

The St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society opened its first shop in Ponton Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859 as a Consumers' co-operative. This society was part of the movement started by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844, and followed the Rochdale Principles with the aim of providing decent food at affordable prices in a shop controlled by its customers as a co-operative. It took its name from Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.

As early as 1913 St. Cuthbert's had bought the Cliftonhall Estate which was almost 970 acres in area. In 1918 four more farms were bought on the Newtonhall Estate and in 1919 780 acres were purchased at Bonnington. By 1949 the Association owned over 3,000 acres of land.

 The former Co-op headquarters in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh

St Cuthbert's Co-op largest department store in Bread Street, Edinburgh was built in three stages to designs by three architects: John McLachlan in 1892; Thomas Purves Marwick in 1898 and 1914 and Thomas Waller Marwick in 1936.

The 1930s section features a glass 'curtain wall', the first of its kind in Scotland, in contrast to the stone facades of its late 19th-/early 20th-century neighbors. The store closed in the early 1990s and buildings were converted for use as the Point Hotel and Conference Centre in 1999.

St Cuthberts expanded to become one of the largest societies in the British co-operative movement, employing some 3,000 at its peak, before amalgamating with the Dalziel Society of Motherwell in 1981 and being renamed Scotmid. Its dairy used horse drawn delivery floats until 1985, and between 1944 and 1959 employed the future actor Sean Connery as a milkman.

To this day, the Scotmid Supermarket opposite the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh still has, on the goods in access road, gates that read "SCCA" - St Cuthbert's Co-operative Association".

by Paul Green