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G.J.Keddie & Sons Limited
Company typePrivate company
IndustryRetail
GenreDepartment store
Founded1892
Defunct1996
FateAdministration
HeadquartersSouthend-on-Sea
Key people
Murray David Maitland Keddie

Keddies was a small chain of department stores in Essex, England, with its flagship store in a prime location in Southend High Street (originally called the Broadway). The business had a national reputation, being recognised in The Fashion Handbook,[1] appearing on the side of a Matchbox model 17C bus[2] and being one of the retailers that fought to remove Retail Price Maintenance. Keddies closed for business on 26 February 1996 after going into administration.[3]

Early years

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George James Keddie was born in Hintlesham in Suffolk in March 1855. At 16 he moved to Auchtermuchty in Scotland to work as an apprentice at his Uncle, John Keddie's drapery store, but in 1879 he returned to Suffolk and married Laura Fletcher.[4] By 1881, Keddie was working as a draper in Braintree in Essex, however in 1892 he opened a Drapery at 144-146 High Street, Southend.[4] The store expanded by buying neighbouring stores[5] and become a full department store, selling everything from penny lines to more extravagant goods. In the middle of 1906, The Record published pictures of what it considered to be the best British window displays and Keddies was regularly featured.[6] This included a mechanical window display designed by Arthur Maitland Keddie which was observed in US publication Style in 1908.[7] Arthur Maitland Keddie went onto win several prizes for his window dressings[8] including the journal The Review's first prize for the best decked and most original show window in the world[9] and wrote the 1912 book Window Dressing for Beginners, which was seen as a manual by the drapery trade.[10] During the First World War, Arthur Maitland Keddie organised day trips for wounded soldiers from the Queen Mary Naval Hospital to Thundersley and Runwell.[11]

In 1921, George James Keddie died aged 65, leaving the business to his three sons, Arthur Maitland Fletcher Keddie, Frederick Wallace Keddie and George Douglas Fletcher Keddie.[4] The business was grown by the brothers, opening drapery stores in London Road, Hadleigh (on the corner with Rectory Road closed 1946/47);[4] Market Hill, Coggeshall (Sold 1928 [12]) and on The Broadway, Leigh-on-Sea (on the corner with Oakleigh Park Drive).[4] The business boomed during the 1920s even though there was competition from J F Dixons, Brightwells and Thomas Brothers.[13] With this success the main store was completely rebuilt and expanded in 1934, with an impressive frontage that aped the main Selfridges store in Oxford Street, London.[3] People would take the train from the east-end of London to shop at Keddies. [citation needed] In 1948, Keddies became one of the founding members of the Associated Independent Stores buying group.[14]

Expansion

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Keddies continued to grow under David and Peter Keddie, and in 1960 they bought a disused cinema, the Essoldo, that was located behind their store and opened Southend's first supermarket, which was also one of the first discounters in the UK, Supa-Save.[3][15][16][17] The new store had 15 aisles and 15,000 Square foot, and in the first Saturday of its doors opening, they had to be closed after just a quarter of an hour due to the size of the crowd.[18] Through Supa-Save, Keddies challenged the retail status quo and was instrumental in eventually abolishing the Retail Price Maintenance, or RPM (fixed supplier pricing, see Resale price maintenance), against legal and regulatory opposition. Following a number of injunctions, court cases, and joining forces with other retailers, the RPM was eventually abolished in 1964.[19][20]

Maitland House on the rear left

In addition to Supa-Save, a large extension of 35,000 square feet[21] was added to the rear of the original store, which was connected to the original store by a bridge over, and a tunnel under Leather Lane. The development was completed by Norwich Union[22][23] included an office block called Maitland House (after the Keddie's family name), and a parking lot which was all designed by the modernist architects Yorke Rosenberg Mardall, in what was the first building to feature their ubiquitous white tile styling.[24] The cost of the project was £600,000.[25] The car parking system, using a lift and trollies was seen not to have much of a future by the Architects Journal in 1965.[26] Photos of the iconic store interior in 1963 are on the RIBA picture website, and along with Cole Brothers in Sheffield, were seen as the pioneers in using Brutialism in retail architecture by RIBA.[27] An article on the design of the building appeared in the October–December 1963 edition of Concrete Monthly, the magazine from the Cement and Concrete Association.[21] The development received a Civic Trust Award in 1963.[28] Maitland House was the home of KeyMed Medical & Industrial Equipment in 1969,[29] and between 1972 and 1996 it was home to the Access credit card company. In the late 1960s, a new store was opened in Queen Street, Colchester.[30]

In 1970 Supa-Save was closed because of competition from chain supermarkets entering Southend. The old building was demolished and the department store extended over the site in 1971, again designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall.[23] Yorke Rosenberg Mardall were again employed when the store was planned to be extended on the site of the old National Provincial Bank in 1973.[31] The development included getting permission to close Leather Lane which divided the new and old building, which permission was received in 1975[32] and was constructed by Bovis Construction for £150,000.[33] The extension had a new banking hall for National Westminster Bank being located on the first floor and accessed by escalators. The original store frontage was covered over with white slats to try and visually tie the old building into the new tiled building, with only a few of the columns left exposed and painted blue. In the 1980s, Keddies took Norwich Union to court regarding issues with the floors in the new buildings.[22]

The business further grew in the 1970s opening branches in Romford, after purchasing the site from the Hammerson group,[34][35] and Stratford High Street (former Boardmans store). Most of these had closed by the late 1980s, with the Stratford store closing in 1984 before being demolished and making way for Boardman House,[36] and the Colchester store closing in 1996. The Colchester store was on two sides of Queen Street, with one side now being replaced by Priory Walk,[37] while the eastern side stood until partial demolition in 2017, with the remaining building being converted into a Curzon cinema.[38]

The store's owner, David Keddie formed, and became chairman of, Essex Radio in 1981.[39] This later became Essex FM and then Heart Essex. Under his full name, Murray David Maitland Keddie, he became High Sheriff of Essex in 1986.

Modernisation and administration

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In the 1980s the Southend store was modernised and refitted in anticipation of more business coming to Southend with the opening of the Royals Shopping Centre. The modernisation attracted chain stores HMV,[40] Tie Rack, Olympus Sports,[41] Dillons the Bookstore[42] and Cramphorn Garden Centres to open departments.[43] However this new found optimism did not last and the company went into administration. On 26 February 1996 after 104 years of trading the store was closed.[3]

Building today

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The building was bought by developers, who wanted to rebuild behind the 1930s High Street fascia; however they found that frontage had been badly damaged by the addition of the slats in the 60s. Instead the developers built a fibreglass copy[44] which still sits in the High Street. However, since the rebuilding there have been many tenants, with Tesco, JJB Sports, GAP, Clintons, Republic, Superdrug, Sports Direct, USC and HMV all holding tenancy on the High Street side.[3]

Former Keddies store facing Warrior Square

The rear of the building facing Warrior Square was empty until the early 2000s[44] when it was converted into a Travelodge, bar and restaurant and a nightclub. Maitland House was the former home to InsureandGo[45] and also houses the transmitters for Heart Essex and BBC Essex. It is currently home to call centre service provider Ventrica.[46] In March 2023, it was announced that the space above the former store was put up for sale. The space has planning permission to build 100 homes in an eleven-story extension to Maitland House.[47]

References

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  1. ^ The Fashion Handbook by Tim Jackson & David Shaw
  2. ^ "17C London Bus, Keddies No.1 in Essex".
  3. ^ a b c d e Skinner, Nicholas. "Keddies". Southend Timeline. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ a b c d e Worpole, Chris. "G. J. Keddie & Sons". Hadleigh and Thundersley Community Archive. Hadleigh History. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  5. ^ "Transactions". Chemist and Druggist. Vol. 80. 1912. p. 8.
  6. ^ William Lancaster (1995). The Department Store. A Social History. Leicester University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780718513740.
  7. ^ "English Mechanical Window". Style. 1908.
  8. ^ William S. Murphy (1914). Modern Drapery and Allied Trades Wholesale and Retail by Leading Specialists in Every Department. p. 6.
  9. ^ Laura Ugolini (2018). Cultures of Selling Perspectives on Consumption and Society Since 1700. Routledge. ISBN 9781351946698.
  10. ^ Joël Jornod (2019). LA CONQUÊTE DES CLIENTS Les magasins Gonset et la Suisse occidentale (1920-1960). Editions Alphil-Presses universitaires suisses. p. 287. ISBN 9782889302420.
  11. ^ Frances Clamp (2014). Southend-on-Sea in the Great War. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473840775.
  12. ^ "Essex Records Office". Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  13. ^ Dee Gordon (2006). Southend Memories. The History Press. ISBN 9780750953283.
  14. ^ "Who we are". Associated Independent Stores. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  15. ^ "Supermarket Investments". Investors Chronicle and Money Market Review. 218: 199. 1962.
  16. ^ Susanne Puddlefoot (1961). "On its way in the discount store". Time & Tide. 42: 258.
  17. ^ "Discount Houses". International Management. 17: 61. 1962.
  18. ^ David Kynaston (2014). Modernity Britain A Shake of the Dice, 1959-62. Bloomsbury. p. 107. ISBN 9781408844397.
  19. ^ The Chemist and Druggist, May 5, 1962, p.485
  20. ^ Competition For Consumers, Christina Fulop, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1966 (pp. 142, 143, 151)
  21. ^ a b "Concrete Quarterly - Issue 59 Winter 1963". Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  22. ^ a b Melanie Delargy (19 January 2001). "Inside Information". Building.
  23. ^ a b "Southend Department Store to be extended". The Estates Gazette. Vol. 215. 1970. p. 657.
  24. ^ Charlotte Benton (1995). A Different World Emigre Architects in Britain 1928-1958. RIBA Heinz Gallery. p. 204. ISBN 9781872911502.
  25. ^ "Southend-on-Sea, Essex". The Civil Engineer. Vol. 15. 1961. p. 238.
  26. ^ "Multi-Storey Car Parks". Architects Journal. 143: 91. 1965.
  27. ^ "Brutialism". RIBA Journal. 84 (1–6): 12. 1977.
  28. ^ "Store of G.J.Keddie & Sons Ltd. With Office Block and Parking Garage". Civic Trust Awards. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  29. ^ "Our impact in the UK and Ireland". Olympus Corporation. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  30. ^ "Old Keddies store faces demolition". The Gazette. 7 March 2011.
  31. ^ Muriel Emanuel (2016). Contemporary Architects. Springer. p. 686. ISBN 9781349041848.
  32. ^ "Town and Country Planning Act 1971". The London Gazette. 1975. p. 2941.
  33. ^ "Bovis Construction". Director. Vol. 28. 1975. p. 96.
  34. ^ "New Wines". Decanter. 1983.
  35. ^ "Romford, Essex". The Estates Gazette. Vol. 230. 1974. p. 583.
  36. ^ "Stratford St Johns Conservation Area Page 18" (PDF). Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  37. ^ "Priory Walk mixed use development". Ink Pen Downie. 11 March 2022.
  38. ^ "Keddies Building reduced to rubble ahead of 30 million bar and restaurant scheme". The Daily Gazette. 16 December 2017.
  39. ^ "Keddies". In and Around Southend-on-Sea. Sarfend.co.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  40. ^ "John Peel HMV advert for Suedehead by Morrisey". Youtube. 1988.
  41. ^ "IN PICTURES: Keddies - the icon of Southend High Street". Evening Echo. 2 May 2020.
  42. ^ "EIU Business Quarterly Trade Reviews". Retail Business: Retail trade reviews. No. 17–24. 1991. p. 106.
  43. ^ "Two Essex". Gc & HTJ. 199 (1–13): 5. 1986.
  44. ^ a b "Southend: New nightspot in old Keddies?". Daily Gazette. 18 February 2002.
  45. ^ "The kids are all right at Southend thanks to deal". Evening Echo. 21 January 2009.
  46. ^ "Contact centre business Ventrica expands to create 120 new jobs in Southend". Evening Echo. 6 March 2019.
  47. ^ "Southend Keddies development site for flats to go on sale". Evening Echo. 29 March 2023.
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