Page 329 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

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The Drapery Warehouses.
the history of the warehousing during the last twenty years or more
has been almost void of remarkable events. The most stirring
occasions have been the seasonal show days and sales, the openings
of new premises, and at least one big fire. The latter was on the
premises of the Newcastle drapery department at Thornton Street,
Newcastle, in the early hours of Friday, April 25th, 1902. The fire
broke out between two of the regular inspections of the watchman,
and although confined by the closing of fireproof doors and by the
shape of the building, during three or four hours it provided " a
"
magnificent spectacle —at a cost of £100,892. Of this sum £66,000
was taken from the C.W.S. own msurance fund and £34,000 came
from various insurance companies. The result of the fire was the
introduction of the sprinkler system of safeguard into all the
C.W.S. warehouses. ... So much, then, for the fire. The
openings have been mainly two. On Monday, April 18th, 1904, the
great block of buildings which the C.W.S. architect had designed
and the C.W.S. building department erected at the corner of Balloon
Street and the new Federation Street formally was opened. The
block provided 100,000 square feet of floor space, at a cost of £50,000
nevertheless, it has become too small, and at the moment of writing
the ground is being cleared a few yards higher up Balloon Street
for another great pile of buildmgs. While each department of this
branch of business has its own buyer, the C.W.S. drapery depart-
ments as a whole, together with the woollen and outfitting sections,
are under the senior supervision of Mr. W. Gibson. The second
opening was when the London Branch celebrated a great addition
of breathing space for its drapery and alHed departments on July
19th, 1910. No more to be eased by extensions at Bristol, Cardiff,
and Northampton, the London departments by this extensioji
received their own, and incidentally were able to restore their own
to the quarterly meeting delegates, who had been crowded out of
their assembly hall by its appropriation for special shows.
The seasonal displays have served to emphasise an ever-increasing
variety of stocks and subsequent sub-division of departments. We
fear that the homely Pioneers, with their objection to "bobby-
dazzlers," would be ill at ease beside the flowery banks of miUinery
or amidst the riches of silks and furs at a C.W.S. drapery show.
However complex and big the C.W.S. grocery trade may be, nothing
is so completely in contrast with the Toad Lane store of 1844, or
with Jumbo Farm and its surroundings, as the present-day depart-
ments for mantles, dress goods, furs, silks, laces, and trimmings on
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