Page 404 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.

Street, one in Corporation Street, and one in Redfem Street. In
due course the Corporation Street buildings were taken down ; and
the pillared facades of first one and then the other of the two main
blocks rose broad and tall along a main thoroughfare. The Society-
had come to the front. Already the drapery warehouse referred to
in the previous chapter had been erected, and a new roadway made
and named Federation Street; and now the drapery warehouse
formed the rear of the earlier block. The first provision was for
offices, and for the promised Mitchell Memorial Hall. In September,
1907, the delegates thronging to the Lancashire and general
Quarterly Meetings \^-ere delighted at no longer chmbing narrow
stairs to the old, unshapely, loft-Hke chamber. Instead, they were
conveyed by electric lifts to a handsome assembly hall, designed to
seat 1,200 persons at one level, and intended solely for the purpose
of large meetings. Before the business proceedings a white marble
bust of J. T. W. Mitchell was unveiled by Mr. Shillito, who took the
occasion of reviewing the progress of the Society, as well as of
paying a sincere tribute to the memory of the dead leader. In addition
to the hall, the delegates found a new dining-room immediately below
(it was afterwards removed to the basement), a dining-room able to
provide at one sitting for a thousand diners. Although probably
unknoAvii to a majority of Manchester people, the Mitchell Hall has
served the purposes of many and various meetings since 1907.
The second advance gave a large opportunity to the bank, to the
grocery saleroom, and to the furnishing and stationery departments.
From being simply a room looking out practically upon a loading-
way, the saleroom approached the dimensions of an exchange, with
handsome offices adjoining for the buyers and their staffs. The dried
fruit sale was first held in this new building in October, 1909. Over
the saleroom something hke an adequate space was afforded for
furniture and carpet displays, for jewellery, for fancy stationery, and
for the annual toy sales, supphed through the visits of C.W.S. buyers
to Nuremburg, Freiburg, and similar delightful old-world towns of
Germany. The hardware, the boot and shoe — ^with its important
leather and grindery sections—and other departments benefited
from the vacancies created in the older buildings. Touching upon
the stationery department, one is reminded of the expansion
frequently possif^le within the federation. From arranging for the
printing of programmes the department, under Mr. Wiggins, has
become a concert agency, making terms with societies for parties of
artistes ; and from supplying entertainment in winter it has gone on