Barretts of Canterbury: 28-30 St. Peter's Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2BL

Barretts celebrated its centenary in 2002, and Ian Fletcher compiled this piece for the magazine, Briefly Barretts. We reproduce the text and pictures here.

George Barrett started his business, at No 26 St Peters Street in 1902, but by 1904 he had also acquired No 30. The building had previously been a prominent mansion house, a girls school and a Co-op store before he bought it and converted both the building and the large rear garden into The West End Garage and Motor Works.

The first picture shows the building, probably just before the First World War, complete with a large selection of cars outside. It is worth reflecting that these cars are parked on the main London to dover road! Numbers 28 and 29 St Peters Street were acquired in 1931 and converted to a shop, having previously been used as architect's offices. The business was now extremely diverse selling and servicing most things on wheels (including prams!) and also the household electrical items which were beginning to come onto the market - radios and gramophones in particular. Toys were also sold here from this site, particularly Trix and Hornby trains. Sadly one employee lost his life when this elegant shop was gutted by fire in November 1937, it was thought that this was probably caused by a box of fireworks.

The remains of the building were removed and a new one built in only 4 months, opening in March 1938. The new shop was in the classic 1930 style complete with bronze window frames; it certainly bore no obvious relationship to its predecessor.

The main garage building had a bomb fall through the roof in October 1940, but fortunately minimal damage was caused. However on January 22nd 1944, three months after George Barrett had died, the garage was hit by a fire bomb and, with the exception of the front of the new shop, the complete site was destroyed. With much of the City devastated after the war, Canterbury Council took many years to decide on their future plan for the area. The debate concerning the style and cost of rebuilding the city went on for six years.

One of the first permanent buildings to be erected in 1954, was Barretts new deportment store on the corner of St Georges Street and Rose Lane. The shop was opened by a celebrity of the time, David Nixon. The much acclaimed store offered electrical goods, radiogrammes and records, musical instruments, sports equipment, bikes, prams and toys. The large electric train set displayed in the window every Christmas is an abiding memory for all who saw it. The store was closed in 1984 because of the changes in shopping trends and is now occupied by C & H Fabrics. Having been the appointed Austin distributors for East Kent for eight years, it became possible in 1954 to design and build a new 16,700 square foot workshop. complete with a new ports department, behind St Peters Street. The building was designed with a curved front to allow for the line of the new ring road which was proposed to replace Pound Lane. The remains of the 1938 shop continued as the car showroom. It is now the site of our Citroen showroom.

In Rose Lane another showroom was built in 1960, at the opposite end of the road to the department store. This was to house Rover and Land Rover, Triumph being added in the seventies. Within the next seven years Barretts acquired all the properties in Rose Lane, which were interlinked, making one big store on three levels. This allowed all the departments to maximise the range and diversity of products offered. The showroom building was demolished in 2001 and replaced by HSBC's new bank - part of the Whitefriars development.

The car market grew enormously in the sixties and Barretts rapidly ran out of space for the Austin and Rover distributorships. The Malthouse was purchased from Mackesons in 1966 and became the Parts Department and vehicle store, freeing up space for a new Service Reception area in Pound Lane. Further expansion led to a Vehicle Preparation Department being built on ground next to the Malthouse.

The final days of the 1938 shop front. This building hod suffered from planning blight for 25 years whilst the design of the proposed ring road was debated. Shown in its final form, rendered over, and with different windows, the Austin showroom in St Peters Street was eventually demolished in 1979 to make way for the current Head Office building and Jaguar showroom. 100 years on - Barretis have moved on but are still on the same site.