History: Fire!
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With 5 years of steady growth and consolidation the family was starting to consider other ventures (Baby carriages had already been added to the shop in 1936) when disaster struck, and it had nothing to do with the impending war which was also going to radically affect the business.
Two members of staff, Percy Lane and Leonard Jenkins, were on the first floor and decided to go out through a back window and down via the workshop roof below it. However, before leaving, Mr Jenkins went back to his office, at the front of the building, to retrieve some ledgers. Regrettably just as Mr Lane got out of the window there was a huge explosion and the whole building filled with thick smoke (probably the acetate gramophone records igniting) and Mr Jenkins was killed by the heat and fumes. Mr Jenkins, who lived in Beverley Road, had worked for Barretts for over 20 years, and was the manager of the Hire Purchase Department at the time of his death. Barretts have not sold fireworks since that day. The company now had a large rebuilding job on its hands, having lost about half their retail capacity to the fire. But the surprising result of this disaster was destined to become a Canterbury landmark (and latterly an eyesore!) for the next 40 years. Detour Click here to take a quick detour from the story to see two pages from an advertising booklet produced in the Thirties. |
During the afternoon of 2nd November 1937 a fire started in the shop, probably amongst the fireworks that were displayed for sale. Almost immediately pandemonium broke out with fireworks going off in all directions. The shop was easily evacuated through the front and rear doors but the situation upstairs was not so easy. 
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