Kathryn Morrison

Historian of buildings: The Workhouse, English Shops & Shopping, Carscapes, Woolworth's.

Chain Stores published May 2025.

Fieldworker for Hants @crsbi.

[C20 Society @C20Society]

Another week, another devastating fire in Glasgow, resulting in the very sad loss of the Category B listed Forsyth House (1851) on Union Street.

Architectural heritage is irreplaceable - whether from the 20th century or any other period. Attitudes towards the care, protection and maintenance of our historic buildings must change.

[SAVE Britain's Heritage @SAVEtoReuse]

🚨BREAKING: Highly contentious plans to bulldoze the former Debenhams store in Norwich approved by councillors – just moments after they voted to save it.

Find out more➡️https://t.co/z4YGKkhndj

[M&S Archive @MandSHeritage]

This week, researchers have been interrogating this 1938 store plan showing weekly takings for each counter - with Hosiery and Fruit top of the takings list for this particular week!

And here's a similar store layout in 1941.

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

Quality shopfront installed for champion baker and mayor of #Poole, Joseph Bright, probably 1920s.

[C20 Society @C20Society]

🧁 How’s this for a fabulous 1930s shop frontage? The former premises of Bennett’s Bakers, 117 High Street in Poole, Dorset.

Grade II listed in 1988, the Art Deco shop design features graceful bowed windows on a polished, veined, black stone plinth; decorative diamond pattern glazing bars and green glass bands in the overlights; a tessellated terrazzo doorway and ‘flash’ moulded wooden fascia. Let alone the tasty treats inside…

Founded by Claude Bennett in 1953, after he moved from Devon to Poole, the Bennetts Family Bakers quickly grew into a cherished part of Dorset’s high streets. Sadly, the third-generation, family-run bakers closed all their branches in July 2025 after 72 years of trading. The Poole premises pictured has since reopened as a barbers shop.

[C20 Society @C20Society]

Demolition already underway ☹️

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

https://t.co/6vdq8kYgED

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

People like to sneer at Brussels, but it is crammed with interest and beauty. This former department store on the Mont des Arts is now a museum of musical instruments.

[Past Glasgow @PastGlasgow]

Fire damaged and derelict for 20 years, the remains of it have just fallen into the street as a result of Storm Amy.

[Am Baile - Highland History & Culture @HighlandHistory]

Gutting herring at #Stornoway in 1939

[source: HLH Archives, D1751/2/1/18]

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

Fancy goods - one of the subjects covered in my new ‘Chain Stores’ book!

The precise meaning of so many common trades (eg provision dealers, oil & colourmen, Italian warehouses, bazaars) has been quite forgotten.

[GOFF COURTNEY @YvonneGCourtney]

😍 *Fancy Goods* - time to bring this back! What did this incorporate back then? HT @KA_Morrison

[Tain Museum & Clan Ross Centre @TainMuseum]

This striking photograph of Macpherson’s Central Emporium on Tain High Street captures a moment when global opportunity was advertised in the heart of the burgh. Among the posters for news and local notices, one boldly declares: “WANTED 20,000 men, Harvest work, Canada.”

[C20 Society @C20Society]

🐟 Concerning news has reached us that the most architecturally distinguished fish and chip shop in the country, Oakwood Fisheries in Leeds, closed in July 2025 after 85 years, with owner Steven Webster citing ‘circumstances beyond his control’.

Opened in the 1938, the fish bar occupies a 19th century building, but with a striking Moderne style shop front of Vitrolite, metal and glass, with bakelite, metal and neon signage and a fabulous four-light cross mullion circular window.

Grade II listed in 1986 the historic fabric should be safe, but the Society dearly hopes this doesn’t mark the end of its days as a local chippie.

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

Thank you so much Leigh!

[Leigh Sparks @sparks_stirling]

New post this morning 27/8.

Review of @KA_Morrison brilliant book Chain Stores in the Golden Age of the British High Street.

https://t.co/yanyBY1jx7

[Dr. Bendor Grosvenor 🇺🇦 @arthistorynews]

I’m strangely fascinated by the blinginginess of Trump’s Oval Office. What does it mean? Here’s an art historical take. 🧵
1/

[Leigh Sparks @sparks_stirling]

As I have noted before, Cardigan has some nice shop fronts @KA_Morrison

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

@sparks_stirling Great find, never seen Melias interior tiling before!

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

@JamesWebsterITV Ah, whatever happened to @whscarpet? Presumably we will now get @tgjcarpet?

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

Hoping that #TGJones will cherish the early C20th shopfitting of #WHSmith - the tile panels, newsboy signs, decorative leadwork and fine lettering. New blog post:
https://t.co/Jsfg4SuOCq

[Niall Murphy @MurphyNiallGLA]

#MomentsOfBeauty in #Glasgow: It’s a nice touch that the new @paesano_pizza in Shawlands has incorporated the WH Dinwoodie #ghostsign into their shopfront fascia while including a pizza chef uniform clothesline mural. It certainly lifts this classic Glasgow corner tenement 🥰!

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

@MarshallColman Also lovely WHS signage. I think this building is listed - in fact, it may have been restored by WHS many moons ago (if I remember right) - so maybe the signs will stay?

[Kathryn Morrison @KA_Morrison]

@Susan_Creed I believe the company wants to retain the WHS brand for their outlets at transport hubs (and doubtless other activities), so the high-street portfolio, with a new owner, needs a different identity.