10:46am Wednesday 17th June 2009
By Richard Garfield
NOSTALGIA certainly sells, judging from expensive television advertising campaigns.
Marks & Spencer is the latest to evoke a cosy past, conjuring up a sense of traditional values for the 21st century.
In its advertisement, we were taken back to 1884 before being taken on to the present with 1960s fashion icon, Twiggy.
The high street retailer, which retains a kind of affection in the minds of many people as a British institution, is marking its 125 th anniversary with a nostalgic look at its brand history.
It follows closely on from two other television adverstisements - Sainsbury’s which focused on the supermarket’s 140-year history and last year’s critically-acclaimed Hovis relaunch.
Marks & Spencer focuses on its penny bazaar past and its background as an innovative retailer.
A look at Marks & Spencer’s website, which can be found at corporate.marksandspencer.com, shows the origins of the business stem from a Russian-born Polish refugee, Michael Marks, who opened a stall at Leeds’ Kirkgate Market in 1884.
Click onto the Marks & Spencer celebrating 125 years icon on the home page to get the full story. On the back of the latest campaign, the company reintroduced its penny bazaar at 300 of its stores around the country, including its Basingstoke store in Festival Place.
In May, crowds of bargain hunters queued up to take advantage of some of the store’s near give-away offers.
But, nostalgia apart, the company has had a presence in Basingstoke since 1934.
Local historian, Robert Brown, who used to write his popular Memories column in The Gazette, said the company had originally taken over the premises of a furniture store in Winchester Street.
In fact, before Marks took over the site, it had been used by raincoat maker, Thomas Burberry, as a warehouse opposite his large emporium.
Marks demolished the old furniture store and replaced it with an attractive three-storey building.
Mr Brown said: “Marks & Spencer was one of many high street stores which came to the town in those pre-war days, the others being Boots the Chemists, Woolworth’s, Currys and WH Smith.”
He said many of the leading shops could be found along Winchester and London Streets at that time, as it was the main road going through Basingstoke.
However, the redevelopment of Basingstoke meant much changed when the lower part of town was demolished to make way for a modern concrete shopping centre.
Marks & Spencer was among the retailers to leave the area which had became known as Top of the Town, opening up a shop in phase two of the new shopping centre in 1981.
It was later to extend its premises with the opening of Festival Place.
The old shop premises in Winchester Street were taken over by Marley’s DIY business, and then by the Furniture Factory.
Sadly, the building has since been demolished, after being hit by suspected arson.
Mr Brown said: “Early on September 11, 1984,a person threw a ‘molotov cocktail’ through the shop window, setting alight the furniture, and then the whole building.
“Two people sleeping upstairs in the private quarters managed to escape without injury, but the building was completely gutted and had to be demolished.
“It was a shame it happened in the same year Marks & Spencer were celebrating their 50th year of being in Basingstoke.”
A branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland now stands on the site.
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