THIS Christmas is likely to look like no other we have experienced before, and who knows if we will get to shop in a department store at all this festive period?
Beacuse of that, the Daily Echo looks back at some of the department stores we all miss – especially around this time of year.
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Bobby & Co
Bobby & Co opened in Bournemouth Square in May 1915 and was extended over the years. It became Debenhams in 1972, in a ceremony presided over by disc jockey Terry Wogan.
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Beales
In 1881, the draper John Elmes Beale decided to set up his own shop.
His Fancy Fair was to become Beales, which would eventually be the flagship in a chain of stores.
Mr Beale liked to add some magic to the shopping experience.
His Father Christmas may have been the first in an English department store, and in 1912 he had Santa wave to the crowds from a plane.
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Bright’s of Bournemouth – Dingles
The first of today’s big department stores opened in 1871, when Frederick Bright sold needlework and wool at the Arcade.
Bright’s of Bournemouth expanded into neighbouring shops and was later bought by Dingles, eventually becoming a House of Fraser.
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Plummer Roddis
The original owner of the Old Christchurch Road store site was R Tyrrell and Sons, who started a small drapery business there in the late 19th century.
It became known as Plummer Roddis and Tyrrell and then Plummer Roddis in 1898 when the Tyrrells relinquished their interest.
But the news that broke in November 1972 that it was to shut early the next year.
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BHS
The department store closed in 2016 when the company went into liquidation. The company had traded since 1928 when it opened its first store in Brixton, London.
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Woolworths
Woolworths opened its first UK shop in Liverpool nearly a century ago.
Then a subsidiary of the US parent company, it was called F W Woolworths and everything cost 6d – just 2.5p.
Bournemouth’s original Woolworths was destroyed by the 1943 bombing that also claimed the nearby Punshon Memorial Church and the Central Hotel.
Bournemouth’s Woolworths, in the Square, was put up for sale in 1981 and was bought by Boots for £5million.
The company shut their doors for the last time in 2009
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