Marks & Spencer has been the lynchpin of the retail landscape in Aberdeen city centre since 1944, but it is soon to bid farewell to its flagship store.
On February 2, it will be exactly 80 years since the retailer opened its doors at 22 St Nicholas Street – the same site the present-day shop stands now.
Marks & Spencer took over the premises of Morrison’s Economic Stores at the corner of St Nicholas Street – an acquisition overseen by chairman Simon Marks himself.
The store continued trading under the Morrison’s name until 1945 when the emporium was brought in line with Marks & Spencer’s other 236 shops in Britain at that time.
It was a perfect location for the retailer whose secret to success at that time was “linking up mass production with mass distribution”.
The opening of a food hall in 1949 only added to the shop’s runaway success.
Changing face of Marks & Spencer
But these proposals didn’t come to fruition until the 1960s, and when they did, M&S was at the heart of the transformation.
In 1964, Marks and Spencer’s St Nicholas Street store was demolished, along with the buildings behind.
In its place rose the huge, brutalist facade that still dominates the remains of St Nicholas Street today.
At the time, it was the last word in modernity, M&S had certainly shaken off its old-world post-war shackles in Aberdeen.
The new flagship store stretched across Netherkirkgate and eradicated the neighbouring wynds.
When the gigantic store opened it had the largest single sales floor in any M&S store in Scotland.
But it was so vast that it opened in stages, the final phase finally opening in 1966.
With its continued success on the British high street, the store underwent further extensions in the 1980s.
And while its look has changed over the years, the one thing at the heart of its store has always been the staff and camaraderie.
It was the sort of shop where people dedicated decades of service and made friends for life – work friends that were more like family.
Staff were regularly in the Evening Express and Press & Journal – whether that was for supporting local causes by donating goods, raising vast sums of money for Aberdeen charities, or simply celebrating a colleague’s long service.
Those who worked there in the 1960s and ’70s might even remember having their uniforms inspected by the watchful eye of the manageress before they were allowed on the shop floor.
Having high standards is always something the retailer has prided itself in.
Even being caught with a top button open could see staff sent back to the staff room to smarten up.
These are the kinds of memories staff will carry with them when they depart from St Nicholas Street to its Union Square premises.
While it’s just one of a number of retailers than have departed Aberdeen’s shopping streets to move to malls, the shift of Marks and Spencer seems particularly significant.
What’s left behind will be a huge totem to Aberdeen’s once-thriving shopping thoroughfare.
In photos: Marks & Spencer Aberdeen 1940s-1970s
Pictures: Marks & Spencer Aberdeen 1980s onwards
You might also like to read:
Lost Aberdeen: Did St Nicholas Street demolition ‘break the heart of the Granite City?’
- Find out more about this morning’s M&S closure news here
- And you can track the health of our Aberdeen high street, showing how many unoccupied units we have, with our tracker here
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