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Henrys & Oasis store

A

angeleyes

Guest
anyone remember henrys worked in the basement 1967 gt placechina dept. mary
 
Henry's

I remember Henry's very well indeed and I was in and out of that store constantly.
My first job was in the offices at New Street Station in l957 and I would often go over to Henry's for lunch in their cafeteria. The food was cheaper
and they had a good selection if I remember rightly. My mother loved Henry's and used to shop there for all sorts of things especially China.
I bought some great clothes there also. Henry's often bought up Job Lots of very good quality women's clothes, especially dresses and sell them very reasonably compared to other shops in town. I would go in
all the time looking for something different that didn't cost a fortune.
I used to go dancing a lot and found some super dresses there.

Years later in Canada when I met my friend Doreen from Manchester
I discovered that there was a Henry's in that city also all those years ago and her Mother and two sisters shopped there. Doreen and I used to have a great time talking about Henry's. I remember people lining up along Martineau Street when they had a sale. The bargains were excellent.

My father and Doreen's father thought the place was full of rubbish for some reason and they couldn't understand why we women raved about the place so much. In fact when they were going home from shopping at Henry's, Doreen's mother used to coach her and her sisters on the bus not to mention to their Father that most of their purchases had come from Henry's!!!!!!!!! Saved them a lot of money no doubt.
 
Yes i remember Henry's and i am of the same opinion as the men on this one i thought the stuff was substandard, i prefered Lewis's Etams, C&A and later on the boutique's, but can only remember the name of one Bustop, does any one remember the names of any others?
 
Henry's Store

I wasn't too keen on the merchandise therebut remember they used to have a small animal farm in the basement at Easter, I went with my mother and son was was about 3 years old, he thoroughly enjoyed it, afterwards I was looking round the store and realised Michael wasn't with me but assumed he was with my mother, then I bumped into her - no Michael, we both started to panic and had an annoucement put over the tannoy system, then I thought about the farm and raced to the basement,
there he was perfectly content and unharmed watching the chicks and bunnies etc.
 
I didn't like Henry's either Sylvia.

Your story of losing you son reminds me of the day I lost mine in Greys, he was two and I can even remember what he was wearing that day. I was with mom and an aunt and after what seemed like hours, and mom saying over and over, we daren't go home without him :!: we found him hiding among the dresses hanging on a rail. :D
 
Henrys Sales in January were just like a Rugby scrum.I am cringeing at this moment remembering the awful clothes and plastic handbags that i bought there.not that i thought that at the time I thought they were the bees knees.
 
:oops: Hi all, Im sorry to say but I loved Henrys!!!!! All of my friends bought most of their clothes from Henrys too. In the early 60`s you could get rigged out for few quid. oh happy days :D Jackie
 
:D Alberta your quite right about the bags and shoes from Henry’s, I also felt really I was cool in them and in fashion 8) until arriving in London and falling head over heals in love with the ‘New Boutiques’ that were opening all over down there in the mid-to late 60’s
 
Yes but we had boutiques also in Brum but apart from Bustop i can't remember the names of any others. :cry:
 
Yes i remember Oasis it always smelt of burning insents :roll: I loved the clothes i used to like the indian stores cheesecloth shirts and blouses and embroidered tops, velvet trousers, Little coffee shops, record stores, people used to leave them unatended and very often you would have to wait ages for them to return imagine leaving anywhere now there would be nothing left when you came back :cry: Bangles and necklaces very much an Indian theme, lots of faded denim, yes it was definitely the place to be seen on a Saturday. It is such a pity that there are no photographs of such places to bring back happy memories, i looked for ages the other day for one of the Plaza in Handswoth as it was in the 60s but to no avail. :cry:
 
Hey that weired Boutique, with the errrr sweet smell? Lol well it wasnt just a place to buy clothes LOL, and the smell wasnt just Incense I'll have you know ? What a brilliant place, spent many hours in the seventies just taking deep breaths in there.......... Heh Heh :lol: :wink:
 
:D I love the smell of incenses (Child of the 60's) 8) - use them all the time in my home, such a sweet, relaxing smell. All the shopping Malls in Ch-Ch NZ have a shop by the name of Gypsy’s and they have that smell and sell all that 'Harry Potter ' kind of stuff, you know Crystals, paper weights and incenses, but it is not at all tacky 8) – They do not have not that other smell though Rod – you know the one you often smell where there are large numbers of people at, say Rock music concerts :wink: – Now to get back on topic Henry’s never had either of those smells, just that department store smell. :)
 
I recall reading about a middle-aged housewife who was caught shoplifting in Henry's. A normally law-abiding lady, she was overcome with remorse and embarrassment.

"What will I tell the family?" she asked the sympathetic arresting officer.
"I can only suggest you at least tell them it was Rackhams," he replied.
 
Henry's At Xmas

I well remember way back in the 20/30's Henry's was on the list to be visited by me, along with my grandmother and mother, to see Father Xmas and get a present. The others on the list were The Beehive, Woolworths, Lewis's and of course the Co-op. Day off school every year, Grandma's treat Snack lunch in Kardoma's finishing in the Co-op restaraunt for High Tea. Oh Happy days.

Does anyone remember Lewis's Pets Corner? My wife, our two children and I were in the store around Late 1940's and in Pets Cormer there were two chimps Brum and Scrum. On this occasion the keeper was about to enter the cage when Brum escaped. Panick, ladies squealing, children running amok, poor Brum was scared to death. I put out my arms to him and he ran to me, clutched his arms around me and cried and shook whilst I held him. Not so much as a thank you from the keeper, but Brum always knew me when ever I visited the store.
 
Oh yes Jim I do remember pets corner in Lewis's. In the late 40's my mom paid for me to have shorhand and typing lessons on Saturday morning. I bunked off one day, and with my friend Brenda went off into town to spend the half crown. We headed for Lewis's and finished up in pets corner. There was one of those swing seats with a canopy over the top, and as we gently swung ourselves to and fro it collapsed and Brenda's leg was trapped. We had to say she was ok because we knew the trouble we'd be in if our mom's found out what we'd been up to. She limped for a while, and we never did miss another lesson.
 
Henry's

The name is so familiar, but I can't for the life of me remember where they were. I suspect the reason is that my grandmother didn't approve (she was like that), and so my parents didn't go there either. When I started work in the 1950s I still never felt inclined to visit the place either.
No we didn't go to Henry's.
Peter
 
Henrys

Peter as far as I recall there was only one Henrys store in Birmingham, it was on the corner of High Street and Martineau Street, or maybe Bull Street.
 
Henrys used to be behind martinue square towards new street off the alley that passes whsmith and brings you out opposite the cinema in new st.
 
Henry's had a couple of entrances if I remember it. Colin, one of them was off the alley of Martineau Street. Down a few steps if I remember rightly.
Pam, I am not sure where the other entrance was but it was close by BHS.
 
Oasis was certainly the place to be seen in the seventies. Oddly enough I was in there just last week. It is, apart from the change in fashion, exactly the same as it was when I was 15/16 years old in the mid seventies. The odd smell was probablypatchouli oil...the place reeked of it, I never personally saw any wacky baccy smokers behind the fixtures! Of course, there may have been!
Even now, whenever I smell patchouli, I am back there! It was, and still is, a labyrinth.
Yes, the cheesecloth shirts, the jewellery, a great hairdresser and t shirt shops aplenty. (With your own message.) And the SHOES!

I visited again to buy my 12 year old son a pair of Converse trainers IN THE VERY SAME shop, Cloggs, where I bought my first pair of platform boots with my first wage packet in 1974! (They were gorgeous boots, only consigned to the dustbin when the heel fell off whilst alighting from a no.50 bus at the Maypole, much later!)

Speaking to the nice guy (one of the original staff?) that was running the shop, it seems it was still in exactly the same pitch in the market then as now. It sent a shudder through my spine. Almost like confronting your own ghost from the past! They will knock it down in the next few years due to redevelopment in the Martineau Square area. Re-visit whilst you still can. A place of great originality, it will re open, but not sure where?

Brummy hugs to all....
 
Henry's was in Union Street, I'm sure. I used to go there for a cheap lunch (sausage & chips) when I was on day release at the Matthew Boulton Technical College in Horsefair, before it moved to Pershore Road. They were huge sausages, the size of a baby's forearm, but tasted awful. There was Daddies brown sauce there to disguise the flavour, though!
 
Yes, Henry's was in Union St, they moved there in the early sixties. Their store ran from City Centre House (Inland Revenue) to Union Passage. The entrances were next to City Centre House, on the corner of Union St & Union Passage, and there was also one in the arcade that ran from Union Passage to Corporation St.

I believe the store is now a branch of W.H.Smith, well it was the last time I was up that way.

Phil
 
My Mom used to get crockery from Henry's , odd plates and such.......in fact I still have one I use in the kitchen. It is white with a blue line around the edge and Coles Cafe written on it . It must have been one of their job lots. Did they buy bancrupt stock/
Linda
 
I loved Henry's but I think a lot of people were a bit snobby about it, behind Littlewood's, to the side of C&A, the cafe was basic but clean and their fish and chips were very nice, I remember my mom bought me a refer jacket there, very fashionable around 1965, they were usually a bit cheaper than some of the shops.
 
I worked in the same departtment as you angeleyes as a Saturday part timer while still at school. Les the buyer,(who was unfortunately murdered later in life in his shop in Kings Heath) was a good family friend.
I used to walk a girl called Lesley/Leslie to the busstop by the King George V and we went in for a drink there. I can't remember her surname but her father managed one of the little Wrensons stores somewhere in Brum
 
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