Hudson's book shops

[Vivienne14]

This 1921 image of Hudson's on New Street is pretty much how I remember it, even into the 1960s/70s. The tables piled up with books in the centre of the shop was still the layout 40 years after this image. It gave the impression of a long, thin shop. You can see a banner drawing your attention to the annex to the rear of the shop across the arcade. Note the ghostly figure up the ladder to the right.


Sophia Loren did a book signing there in 1979. Here's the Birmingham Mail cartoonist's (Whittock) record of the occasion. The caption to the cartoon was " Crafty Wotsit. I wondered why you suddenly became so interested in shopping in town ......" although the main message to me seems to be the man collecting for the miner's strike whilst Sophia Loren is to host a cocktail party at the Grand! Viv

 

[Phil]

Vivienne

These two images of the New Street frontage of Hudson's take 20 years apart show how little the book shop changed over the years. I suppose they believed "If it ain't broke don't fix it""

 

[brummie nick]

I remember being in Hudson's a few years back, and Stewart Granger came in to do a book signing.

 

[Dave89]

Hi

In 1960 I started work in a city bank, and the chief clerk asked me (as the most junior person at the branch)
to nip across to Hudson's and get get copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover for the staff.
I duly went to Hudson's and there was a huge queue back into New Street waiting to be served for them,
They were sold in that lower area in the picture from those tables where they were stacked up high,
with one assistant asking how many copies you wanted, another who bagged them, and a third taking the money,
The crush was so great that you were directed to the exit in Burlington Arcade
Happy days!

Kind regards

Dave

 

[Astoness]

nice photos phil...i take it the hudson building is still there...if so does anyone know what it is now

lyn

 

[Vivienne14]

It's near Starbucks Lyn. In fact the shop was once on part of the site of Starbucks. At some point Hudson's moved a little further along New St. Day's shoe shop in Phil's photos was on the corner of New St/ Lower Temple Street, but it looks like it expanded into the Hudsons shop. Then Hudsons must have moved one or two shops further along. There are now mock balconies above the shops but the windows are the same. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

thanks viv i could not place exactly where the shop was....

lyn

 

[Phil]

Lyn

Perhaps you would remember it better like this?

 

[Astoness]

thanks phil thats looks more familiar

lyn

 

[A Sparks]

Vivienne

These two images of the New Street frontage of Hudson's take 20 years apart show how little the book shop changed over the years. I suppose they believed "If it ain't broke don't fix it""

Gosh the first photograph is a blast from the past - as well as Hudsons which was a great bookshop, I can see Bus Stop boutique on the one side from where I used to buy clothes sometimes and Days from where I had my shoes as a child

 

[Michael_Ingram]

Have fond memories of Hudsons. Had a good friend who worked there in the 50s. I still have many books bought from there

 

[Richie]

Hudsons was a name to trust. Think they had a connection with the University at Selly Oak. It was time-honoured tradition in the bookselling world even in the modern 70's. But alas...

 

[Vivienne14]

I still have some books that were awarded to me as prizes at school. The school had an arrangement with Hudson's whereby those pupils given awards were able to go to Hudson's and choose a book as their prize. The book couldn't exceed a certain amount (although I think you could 'top up' if you wanted to and you were presented with the book of your choice at Speech Day. Viv.

 

[wam]

The shop seems to have moved and changed size a few times. The one I remember had a large frontage on Navigation Street (where Waterstones basement entry is now?) possibly in addition to an entrance on New Street although I can't entirely be sure of that. I seem to remember the lower floor had racks of Penguin books that were kept separate from the other publishers.

 

[A Sparks]

I think the bookshop that backed onto Stephenson Street may have been Dillons - they went bust and Waterstones took many of their bookshops.

 

[Richie]

The shop seems to have moved and changed size a few times. The one I remember had a large frontage on Navigation Street (where Waterstones basement entry is now?) possibly in addition to an entrance on New Street although I can't entirely be sure of that. I seem to remember the lower floor had racks of Penguin books that were kept separate from the other publishers.

If one remembers-as recalled by our correspondent at Post No.4-Lady Chatterley's Lover was published by Penguin Books in 1960 and subject to the famous court case. Maybe the lower floor of Penguin Books was meant so just the servants COULD read it!

Hudson's in New Street you can see in this 1968 photo, located above the roof of the Transit van, in turn behind the group in the foreground
https://www.mirrorpix.com/?77747130448317740800

 

[Vivienne14]

Hi Richie. Thanks for the link but I don't seem to be able to open it. I remember the 'annexe' across the arcade in the late 1970s having stationery for sale, birthday cards, post cards, wrapping paper that sort of thing. Maybe it was an area where other lines were tried out, including the more racier books like Lady Chatterley's Lover. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

Viv
Perhaps it was where the items they expected to make more profit on were placed, in the same way as now in most W H Smiths all the printer cartridges, cards, artists materials and over-priced rubbish is on the ground floor, and you have to go upstairs for the normal books

 

[Richie]

Hi Richie. Thanks for the link but I don't seem to be able to open it. I remember the 'annexe' across the arcade in the late 1970s having stationery for sale, birthday cards, post cards, wrapping paper that sort of thing. Maybe it was an area where other lines were tried out, including the more racier books like Lady Chatterley's Lover. Viv.

Yes, it looks like a mis-numbered link Viv.

To get at the photo one can go on the Mirropix website and type in the words 'Bimingham Tidy' as the theme of the photo was a Keep Britain Tidy sweep-up in New Street. Remember when pride in the city meant making an effort.....?

 

[wam]

Much of what I remember about Hudsons doesn't make sense. I remember they kept Penguins apart from the other books but not that far apart. In some cases a different version of some classic would be with the rest in a different publisher's edition and also in the Penguins. I remember John Beynon was in with the rest while John Wyndham was in Penguin (they're both the same guy and much the same sort of thing). I seem to remember that in later years the Navigation Street entrance was the main one rather than anything on New Street.

 

[Pedrocut]

E Edwards 1837, Personal Recognitions of Birmingham...

Bull Street was the Main Street for retail business....Near The yard was the shop of Mr Hudson, the bookseller, whose son still carries on the business established by his father in 1821. In 1837, Mr Hudson, senior, was the publisher of a very well conducted liberal paper called "The Philanthropist." The paper only existed for some five years. It deserved a better fate.

 

[Vivienne14]

Re. Hudson's Philantropist newspaper from Showells dictionary:

Philanthropist.—First published (as The Reformer) April 16, 1835, by Benjamin Hudson, 18, Bull Street; weekly, four pages, price 7d., but in the following September lowered to 4-1/2d., the stamp duty of 4d. being at that time reduced to 1d. In politics it was Liberal, and a staunch supporter of the Dissenters, who only supported it for about two years.

Viv

 

[Pedrocut]

In his book Black Country Memories 4, Carl Chinn describes Hudson's as many will remember...

"We always made a beeline for Hudson's Bookshop... when you first went into Hudsons it was just as if there was just one little room, then other rooms or stairways to the lower rooms suddenly and amazingly came into tantalising half view from besides the odd bookshelf and counter. Alluringly they beckoned you to seek them out and find within them their literary delights. With excitement you would go through a tiny opening or down the stairs to hastily look round another place of wonder and see if he's had any of the books that you are so keenly after...."

 

[Vivienne14]

In the days before SatNav. In 1958 Hudson's said: "To get the utmost out of your Ramble you need a good MAP ....".

Viv.

 

[sospiri]

The end of Resale Price Maintenance in 1961 did not really affect the prices at which books were sold in the UK, though with the onset of supermarkets and their gradual expansion into non-food stuffs, the threat was on the horizon. After the Net Book Agreement was abandoned in 1995 and struck down by the Restrictive Practices Court in 1997, retail book prices were widely expected to fall. Best seller fiction did as it was a loss leader in many supermarkets. Amazon and other large chains also made life hard for the independent bookseller.

Before this, libraries, who needed special servicing such as adding shelf marks, strengthened bindings, and pockets for tickets, bought their copies from specialised suppliers, who carried out this servicing at a very competitive price as the libraries were bulk buyers. It wasn't long before libraries realised that they could buy their copies much cheaper from the likes of Amazon, and independent companies were set up to carry out all the servicing.

The next advance in the library sector was the advent of electronic trading in the early 1990s. Many of the elite cataloguing jobs in the libraries disappeared as cataloguing for all bar very localised books was carried out by the British Library, sometimes many many months before the books were even written, although they had an ISBN allotted in advance. Yes, you could order a book by its ISBN way before it's actual publication, the author then had a fatal heart attack, and the book never saw the light of day!

No longer does the printer have to have a minimum order of so many thousand copies as we now have on demand publishing. So over the last fifty years or so the book trade and the existence of bookshops has changed dramatically, not to mention Kindle and the vast number of clones. These are just a few of the changes that have taken place and I could mention many more, some of which you will be aware of in sectors like business information and mapping.

I loved both Hudsons and Cornishes in my younger day. Sadly CDs and DVDs are going the same way.

Maurice

 

[farmerdave]

In the days before SatNav. In 1958 Hudson's said: "To get the utmost out of your Ramble you need a good MAP ....".

Viv.

View attachment 113250

A good map was certainly useful for planning or leading a ramble. I always felt that the 1 inch maps were of too small a scale for this purpose. The Birmingham and Midland Institute Ramblers had a Map Library with maps at 6 inches to the mile. I think the Ordnance Survey phased them out in around 1952. The downside of the 6-inch maps was that you usually needed 3 or 4 even if you were walking only 5 miles or so. The OS Explorer maps have proved to be extremely popular and have a scale of 1:25,000 i.e. 4 centimetres on the map is equivalent to 1 kilometre on the ground. Apart from a map you should also carry a compass, and know how to use it, for taking bearings and ascertaining the direction of travel. Dave.

 

[ellbrown]

You can use Google Maps now, and you may have a compass app in your smartphone! As long as you have GPS switched on and a decent 4G signal, when out and about.

 

[DavidGrain]

I remember Hudsons but I don't think I used it while the Midland Educational was still open. I don't think I ever found my way around the Hudsons shop as you could go down into the basement of the New Street shop and come up in the Stephenson Street shop or you could walk across from one entrance in Burlington Arcade and go into the other entrance. At some stage Hudsons became Waterstones but I think that was before Waterstones took over the old Midland Bank premises.

I have friend who owns a stationery and book shop in Lincoln and he has unfortunately had to take the decision to close down in April. The printing and design part of the business is in separate premises from the shop and that will remain trading.

 

[Vivienne14]

In 1962 there was a Hudson's Bookshop at Birmingham University.

Viv.

 

[DavidGrain]

The Midland Educational was still in business at that time so perhaps Hudsons saw this a chance to collar much of the academic books market. I think the Midland Ed had opened a branch at Gosta Green about that time.