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Rackhams Store

Vivienne14 said:
The window displays were usually striking, especially at Christmas. This one from the B’ham Mail archives looks about 1960s. I
loved ski pants - although this scenario probably hinted at Christmas at a ski lodge in the Alps, and not clothes for hanging out with your mates on the street. Viv.

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As a Christmas temp we were offered overtime to help with the decoration and window displays over a weekend and during the night. I helped, under direction, dress a window with others and have all the Saturday night revellers go past looking at us. It was strange being in such a large store during the night with not many people but we did get have a go on things we would have otherwise not been able to, i.e. some of the the toys, etc.
 
How great to have access to all that stuff Chris. A kid’s (and big kids !) dream. Think I’d have headed straight to the Women’s Dept and tried on all the clothes just for the hell of it.

Viv.
 
Sixty years ago (!) Rackhams store opened its doors. Here’s a guide to what shoppers could expect inside. Quite a store. (Source: extracted for an advert in the Birmingham Post of 30/11/1960 from the British Newspaper Archive). Viv.
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Vivienne14 said:
Perhaps the Gay Tray was buffet style. Personally never heard of it. Viv.
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in Granby Street, Leicester. 7. Department store coffee shops
As I was growing up in 1960s Birmingham (not Alabama), the big posh department store Rackhams - in a fit of modernity - installed a cafeteria called the Gay Tray. It was very exciting and the trays were indeed very gay - bold florals were key, and all the food was displayed behind little glass doors with chrome knobs. How thrilling to grab a plastic dish of fruit and jelly, put it on your tray and shuffle along towards the the cash desk, sliding your tray along the bars. The other place to eat at Rackhams was the Lilac Room where they served Fork Luncheons - it was extremely formal. No doubt in the fifties, you could have worn a hat at lunch and no-one would have looked twice. Actually I rather miss that - department store restaurants used to have a pleasant stuffiness which is almost impossible to find these days. Cavendish House in Cheltenham served proper afternoon teas, with cucumber sandwiches and starched napkins. Jenners in Edinburgh must have had a great tea room at some time but I arrived too late to experience it.
I
 
Vivienne14 said:
I think Rackhams could be intimidating, well at least in the early 1960s it felt that way. The shop was obviously aimed at the discerning. My view of it at the time was a place for older, more ‘conservative’ customers. And of course, if you were young and dressed in the modern fashions, I think it was not the place for you. But as time went by, it woke up to the possibility of the young being potential customers. Viv.
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Viv, I think you are exactly right!
 
I remember the food hall. But don’t remember the juice bar, I would have remembered the ‘saloon style bat-wing doors’ for certain if I’d noticed them.

This phase of development was in 1966 and the promotion of the health benefits of food seems ahead of its time, and still relevant today.

Is the sketch meant to be the Temple Row entrance ? Viv.

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I remember having a juice drink in the Juice Bar. If I remember correctly it was not in the main part of the store proper but in the entrance halfway up North Western Arcade so unless you went there intentionally or just happened to be passing you would not know about it.
 
They were ahead of their time with a juice bar. There was what was called a soda fountain (1970s?), where you could get a cup of coffee and, presumably milk shakes and suchlike. It was up the stairs from the entrance opposite the churchyard, I think.
 
Vivienne14 said:
I remember the food hall. But don’t remember the juice bar, I would have remembered the ‘saloon style bat-wing doors’ for certain if I’d noticed them.

This phase of development was in 1966 and the promotion of the health benefits of food seems ahead of its time, and still relevant today.

Is the sketch meant to be the Temple Row entrance ? Viv.

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Beautiful Memories Viv. I still have a black coat that my mum bought in rackhams in the sixties.
 
My dear Nan, would shop no where else, except, Debenhams, she truly, loved Rackhams, I don't know if it still survives or like Debenhams disappeared from the high st. Paul
 
My Grandad worked on the railways all his life. When he retired in the mid- late 60s he became a porter at Rackhams. He worked on I think it was the 3rd floor. I know for sure that it sold sports equipment as he met Mom and myself after work and took us in to buy me a tennis racket, how posh was that ! It was a Slazenger with a white handle and a proper wooden spring loaded frame cover for the racket. I had it right until a few years ago. There was also the lingerie department on that floor ( or as Grandad pronounced it in his Gloucester cum Brummie accent, ling ur ee ! He loved working there. He loved the ladies or girls as he called them on his floor and at Christmas they always gave him presents. He said it was a pleasure to go to work, keep clean and get paid , a bit different to the steam engines.
 
crimble said:
My Grandad worked on the railways all his life. When he retired in the mid- late 60s he became a porter at Rackhams. He worked on I think it was the 3rd floor. I know for sure that it sold sports equipment as he met Mom and myself after work and took us in to buy me a tennis racket, how posh was that ! It was a Slazenger with a white handle and a proper wooden spring loaded frame cover for the racket. I had it right until a few years ago. There was also the lingerie department on that floor ( or as Grandad pronounced it in his Gloucester cum Brummie accent, ling ur ee ! He loved working there. He loved the ladies or girls as he called them on his floor and at Christmas they always gave him presents. He said it was a pleasure to go to work, keep clean and get paid , a bit different to the steam engines.
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Lovely story!
 
The butcher’s department in Rackhams. I remember we moved away from the traditional turkey at home. Mum used to get capons. Don’t think it was to follow any trend, more because she preferred it to turkey. Viv.
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Source: British Newspaper Archive
 
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Vivienne14 said:
The butcher’s department in Rackhams. I remember we moved away from the traditional turkey at home. Mum used to get capons. Don’t think it was to follow any trend, more because she preferred it to turkey. Viv.
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After we were married my wife's sister gave us a cockerel for Xmas dinner. She and her husband raised a batch every Xmas to sell. We really enjoyed it and prefer it to turkey now.
 
Certainly, in my family a capon was the traditional Christmas dinner. The folks would say turkey was too dry. I continued this tradition too until the 90’s.

I am just wondering if capons are still available. With the intensive farming methods, they tend to kill all the cockerels now.
 
jmadone said:
After we were married my wife's sister gave us a cockerel for Xmas dinner. She and her husband raised a batch every Xmas to sell. We really enjoyed it and prefer it to turkey now.
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We always had a capon. Raised and fattened by my Grandad who always kept chickens. Used to scare me by pecking my legs.
After Grandad died Mom used to order a capon from the butcher. We did eventually go on to have turkey.
 
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