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Wh Smith

Barr_Beacon

The Prodigal Brummie
Felt quite sad when I read this and I wonder if anyone can help with a query. I remember the WH Smith shop in Corporation Street beside Yates's Wine Lodge and had only just started using it when it closed down around September / October 1974 and opened it's 'new' shop in on the old Henry's site in Union Street (the one that has just closed). I have been searching for a photograph of the WH Smith shop in Corporation Street for some time now but without any luck. It had two busts of Chaucer and Shakespeare in it's facade. The closest I have come to finding a photograph is the 1951 picture below of Yates's below. You can see 'W H S' and one of the busts which I believe to be Chaucer. Can anyone help?

index.php
 
is this one any good to you BB not the best photo but better than nothing i always say...dated 1921

lyn

City Corporation S W.H.Smith 1921 (2).JPG
 
The W H Smiths in Birmingham city centre has not really closed down, they have just moved round the corner in to an empty unit in Union Street, the old BHS store I think.
 
The W H Smiths in Birmingham city centre has not really closed down, they have just moved round the corner in to an empty unit in Union Street, the old BHS store I think.

yes guilbert i read that it had only moved to smaller premises in post 1

lyn
 
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We have recently had a WH Smith open in Chelmsley Wood sharing the premises with the Post Office, always been one of my favourite shops. Eric
 
Hi,

The WH Smith's shop in Great Yarmouth also has a Post Office. Perhaps they all do!!

Kind regards
Dave
 
The development of the railways encouraged the sale of books of all kinds. Until 1848 no systematic attempt had been made to supply passengers...

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Hi,

The WH Smith's shop in Great Yarmouth also has a Post Office. Perhaps they all do!!

Kind regards
Dave
There is no Post Office in the Paignton Smith's. However the town still has a traditional style Post Office, with multiple window options and little other paraphernalia on sale. However, that was last year, so things may have changed since then.
In most of the smaller South Devon towns, and districts of the larger town and cities,post offices are now usually found in small grocery type stores - Co-Op and independent chain.
 
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We've got a seperate post office and WH Smith's here in Sandbach too.
The Post Office has three windows and is busy, whereas Smith's seems to be in decline. No doubt amazon and particularly kindle, is responsible for that.
 
W.H. Smith has been in decline for over 20 years, due to a combination of factors I think. Printed copies of newspapers grew less when the news became freely available on the internet & satellite TV, and 15 years ago railway business travellers seemed to be glued to their cellphones rather than doing crosswords. The book trade in general was killed by Amazon and the larger supermarkets. In tourist areas very few people send picture postcards, and in an effort to increase sales somewhere, they no longer carried magazines for which the demand wasn't high, forcing people to take out subscriptions, generally via the internet. Certainly, if you use the internet, you wouldn't turn to W.H. Smith for most of the things they sell and even greetings cards have in many cases become ecards!

Maurice
 
When I order books online I always compare Amazon with WHS and often end up buying from Smiths as books are as cheap and by having delivery to my local store there is no postage.
 
The new Union Street WH Smith is much smaller. Magazines / newspapers close to the tills / self service tills. And cards are not far away either. Not really been in to look for books! The old store had a large first floor. And at one point they even used to have a basement, which at one time had videos, cassettes, later CD's and DVD's (I also remember video games / computer games being upstairs in the late 1990s). Although after the basement closed. they moved a much reduced DVD and CD section up to the first floor! Not even seen that kind of things in the new Smith's!
Only spend a few minutes in there when I pop in.

Pretty sure if you got a book on Amazon it would be cheaper on their than at Smith's. Say a Citizen Khan book was full price at £20 when I got it from WH Smith in Solihull. Amazon would be half price!
 
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