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England’s
Co-operative Movement An Architectural History
Lynn
Pearson
Liverpool:
University Press and Historic England, 2020 Hardback
252 p. ISBN 978-1789622393. £40
Reviewed by Hugh Clout University College London
This beautifully
illustrated, handsome volume tells two stories: the history of the co-operative
movement in England (with occasional excursions into Scotland and Wales), and
the progressive creation of an important architectural legacy in many towns and
cities. Organising her account in ten chronological chapters, arranged in three
parts, architectural historian Lynn Pearson amply demonstrates that ‘the co-operative
store is an enduring presence in our townscape [and] an eloquent architectural
expression of the long and complex history of co-operation, with its roots in
utopian thought’ of the eighteenth century [3]. With varied specific
aims, as many as 700 co-operative societies were established in the early
nineteenth century, encompassing communal property and living, industrial and
agricultural production, and co-operative trading. Through joint purchasing,
members of retail or consumer co-operatives enjoyed reduced prices and
unadulterated goods of decent quality. Because they lacked a legal framework,
these early ventures were open to fraud and many stores failed, only to be
replaced by others. Established in 1844, the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’
Society was a model institution that operated a shop selling staple goods such as
flour, oatmeal, butter and sugar, and gradually extended its range. Passage in
1852 of the first Industrial and Provident Societies Act gave co-operative
organisations proper legal status, with legislation of 1862 granting limited
liability. By 1865, co-operative societies existed in most counties and
operated about 500 retail stores. Varied in size and architectural style, many
premises displayed co-operative symbolism, such as the beehive (representing work
for a common cause), the wheatsheaf (strength through standing together), and
the galleon (collective trading). In addition to shops, some societies erected
grand meeting halls and ran libraries. By the late 1880s, there were more than
2,000 co-operative stores in England, especially in northern counties and
London. With over 18,000 members, the Leeds society was the largest; it opened
fifty new shops during the preceding two decades. This array of retail
stores was supported by centralised agencies for wholesale co-operative
trading, with the North of England Co-operative Wholesale and Provident Society
dating from 1863, and the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) being
established nine years later. Initially based in Liverpool and focused on the Irish
butter trade, the CWS subsequently moved its headquarters to Manchester. In addition
to constructing offices and warehouses in that city, it built a range of
factories which manufactured biscuits and confectionery (Manchester), boots and
shoes at Leicester, and clothing at Leeds. An impressive, large depot was
constructed by the CWS in Newcastle and a six-storey depot was built at Leman
Street in London, comprising offices, committee rooms, salerooms and an
assembly hall, in addition to retail outlets. This burst of
construction was orchestrated by the architectural department of the CWS that
indulged in something of a ‘stylistic free-for-all’ [31] in the decades
preceding World War I. Membership of co-operative societies exceeded two
million by 1911 but consolidation led to a reduction in the number of organisations.
Drawing on a rich
archive of contemporary images, Lynn Pearson explores the architectural legacy
of this period. For example, the co-operative store at Carlisle comprised a
spacious galleried arcade, with art nouveau ironwork railings, as well as a
600-seat meeting hall, and an elegant, long arcade was a distinctive feature of
the store at Sheffield. Large co-operative meeting halls in many northern
cities provided ‘an alternative public arena to the local town hall [that was]
non-conformist, pro-temperance space’ [45]. Built of concrete, brick and stone,
and embracing a multitude of styles, co-operative society premises were often
decorated with terracotta, tiles and mosaic. The beehive and wheatsheaf symbols
were especially popular. The co-operative store at Lewes (Sussex) was a rare
arts and crafts example, while magnificent premises at Hartlepool, comprising a
ferro-concrete frame clad in Portland stone, were so grand that they could be
‘easily mistaken for a town hall’ [77]. In this way, the ‘co-operative
state’ [102] was built during the first decade of the twentieth century, with
the number of CWS factories growing from 24 to 42. These included massive flour
mills at Avonmouth (Bristol) and Silvertown (London), the Pelaw factory at
Gateshead that made products ranging from shirts to furniture, and new
manufacturing premises in Bristol, Manchester and Newcastle. Growth continued
apace during the interwar years, with membership of co-operative societies
doubling from 4 million in 1919 to 8.5 million in 1939. Northern societies were
particularly vigorous, as were the Royal Arsenal, South Suburban and London
Co-operative Society in the capital. Light, bright, modern stores were
constructed to compete with other companies in the retail market. In the 1930s,
shopping in a co-operative department store could be likened to ‘buying goods
in a fairy palace’ [145]. Cash-carrier systems became universal in larger CWS
shops, ‘generally the patent pneumatic variety’ [151] that whizzed payments to
a central cashier and returned the necessary change and receipts. Occasionally
these systems comprised overhead wires that sent cash carriages above the heads
of purchasers and sales staff alike. During World War II,
the CWS estate of shops, warehouses and factories suffered serious damage and
destruction, but the organisation still managed to produce ‘huge quantities of
military equipment (including rifle and aircraft parts) and uniforms, while
remaining the largest single supplier of food in the country’ [172]. Throughout
hostilities, the architect’s department worked hard to produce designs for premises
undergoing repair and for completely new operations, incorporating new ideas
from the USA such as self-service shopping. Post-war activity gave rise to new
CWS shops and department stores in reconstructed cities such as Coventry and
Plymouth, and in the new towns of Crawley, Harlow and Stevenage. Impressive
architectural murals were installed at Ipswich, Stratford and other new CWS
premises. During the first ten years after the war, co-operative stores ‘did
relatively well and just about managed to maintain their share of trade’ [181],
but competition from other retailers was fierce and unrelenting. The CWS
introduced a range of innovations, including ‘Operation Facelift’ that aimed to
refurbish stores and give ‘the whole movement a unified modern image’ [206].
Despite these efforts, the share of retail trade embraced by CWS shops declined
and the number of societies fell as mergers sought to keep the organisation
financially viable. Starting in 2016, the CWS introduced its ‘clover-leaf’
branding image and continued to modernise existing stores as well as opening
new, state-of-the-art supermarkets. Through an abundance
of excellent archival images and full colour photographs from her own camera
Lynn Pearson shows that ‘the co-operative landscape is still all around us,
though clearer in some places than others, and strongly provincial’ [220]. She insists
that, by virtue of changes of use, ‘it is difficult to estimate the number of stores,
originally built as co-operatives, that survive in England [since] many are
altered beyond recognition. Perhaps the total may be 2,000 or 3,000’ [220]. In
addition, there were many other outlets that were not purpose-built but housed co-operative
shops for varying lengths of time. From my own experience of a south London
suburb, I am aware that former co-operative shops have been converted to house new
uses such as churches and mosques, and the Portland stone façade of one large
department store erected in 1927 remains standing while the space behind it has
been demolished and is being rebuilt for residential use. Other CWS retail
outlets in my stretch of suburbia occupy renovated or completely new buildings,
and, of course, the presence of co-operative funeral premises should not be ignored.
This remarkable book
concludes with copious notes, bibliographic references, and three appendices
that usefully encapsulate the history of co-operative premises. They show that
in 1946 there were 13,000 CWS stores, rising to 28,000 in 1960, but plummeting
to 3,100 in 1985. In 1939, when production reached its peak, the CWS operated
98 industrial sites across England, not to mention numerous bakeries and other
works owned by member societies. Finally, a timeline traces the work of the CWS
architect’s department from its opening in 1896 to its merger with the
development division in 1982 when its records were unfortunately lost.
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