Welcome to the Original Virtual Museum - celebrating Woolworths' century at the heart of British High Street Shopping
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please click a menu button Original Virtual Museum Home Page please click a menu button The Woolworth value store concept is born in the USA please click a menu button Laying the foundations as the first British Woolworth store opens in Liverpool in November 1909 please click a menu button Woolworths rapidly open forty-four stores in Britain and Ireland before facing a World War please click a menu button Bigger, brighter and bolder Woolworth stores in the Roaring Twenties please click a menu button Woolworths go to amazing lengths to keep all prices under sixpence in the Thirties please click a menu button Bravery and defiance during World War II in Woolworths' finest hour. We pay tribute to the sacrifices made and look behind the scenes please click a menu button Redefining the Woolworth brand for modern times in the 1950s, as prices go up and stores get bigger and bigger please click a menu button Superstores in and out of town, a new own brand and the opening of overseas Commonwealth stores during the 1960s please click a menu button Woolworth struggles to keep up during the rapid inflation and change of the 1970s please click a menu button Woolworth stores in more recent times, covering the period 1980-2008 please click a menu button
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Background to the Original Virtual Museum and copyright information about the contents Origins of the firm's legendary pic'n'mix and a century of chocolate, candy and confectionery in the High Street A century of music and entertainment in the High Street from sheet music and gramophone records to CDs and blu-ray discs A century of toys, games and fun in the High Street stores of F. W. Woolworth A century of fashion in the High Street, from paper patterns and sixpenny knickers to an extensive range of award-winning Ladybird clothing A century of cards, pens, pads and books from the shelves of F. W. Woolworth stores Pots and pans, paint and brushes, bulbs and compost and even toiletries - all in High Street Woolworth stores for much of the twentieth century Woolworths pioneered Christmas decorations in the 19th century and supplied presents for our parents, grandparents and great grandparents from their High Street stores Working conditions and pay rates at Woolworths over a hundred years and some of the people behind the brand-name Our cinema, quiz and picture gallery features Visit the new look 21st century Woolworths on line, on the site operated by Shop Direct Group
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the finest that Woolworths could sell

Tea Bar ... Restaurant

... Lunch Counter ...

Soda Bar ... Quick Snacks

Nothing
over
6D

 Blackpool Tower with its famous circus and restaurant dominates this picture of the new F. W. Woolworth store on the Promenade and Bank Hey Street in Blackpool. The store was built in 1937

When it opened in the Spring of 1938, the store on the Promenade at Bank Hey Street in Blackpool was the British Woolworth's most ambitious building ever.

The huge premises dominated the skyline. They were visible for miles along the Fylde coast and right out to sea. The resort on England's North West coast had become the country's favourite, attracting millions of tourists each year.

The site was triangular and opened into three streets. The building was made of glazed, cream marble finish bricks. It had bronze window frames with elaborate bright-work. A clocktower added the finishing touch.

The store had three 15,000 square foot (1,400 m2) salesfloors, with two further floors each offering a 2,000 seat restaurant. The upper restaurant was mainly reserved for private parties, but offered the capacity required during the Wakes Weeks when the whole of a town's industry closed and everyone went on holiday at once. Woolworth offered main dishes for sixpence (2½p) and a full meal for two shillings (10p) or less.

We've dedicated this page to the Woolies Restaurant. It was inspired by Mrs. Sybil Preece who visited the store with her husband Philip in 1941, and shared her memories with the Virtual Museum. She took her menu home at the time, as customers were invited to do, and very kindly shared it with us 65 years later.
A new F. W. Woolworth store opened on the Promenade at Blackpool in 1937. At the time the iconic store was visible from ten miles away and was the chain's largest worldwide
 
There was a Restaurant in the first British Woolworths store at Church Street, Liverpool. This was a step on from the Soda Fountain that the Founder had established in his Lancaster store in 1907 and helped to inspire the famous lunch counters across North America. As the British chain expanded, a Restaurant was included in each large store. The firm aimed to promote shopping as a leisure activity. They believed that selling good food at exceptionally low prices would encourage people to allow more time for shopping. Restaurants were comfortable and accessible. Separate entrances allowed some to open longer than the store, seven days a week, from 7am to 10.30pm.
 
A panoramic view of the Woolworths Restaurant and Lunch Counter in the Blackpool, Lancashire, UK store which opened in 1938. The restaurant could seat 2,000 people.
         
The "hygienic, modern kitchens" of the Woolworths Restaurant in Blackpool, pictured in Spring 1938

Before the opening cards shoppers were given invitation cards by the other two branches in Blackpool. Local reporters were given a tour of the kitchens and handed example menus.

The grand opening was handled by Liverpool District Office Representative
Mr. Bill (H. J.) Lacey.

 A card promoting the Woolworths Restaurant in Blackpool, published before World War II
 
The promotional material highlighted the wide selection of dishes offered for sixpence (2½p) or less, the smart surroundings and the panoramic views. Photographs showed the "modern, hygienic kitchens". Patrons were urged not to leave tips and were invited to take their menus home as mementoes or to give to their friends.
 
Menu from the Woolworths Restaurant and Blackpool from August 4th, 1939. Click the image for a full screen, legible version. Many items are threepence with the most expensive main course dishes including Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding just sixpence (2½p)

The menu on the left shows the daily fare for 4 August, 1939. Click it if you would like to open a larger copy.

Main meals, including Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, a Fresh Fillet of Codling or a Grilled Lamb Chop were just sixpence (2½p), while a small cup of tea was just tuppence (1p) and a desert was threepence (1.25p).

A café table with menu at Woolworths in August 1938
         

Just one month after the date on the menu Britain declared war on Germany and soon the sixpenny days were gone forever. Bill Lacey, the man credited with the success of the restaurants, was rewarded with a double promotion. He became a Buyer at the Woolworth headquarters, with responsibility for the entire food range. This included Ice Cream, Tinned Food and Delicatessen, as well as Restaurants and Café Bars. Lacey was kept busy adapting the menus and the product selection in-store to war-time conditions. As the weeks went by many commodities became unobtainable, with meat, eggs and milk all rationed. Among his achievements were:
 
  • persuading the authorities to keep restaurant food off the ration. New rules were agreed limiting the maximum cost of a meal to 5/- (25p). These did not allow meat and fish to be served at the same sitting. Lacey negotiated with the Ministry of Food on behalf of the company.
     
  • supplying ice-cream in the towns and cities that had suffered the worst bombardment. It was not rationed. Lord Beaverbrook interceded to arrange new fridges for the stores as required, giving the supply the same priority as building Spitfires for the Battle of Britain. The move was intended to maintain public morale.
     
  • finding enough staff and food to keep the restaurants open for business throughout the war. If the store was able to open, the restaurant did too.
 Bill (H.J.) Lacey was the brains behind the restaurants in the Blackpool Woolworth store. He went on to become the chain's buyer for food and ice-cream as well as the restaurants, and had to update the offer to deal with the pressures of World War II.
 
All of which brings us to the precious memory, which dates from 22 September 1941 and shows how World War II had started to take its toll. Customer Mrs Sybil Preece of Gloucester remembers visiting Blackpool with Philip, her husband-to-be, on an early Autumn trip. They chose to have a meal in the Woolworths Café on the corner of Bank Hey Street and Promenade. She remembers that it was a very impressive venue that catered for 2,000 people.
 
The Woolworths Menu from 1941 (with sincere thanks to Mrs Sybil Preece). Several prices have risen over the pre-war sixpenny limit as a result of shortages and wartime price inflation. There is little evidence that Britain was standing alone in a World War from the front cover of this Woolworth Restaurant Menu which was published in Spring 1941. (Image, with special thanks to Mrs Sybil Preece.)

By 1941 the wartime menu shows a number of dishes above the old sixpenny (2½p) limit. A a split lobster salad was a shilling (5p or twice 6d), a shoulder of lamb had risen by a penny to 7d (3p) and the cod had gone up by 50% to 9d.

Mrs. Preece has fond memories of the visit, recalling that the food was delicious and that she was so impressed that she took Woolworth's up on the offer to take the menu away, preserving it for posterity.

 
         
You can see a close-up, fully legible copy of the menu by clicking its picture (above). We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Mrs Sybil Preece and her son Norman for donating the menu and the background information to the Original Virtual Museum, as well as to Mr Symon Knightswood, the grandson of Bill Lacey. The store chain was proud to hand out copies of the menu inside a commemorative brochure to Blackpool customers when the nearby 21st century Woolworths re-opened after a modernisation in 2006. Many of the store's younger customers were amazed that you could once buy a main meal for sixpence, once they learnt what an old sixpence was! We hope you enjoyed reading their stories and getting a "flavour" of the late and much lamented Woolworths Restaurant.
         
The five "W" motifs that were used as trademarks by the British Woolworths store chain over a hundred years