55 Market Street, Holyhead, Isle of Angelsey LL65 1UG Woolworths opened in Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey in 1953. The Isle of Anglesey is on the northwest coast of Wales. The store opened in a 19th century building. Below are some early staff photos. Source: Burnell, R. Source: Rowlands, A. It was a large…
Category: Wales
Barmouth Woolworths – Store 803
High Street, Barmouth, Gwynedd LL42 1LW Woolworths opened in Barmouth in 1953. This was a seaside store in Wales – Barmouth is said to be southern Snowdonia most popular seaside resort. The store was in a simple single-storey building, yet the 1972 store list has “St Annes Mansions” written as the building name. Perhaps St…
Cardigan Woolworths – Store 776
High Street, Cardigan, Dyfed SA43 1JQ Woolworths opened in the Welsh town of Cardigan in 1952. The following info was written by historian Glen Johnson (glen-johnson.co.uk): “Gwalia House was advertised for sale on 22nd June 1951 and was purchased by F. W. Woolworth’s in February 1952. The new ‘Woolworth’s’ store opened on 18th July 1952….
Porthcawl Woolworths – Store 767
1a John Street, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan CF36 3AR Woolworths opened in Porthcawl in 1940. It was a purpose built store with an Art Deco facade. Source: Porthcawl Museum The store was updated in what looks like the 1960s. Note the blue fascia and large Woolworth in yellow letters – perhaps this was a trial look….
Pembroke Dock Woolworths – Store 741
13-15 Dimond Street, Pembroke Dock, Dyfed SA72 6JA Woolworths opened in the Welsh town of Pembroke Docks in 1939. It was a purpose-built store: Source: Ballysundriven Woolworths traded here for 70 years, closing in December 2008. After it closed, it became a discount store that kept the Woolworths fascia up! Today though, the unit is…
Milford Haven Woolworths – Store 726
64-66 Charles Street, Milford Haven, Dyfed SA73 2HF Woolworths opened in the waterside town of Milford Haven, Wales, in 1938. The store was very close to the marina, and a ten minute walk from Milford Haven train station. This is a photo from the 1980s, but we can guess that it probably looked different in…
Tenby Woolworths – Store 715
46 High Street, Tenby, Dyfed SA70 7AB Woolworths opened in the Welsh seaside town of Tenby in 1938. It looks like the store was across two character buildings from the photos. Source: Pembroke-Today.co.uk Source: mapio.net Here’s a staff photo from 1964, with everyone dressed up for their Christmas party. Source: Facebook Tenby Woolworths closed in…
Mold Woolworths – Store 683
23 High Street, Mold, Flintshire CH7 1AU Woolworths opened in the Welsh town of Mold in 1937. It was a purpose-built store on the High Street with an Art Deco facade. Here is a staff photo from the early years. Source: Twitter @TheCeltic Arms And a later staff photo when they were raising money for…
Conwy Woolworths – Store 676
13-15 High Street, Conwy, Gwynedd LL32 8DE Woolworths opened in Conwy, Wales, in 1936. It was a purpose-built store. Pictured below you can see the lovely windows. Source: Historic England (via @KA_Morrison) The store was modernised in later decades and you can see here the new doors installed across the middle. Source: Historic England (via…
Denbigh Woolworths – Store 664
57 High Street, Denbigh, Denbighshire LL16 3SE Woolworths opened in the Welsh market town of Denbigh in 1936. It was a purpose-built store with a lovely stone facade. Source: walesdirectory.co.uk Former store manager Helen Jones shares her memories, “664 was my first store manager appointment. I remember that trying to get the delivery down the…
Newtown Woolworths – Store 644
12-13 Broad Street, Newtown, Powys SY15 6JL Woolworths opened in Newtown in 1936. The store was purpose-built with the classic architecture that you will recognise. It looks like there was a flood in this photo. Source: Newtown Local History Group Source: Newtown Local History Group There’s an interesting comment from the Newtown Local History Group…
Morriston Woolworths – Store 604
68-69 Woodfield Street, Swansea, West Glamorgan, SA6 8BQ Woolworths opened in Morriston, Wales in 1935 – Morriston being a suburb of Swansea. For the first time someone has done the work for me and put the whole history of the store in one photo! This is by André Scoville who has a Facebook page called…
Prestatyn Woolworths – Store 560
86 High Street, Prestatyn, Flintshire LL19 9BG Woolworths opened in 1934 in Prestatyn, North Wales. It was a purpose-built store but with a more rectangular look that the other branches, with the central pediment being omitted. Source: Thomas, H Prestatyn Woolworths closed on the 2nd January 2009, after trading from this location for 74 years….
Pwllheli Woolworths – Store 558
86 High Street, Pwllheli, Gwynedd LL53 5RW Woolworths opened in Pwllheli, North Wales, on the 7th July 1934. New stores were being opened every 17 days in the 1930s, with stores following a standard model – although builders boasted that they always added a few local twists. At Pwllheli there was the standard single storey…
Blaenau Ffestiniog Woolworths – Store 527
30 High Street, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, LL41 3AA Woolworths opened in the former mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales, in 1933. I don’t know if there was ever an upper floor, but in this photo we can see it was on floor only, and a small store. They traded here for 60 years. Source:…
Holywell Woolworths – Store 517
9 – 11 High Street, Holywell, Clwyd CH8 7LA Woolworths opened in Holywell, North Wales, in 1933. Number 9 was a house and number 11 was a grocers and the two were combined to make one Woolworths store. Source: Richardson, R. Source: Flintshire Pictures Source: Morris, C. Woolworths traded from this location right until the…
Cardiff, Clifton Street Woolworths – Store 484
31 – 32 Clifton Street, Cardiff CF2 1LR Woolworths opened their fourth Cardiff store on Clifton Street in 1932. The store was in the premises of the former Clifton Cinema. Below are a series of photos across the decades. Source: Remember Old Cardiff Source: Ford, J. Source: Cardiff Now & Then Source: Dutfield, S. This…
Cardiff (Albany Road) Woolworths – Store 476
51-57 Albany Road, Roath, Cardiff, Gwent CF2 3LL Woolworths opened in Albany Road in Cardiff (Wales) in 1932. It was the third branch to be opened in Cardiff. It was purpose-built, originally at 51-53. Although there are no photos from the early years, I am assuming it had the usual architecture of 5 bays, red…
Aberystwyth Woolworths – Store 475
26 Great Darkgate Street, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 1DG Woolworths opened in Aberystwyth in 1932. I’m not sure whether it was always at number 26 Great Darkgate Street because the earliest photo I can find is from 1965 (see Woolworths on the far right, just cut off). The building looks quite new and 1950s in style….
Monmouth Woolworths – Store 464
24 Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Gwent NP5 3XB Woolworths opened in the Welsh town of Monmouth in April 1932. The store was purpose-built and you will recognise the architecture in this early photo. The store had a large side extension in 1964 and a garden centre added in the 1970s. The original part of the store…
Woolies Buildings - Then and Now 