Littlewoods arrived in Dundee in 1968 and became one of the most famous and fondly remembered stores in the city.
Crumbling tenements in the Overgate were replaced by a £2 million shopping centre.
Littlewoods opened in October 1968.
Dundee had certainly never seen scenes like this before.
People queued all night.
Gift vouchers of £5 each were presented to the first six customers.
The Courier said between 500 and 600 women armed with shopping bags “surged into the building” when Lord Provost Alexander MacKenzie cut the ribbon.
There were so many customers crowding the sales floor that staff had to leave the building to get from the front to the rear.
Littlewoods management realised that even if they had two sales floors the store would still have been overcrowded.
Business was booming from the moment the store opened.
The store’s restaurant became one of the city’s most popular eating places.
The window seats were what everyone wanted.
Littlewoods hatched a plan to expand at the turn of the decade.
Workmen spent several months banging and hammering behind the scenes.
In October 1971, the selling area was extended to the first floor, including expanding the self-service restaurant to nearly twice its old size.
There were now 236 seats “plus the latest in décor and modern furnishing”.
An Evening Telegraph advertising feature said there was now more room for everyone to “eat, drink and relax in comfort, without spending a fortune”.
The dishes on sale were “as good as ever”.
The new “super upper sales floor” allowed Littlewoods to greatly extend all the ranges of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing on offer.
Fair Maid of Perth was a shop assistant
The advertising feature displayed some of the “eye-catching fashions” available.
They were modelled by Dundee store staff Irene Page, Carol McLellan and Linda Young, who held the titles “Fair Maid of Perth” and “Miss Swimsuit”.
A photo shoot took place in McManus Galleries, Overgate Centre and the City Square where they posed holding umbrellas while feeding the pigeons with peanuts.
Irene wore a bonded wool dress costing £5.50 with a white handbag at £1.99.
Carol chose a patterned blouse at £2.50, fashion skirt costing £1.99 and £5.75 boots.
Linda wore a brown-and-gold-print dress costing £5.50.
The umbrella was £1.49.
The peanuts cost 5p a bag from the food hall, where you could also find biscuits, bread, cakes, canned goods, cheese, cooked meats and fresh fruit and vegetables.
There was also a fresh meat section with counter service.
The “bigger, ultra super Littlewoods” extended ranges in all departments in 1971.
Household textiles, fancy goods, footwear, knitting wools and millinery increased.
The store introduced an “exciting range of toys” for children.
Also proving very popular was the new wine shop.
Keynote sign was guarantee of quality at Littlewoods
There was an escalator to take shoppers up to the new sales floor.
Littlewoods promised “much more choice wherever you look”.
New facilities included changing rooms to try on clothes with a guarantee to exchange or get refunded “if something doesn’t suit”.
The Keynote sign was the “guarantee of quality”.
The new store was opened by Irish teenager Majella Crawley, who was a sales assistant from Londonderry and the 23rd Miss Littlewoods.
She was the company’s “personality girl”.
Dundee shoppers were impressed with the upper sales floor.
Betty Laing, from Douglas, “put down a well-laden Littlewoods shopping basket” to speak to the Evening Telegraph about the extension.
Mrs Laing was described as a “keen home knitter” and found the wools on sale in Littlewoods of the “highest quality and competitively priced”.
“I’ve shopped here almost since the shop opened and I’ve always been happy with my purchases,” she said.
“This new part of the store looks like being very popular with local shoppers.”
Elizabeth Bateson, 19, from Stobswell, said she found she could get value for money in Littlewoods and the clothing styles were always up to the minute.
“I think the layout is very good, particularly in the cafeteria,” she said.
“There seems to be plenty of space and room for movement.”
And people loved it.
Orange and beige colour scheme in 1986
By the mid-1980s, Littlewoods was still hugely popular among Dundee shoppers, although the Overgate Centre was beginning to look its age.
Littlewoods was given a £1m refurbishment.
Orange was the new colour scheme through the different departments, including signage with beige carpets and more upmarket merchandise.
Dundee United footballer Paul Sturrock opened the improved store in August 1986.
By the early 1990s, things were changing.
The Wellgate Centre, along with the out-of-town retail parks, started to attract shoppers away from the Overgate and ideas for redevelopment were regularly mooted.
Eventually it was decided to radically redevelop the centre.
The Angus Hotel, Overgate House and entire west end of the old mall was bulldozed.
The east section – which included Argos, C&A, Littlewoods and Boots – would be extensively refurbished to blend in with the new construction.
Dundee’s Lord Provost Mervyn Rolfe described it as “very exciting”.
Changes brought back memories of 1968
One former staff member wrote to the Evening Telegraph letters page, evoking nostalgia for the good old days when Littlewoods arrived at the Overgate.
She said: “Thirty years ago I started work in Littlewoods’ new store, about six weeks before it opened to the public.
“We had an excellent training and I just loved my job.
“This was a whole new life for me, as I was formerly a weaver.
“We wore blue Dr Kildare-style overalls and white frilly hats for the food hall staff.
“I recall having a photo taken in front of the store with several of my colleagues, probably the day before the grand opening.
“My wage to begin with was £9.35 a week, full-time, but you could eat your fill in the staff canteen for about 7p a day.
“That included tea-breaks, morning and afternoon, and a two-course lunch.
“A lot of people didn’t think another chain store would last very long in the town, but they’ve been proved wrong.
“Although there has been a great deal of change, it’s still there.”
The Overgate reopened as a fully enclosed shopping centre with more than 70 stores in March 2000, costing £150 million to build.
The £1m re-cladding of Littlewoods was the last part of the original plan.
The store celebrated in style with a programme of entertainment that included music, entertainers, face-painting and balloon modelling.
Littlewoods name disappeared in 2005
Littlewoods accepted an offer of £750 million for the entire enterprise from the Barclay Brothers, who were billionaire owners of the Ritz hotel.
The future looked bright.
The main restaurant was given a £250,000 transformation in October 2003.
The company’s stores were sold off and closed in 2005.
Littlewoods became an online catalogue.
Its name vanished from the high street after 65 years.
The Overgate building was taken over by Primark.
The Littlewoods café was the last to close.
It was a sad end to a great run.
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