Woolworths escalator – Was this your first escalator?

supplied by Leigh Kennedy

Sandie Carlyon… Worked there when I was 15. Used to love this. Bit of a novelty.

Heather Sidery… Yes

Christine Pachner… Selfridges in Oxford Street

Alan Esdaile… walking down was fun, until your got thrown out!

Colin Bell… You too! did it regularly on Saturdays.

Jim Peckham… The Woolworths we had in our town never had an upstairs

Paul Cullen… Worked in the warehouse in the late 60s and met my first wife Gill there

Phil Gill… I saw Tich Turner on it once.

Gerry Fortsch… Good name for a band

Pete Houghton… I remember this

John Mcewen… Yep!

Jon McCallion… Remember it well

Peter Brazier… Yes

Gerry Fortsch… The steps going down were not so much fun, I remember seeing an elderly lady falling down them when I was a kid.

Jeremy Harrison… yes- I remember they were quite awkward.

Alan Wood… Oh yes, loved it

Sheila Maile… Yes. I fell down it

Yvonne Cleland… Loved playing on this escalator! x

John Beeching… My dad and I got threatened with being thrown out for running from top to bottom and the riding back up. He was well into his 40s at the time.

Nigel Ford… probably , and the lift in Wards probably my first lift. Manned inside and summoned by staff both top and bottom, who then opened the safety lattice door when it arrived.

Dave Nattress… Definitely – as a kid if she was shopping in Hastings (we lived in Bexhill), I had to moan to my Mother to allow me to use it several times. The toy department was there in later years of course and lots of household stuff but I cannot remember the attraction upstairs when I was young. Logically it was toys but in a way, no it was definitely the escalator.

Tracy Birrell… Yes and used to walk down it.

Peter Fairless… Biscuits and pick’n’mix

Tony Davis… Yes

Paul Cullen… I sometimes sat in the cafeteria and watched people shopping, especially the ones buying bags of broken biscuits

Jacquie Hinves… Oh my goodness. I remember that escalator so well! I can remember mum taking us up the escalator to the top floor. Only problem was there was no escalator down!! You had to walk down the stairs the opposite side of the shop! Xx

Gaynor Lewry… Yes I can remember that too!!

 

Side entrance Woolworth Hastings – 1968

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Thanks to Peter Fairless for finding this.  Photo source: HBC Hastings Museum 

Peter Fairless… A long, long time ago… I just shared this because it brought back the memory of Saturday afternoons in the town centre – and it made me want a Duncan Fosters sausage roll!

Alan Esdaile… Excellent photo. Well you had records in Woolworth and Stylus Records was through the underpass, over the road from the bakers. Remember the sausage rolls and the cream cakes, tempted a couple of times a week or maybe more!

Jan Warren… Oh yes, lovely to see this!! – I remember the toilets and the bus shelter too! – at least The Carlisle Pub is still there!!

Jane Hartley… Acres the Bakers were much better, of course, I am biased as I worked there!

Mick Bacon… a photo I took just before they changed the side entrance.

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Peter Fairless… Oh, that’s a bit sad, Mick. Still, good to have a record. It may matter to someone, one day!

Mike Curtis… And they had the first escalator I’d ever seen.