'Ghost of the past' that refused to leave old building

UPS AND DOWNS OF LANDMARK DEPARTMENT STORE

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JUST months after the first edition of the Nottingham Evening Post was published in 1878, William Griffin and John Spalding acquired what was to become the Debenhams building.

But the story of the Long Row site begins three decades earlier, with the founding of a drapery business by Robert and Edward Dickinson.

The company consisted of two small shops and was later known as Dickinson, Fazakerley and Co.

Businessmen Griffin and Spalding then bought the premises on August 15, 1878, and quickly went about redeveloping it.

The premises were first rebuilt in 1888 and extended in 1912, but the major period of work to the site took place between 1920 and 1927.

A Griffin and Spalding advert carried in many local newspapers in June 1920 read: “We are building a large extension to our premises which will give us more room for our many departments.”

This development over the coming years would go on to form the Portland stone-clad structure overlooking Old Market Square.

It seems the rebuild had a rather unintended consequence though, with Nottingham Evening Post reports from July 1929 noting that Griffin and Spalding went to court to appeal the rateable value of their store, which they argued was too high.

It was argued that the relocation of the market from the square a year earlier and the building’s unusual nature hampered trade.