Inside 'always busy' Liverpool department store lost to the 1970s

A rare image unseen for years offers a glimpse inside a Liverpool department store lost to the 1970s that was "always busy."

It was back in 1975 that Gimbles officially opened in the city centre - becoming at the time the first new department store to open in the city for over 30 years. Located on Great Charlotte Street, customers could buy everything from clothes to kitchenware, bikes, toys, records and more.

The department store was only open for a few years, but it is still remembered by many across the city, the ECHO previously reported. But one photograph of inside the lost business has recently been rediscovered and is a window into the past.

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Courtesy of our archives Mirrorpix, the images captures inside Gimbles Liverpool back in 1974. Unseen to the public for years, you can see two members of staff looking at items in the clothing department and also what inside the site looked like frozen in time.

Here, we now take another look back at Gimbles, which was "based on the junior department store concept pioneered in America." On February 4, 1976, the ECHO reported how the name itself was "inspired by Gimbels chain" of stores in the US, but it is understood that our Gimbles was owned and run by a Liverpool family and something separate entirely.

The US Gimbels department chain had its massive flagship store on the prestigious Sixth Avenue and 34th Street in Manhattan, New York and was considered the main rival to Macy's, being mentioned in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. Despite having been closed for a number of years, the New York store served as the set where the much loved 2003 Christmas movie, Elf, was filmed.

Not much more is known on how the American Gimbels inspired Liverpool's Gimbels - and the differences in spelling - but the Great Charlotte Street department store saw Mr David Serenson as director, together with his daughter, Mrs Beryl Greenberg, who was the managing director.

Do you remember Gimbles in Liverpool? Let us know in the comments section below.

Pamela O'Neill, 70 worked at Gimbles in the mid-70s and remembers the department store being "very busy" and standing out from competitors for offering a wide range of cheaper products. Pamela, originally from Wallasey, told the ECHO: "It was a big department store and I think the only thing they didn't sell was groceries.

"One thing I do remember is they had really good stock, the people who worked there were actually prepared to buy from there so they had good stuff. I worked on the service desk so if people phoned in wanting to know did we have this in or did we have that in I could phone down to the various departments to find out did we.

"Or if people came in and they wanted finance, they would come to get the forms or help them fill in the forms to send off. People would open accounts with us to save for Christmas.

Across the departments, Pamela, who now lives in Ireland, said the bike section was busy all year - "not just at Christmas." She said: "I remember very clearly the bike department because the help desk was at the back of it, they sold push bikes.

"There was a white goods department as well doing the kettles and toasters and stuff like that. I know the ground floor which was the clothing was always very very busy. They had a makeup and perfume department

"It was very very busy, compared to Blacklers and TJ Hughes and Owen Owen and Lewis’s. Compared to all of those, Gimbles was cheaper so I think that was one of the reasons for the popularity."

Working at Gimbles for around two years, Pamela said what she loved the most about the department store was the people she worked with. She said: "There was a young man who worked there called Steven and his nickname was Stevie B because another Steve worked with us.

"And at the time a perfume came out called Stevie B and a friend of mine who worked in there had a bit of a crush on him and when we walked past the counter she grabbed the Stevie B perfume and sprayed both of us with it. It was absolutely horrible - it took us almost three weeks to stop smelling of Stevie B.

"I made a lot of friends there, friends that I kept for a long time after I left. It was a decent store to work at, the wages were good, they paid well. It was a happy atmosphere and they looked after their staff."

One image, courtesy of our archives, Mirrorpix, shows outside Gimbles in 1976, whereas other adverts from the time offer a glimpse into what was on offer at the department store. Many former shoppers will remember heading there to buy a bike, get their ears pierced and more.

A year on into the business, in 1976 Gimbles was among one of the first businesses in the city to open their doors for the first time on New Year’s Day since it became a public holiday. In February that year, the Liverpool Daily Post reported how Gimbles had hopes to expand.

The article reads: "Managing director Mrs Beryl Greenberg says they have been so successful there, they are looking at other sites within a 30-mile radius of Liverpool to open more outlets. Chester is high on their list. Mrs Greenberg said they had been looking for a suitable site to open the store for about two years and chose Great Charlotte Street when the premises became vacant, because of its position."

However, in the December, the store started to run into trouble and the Liverpool ECHO reported that the store's owners had asked Liverpool Council for a reduction in its £45k a year rent on its building on Great Charlotte Street, which the council declined.

The following year in 1977, Gimbles broke with the general boycott of taking part in the Lord Mayor's Parade. In the past, city stores had refused to participate on the grounds that the parade attracted people away from the shopping area, but Gimbles general managers Mr. John Shaw was "convinced the stores will benefit from the crowds." By Christmas time that year, Gimbles also had its own grotto, with free stickers and photograph opportunities.

But in March 1978, the Liverpool Daily Post reported how the "Gimbles gamble" failed to pay off and how the prime-site store went into the hands of the receiver. At the time, Gimbles employed 70 people and had offices in Stafford Street, but fell victim to "a cash flow problem and high rent costs."

In October 1979, it was reported that in bid to help save the jobs of the 70 Gimbles staff, the council agreed to a second application by the company for a rent reduction from 52,000 to 25,000. But after a three year stay in the city, the store closed and the building was taken over by Allied Carpets.

It's now been over 40 years since we said goodbye to Liverpool's Gimbles. But many will still have fond memories of the popular department store and others we no longer have in the city centre.

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