Lost Victorian-era shop that sold 'all sorts of oddities' in Liverpool

It's been 15 years since a Victorian-era shop that sold "all sorts of oddities" in the city closed its doors for a final time.

For well over a century, the Tutill-Nicol stationery shop was a familiar sight on Richmond Street in Liverpool city centre. Hailing from a time of feather quill pens, sealing wax and huge account books in Victorian Liverpool, it welcomed generations of customers through its doors.

It was formed from the merger of two independent retailers, Tutill and Nicol, who competed against each other in the same street before deciding to join forces. Through the years, many will remember getting rare stationery items from there that were no longer found in other shops, or heading there for school supplies.

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Back in August 1981, the Liverpool Daily Post reported how the shop had undergone a refurbishment, but still maintained its "old world atmosphere." The article reads: "Nests of shelves climb up the walls; neat little cupboards and spaces are tightly and tidily packed between them.

"You get the feeling that Charles Dickens could quite happily have stocked himself up here. It’s a super little shop; probably the busiest stationers of its type in the city centre. There certainly isn't another quite like it."

By the 1990s, more change came to the site as it joined forces with another well-known name in stationery in Liverpool to trade from the same historic building. Jordan Woodrows, specialists in legal stationery and supplies, was based in Victoria Street but moved because the lease expired on its building.

On August 28, 1998, the ECHO reported the change and also gave insight into what Tutill-Nicol was like at the time. The article reads: "The store still stocks pen nibs, blotting paper and sealing wax. It also stocks ledgers and specially account books for book-keepers who still do their accounts the old fashioned way.

Do you remember Tutill-Nicol in Liverpool city centre? Let us know in the comments section below.

"Fountain pens - and even an in-house engraving service - is also available. But just to show that the business is in tune with modern technology, the shop also has an extensive stock of computer accessories, such as discs, bubble jet and ink jet cartridges. Screen filters and special papers."

But over a decade later in 2009, the last chapter closed on the historic business after well over a century. In September that year, Tutill-Nicol, one of the city's last Victorian-era shops, closed its doors for the last time.

The closure came after being hit by a "sky-high" rent increase and tough competition from supermarkets. The shop continued to sell traditional products, such as ledgers and account books and the premises retained it original features, such as an iron spiral staircase, which staff have to negotiate to bring down stock.

Sarah Smith at the time had worked at the shop for 10 years. She previously said: "It’s the end of an era. Our loyal, regular customers are absolutely devastated.

"We offer a very friendly, personal kind of service and spend a lot of time with them, and they bring in their troubles. But now that supermarkets are selling more and more stationery, and the rent has gone sky high, it’s not worth it.

"In the 10 years I’ve been here, so much of the stationery we sell has gone over to computers, such as book-keeping." Colleague Elaine McCarten said: "From the day I started, this has been the happiest four years of my working life."

And legendary Liverpool solicitor, the late Rex Makin, whose offices were located in nearby Whitechapel, said: “I was a regular customer there and will miss them. It was a unique place and sold all sorts of oddities. Tutill and Nicol were nice old gentlemen but, like everything else, antiquity goes."

In October 2009, days after its closure, one reader shared the following in the ECHO letters section. They said: "So sad to see the shop go. It was a shock to me when I visited my stationery store, Tutill-Nicol, to be told by the staff it was closing.

"I say my stationery store as I have purchased lots of items during the last 15 years and their binding section was unique. I found the staff courteous and friendly and they welcomed their customers with a smile and often a joke unlike, the assistants of larger stores. I only hope they soon find other employment or have a happy and contented retirement."

This year marks 15 years since the shop closed. Photographs unearthed from our archives offer a glimpse into its final days, from how the store looked to staff and customers who went there.

The site is now home to Ichi Noodle restaurant. But many still have fond memories of its life as Tutill-Nicol.

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