Binns was ‘the in place’
A REDCAR gran has been recalling her first ever job as an office typist in Binns – the “poshest shop in Middlesbrough”.
The iconic department store, which became House of Fraser, closed its doors for good last month. It’s a poignant reminder of the troubles facing the UK’s high street and the rise of online shopping.
But Linda Richardson remembers Binns as a hive of activity years ago, with legions of staff.
It even had a “resident nurse in her own office, wearing a navy and white uniform and hat”, she recalls, and a man who operated the lifts.
The year was 1959 and Linda – fresh out of Constantine Technical College, on Borough Road – landed her first job as a shorthand typist. She worked in the offices of Binns, above the bustle of the sales floors. “I was 16,” she says. “I had to
take letters down in shorthand and type them off. We finished at 5pm on the dot. They were lovely people to work for. But one day, the MD came in and I had my coat on before 5pm, I dived under the desk and pretended I was looking for something. That’s how things were then – you couldn’t have your coat on at five to.”
Linda received a bit more than two shillings a week – and alternate Wednesdays and Saturdays off.
“My mam got most of my wages,” she says, “I was given my pocket money. I used to go to C&A every month to buy something. I was living in Cargo Fleet and used to get the United bus to work. Binns was always lovely, but more expensive than we could afford. I thought it was a posh store.
“All the people on the shop floor were very nice and friendly, very young, glamorous assistants. And a lot of older ladies, they seemed to work forever.
“There was always a man in the lift, who was always sitting down.
“You never had to work the lift yourself. How things have changed.”
“As you walked up the staircase, you’d look through to the clothing floors, but it was too expensive to try anything on. It was the in place, really – then Debenhams, which was called Newhouses before.
“It had lovely stuff, which was more affordable. It’s very sad to see them both going at the same time.”
Linda went on to work at ICI Billingham, and earned double the wages she took home from Binns. “You had a choice of jobs then,” she says, “work was much easier to come by.”
Linda and her friends would visit Rea’s cafe, run by the family of singer Chris Rea, on Saturdays.
“It was on Linthorpe Road near Upton’s [now Psyche] and it was very popular with us teenagers,” she said. “It was an ice cream parlour. They also had a shop in North Ormesby and sold ice cream from a horse and cart.
“We’d also go dancing at the Assembly Rooms in Linthorpe Village. My sisters, who were a bit older than me, went to the Town Hall Dance. “Great days – we didn’t have much money, but I think, personally, they were happier times.”