Friday 19 June 2009

McGILL'S SHOP INTERIOR - 1975

"Just looking..!!"
A little glimpse into McGill Brothers on Victoria Road in May 1975.
Some of the goods on offer are - boxes of braces, pre-packed denim shirts, checked shirts, casual tops, colognes, sunglasses and a few other knick knacks.
This is the part of the shop that greeted you when you went through the main doors on Victoria Road.
They had more substantial clothing upstairs like, suits, coats and so on for your average Joe.
For the young trendy teenager they stocked, Levi Sta-Prest, Ben Sherman shirts, Fred Perry's, Crombie's, etc.
They had school uniforms too for the more sensible type!
In the picture, you can see an interior doorway area (beside the fire extinguisher) that lead downstairs to the shoe dept. One of the more memorable pairs of shoes I bought from there was in 1973 - black & white brogues (spats) with thick Doc Marten soles. Wow!! They were about the dearest shoes in the shop..!!
I noticed that the guy right on the edge of the picture is wearing what was called a "Swallow raincoat", Swallow being the brand name, and these were a bit of a minor fad in the mid 70's as a kind of follow on from crombies.
Photo by DC Thomson.Tints by GG

3 comments:

  1. Fantastic! Check the spotlights! Was this the shop at very bottom of the Hilltown or actually part of the rebuilt wellgate? AC burnside on the Hilltown and Wesport were the tops for sta-press though no?

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  2. Yeah its the shop on Wellgate side of the Vicky. The Hilltown corner one sold sport and furniture.

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  3. The photo shows the Gents' Outfitting Department. Upstairs were the Gents' Tailoring Department and the Boys' Department, among others.
    I worked in the tailoring department for a while around 1970-71, just as "parallels" were becoming the "must wear" for trendy teenagers. We had piles and piles of flares so the buyer had the bright idea of having them converted into parallels; so the knees were let out as far as possible, the bottoms taken in to remove the flare and the adjustment straps taken off the back. And they sold - as parallels! The adjustment straps made great watch straps, that matched your trousers...

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