Meeting Santa, checking out the Christmas decs and watching the spectacular Christmas parade. What Christmas at Bentalls use to be like.

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Christmas for many is one of the busiest and most exciting times of the year. From putting the star on top of the Christmas tree to the hustle and bustle of shopping for that all important present.

We have all, at some point in our lives, experienced what it is like to shop at Christmas. Whether it is simply browsing, visiting Santa’s grotto or doing the last minute shop. That warm feeling you get when you enter a store and see the Christmas decorations, smell the Christmas treats and possibility of maybe meeting Santa. Something that almost every child wants to experience and see, as well as every adult, even if you are a grown up!

However, for a lot of people, this Christmas store experience has changed significantly over time from that feeling of excitement and celebration to a feeling of a lack of effort in creating the magic that stores use to bring at Christmas. For example, Christmas in stores years ago, use to make you feel magical and excited by all the Christmas festivities like with adventures to travel to meet Santa, the extravagant Christmas displays and the parades to welcome Santa’s arrival. But now, this excitement and extravagancy seems to have disappeared and when you meet Santa it tends to be in a small room, in the middle of a shopping mall. Where has this Christmas magic gone?

One example where this Christmas store experience has changed over time is with the department store of Bentalls, now the Bentalls Centre.

Bentalls

Bentalls first opened as a drapery shop in 1867, by Frank Bentall. When Frank Bentall retired in 1909, his two sons, George A. Bentall and Leonard Hugh Bentall, took over the business. The store gradually grew successful, and after 1909 it expanded into premises within Clarence Street, Wood Street and Fife Street. As well as the addition of new departments like cosmetics and home-ware appliances, resulting in the store being classified as a department store.

The Times, 23rd July 1990, written by Julian Herbert

In 1987, Bentalls department store, as this article written by Julian Herbert shows, underwent a huge change, when the building of a new centre begun. This new centre was built next to the department store and opened in November 1992, by Edward Bentall, and was called the Bentalls Centre. Bentalls once again changed in 2001, when it was brought by the company Fenwick for around £70.8million. The two maps below show how much the store expanded from a single department store in 1914 to now a centre for multiple different shops.

  • Credits – Lloyd George Domesday Survey Map 1914
  • Credits – Google Maps 2018
The left map, shows the area of Bentalls in 1914 and the right map, shows the stores expansion from the area of the store in 1914 (shown in red) to the Bentalls Centre in 2018 (shown in black).

Even though, Bentalls may have adapted and changed over time, the celebration of Christmas within the store has still carried on. Bentalls has been widely known, when it comes to Christmas, to have grand fascinating Christmas decorations and to hold festive events, like Santa’s Grotto, but in the 1950’s and 1960’s Christmas at Bentalls was a lot more extravagant than it is today.

The Bentalls Christmas parade

I remember the huge parade in the 50’s through Kingston, when Jimminy Jingles & Father Christmas arrived for the season. We would go hours before to get a good place on Fife Road…all Bentalls staff took place plus hundreds of local people…The grottos different every year.

Carolyn Brown, Kingston Upon Thames Past and Present – Facebook Group, 19th January 2021

Back in the 1950s, Bentalls every year had a Christmas parade to welcome the arrival of Santa and his elf Jimminy Jingles. There were massive, decorated floats, figurines like clowns and Santa on his sleigh. This was a big event in Kingston with the streets being filled with people and children waiting to see Santa. This parade for many people became one of the best highlights of Christmas and signified the start of the festive season. Today there is no longer a parade, so for a lot of people this magical, exciting start to Christmas has now gone. It also shows how Bentalls possibly over the years has spent less money on Christmas, as there is no longer any parade and the store is now just kept to decorations and Santa’s grotto.

Bentalls grand Christmas decorations

Section of an interview with Brenda Bench about The Changing High Street and Local Department Stores, 10th November 2020

An interview with Brenda Bench, a local to Kingston, talks about when she visited Bentalls as a child and her memories of seeing the Christmas decorations. She spoke about how the stores decorations were something completely different to anything you would normally see, as when she was younger they only really had paperchains. This was the same for a lot of households, where decorations consisted of paperchains, tissue paper decorations that transformed into Santa’s, and a Christmas tree. So when you imagine what it would have been like for people, when they left their house and went to Bentalls and saw the huge, sparkling decorations, it must have been pretty spectacular.

This is one of the main things of the Christmas store experience that Bentalls has not changed over the years, as the decorations are still as grand and extravagant today as they were then. Another thing that has not changed, is the way that Bentalls utilises the feeling of being at home by decorating the store to appear warm and cosy, but also still being extravagant enough that it would not be the same as at home.

Photo credits – Jim Linwood

Santa’s grotto

Every year, children still get excited with the idea of possibly meeting Santa. However, Santa’s grotto is not the same as it was years ago, as now you generally just que up and enter a small decorated room in the middle of Bentalls centre. Whereas years ago, Bentalls always had a mystical and magical adventure that you could travel on before you even reached Santa.

It was SO magical, the thing I remember most was a little (static) sleigh ride that took us to see Santa. I really really thought it was real.

Sarah Ardley, Kingston Upon Thames Past and Present – Facebook Group, 18th January 2021

Some of the adventures included a sleigh ride and a rocket spaceship that would tell you a story, transform you into a whole new world and take you on a journey to meet Santa. This made Christmas even more magical and exciting for many children as it was again something very different. These Christmas journeys meant you experienced something completely new and was topped off by meeting Santa at the end.

Overall, for Bentalls, the Christmas store experience has changed over time from the Christmas parade that kicked off all the festivities and the magical journey to meet Santa to now just meeting Santa in the middle of the Centre. However, even though some of this Christmas spirit may have been lost in Bentalls over time, the main aspects of Christmas like the decorations and Santa have carried on and for so many children this will still be very special.

As to anyone meeting Santa will always be magical.

Further reading

General information:

“London Department Stores.” Britain Visitor. https://www.britain-visitor.com/london/department-stores#h

“Former Bentall’s Department Store.” Historic England. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1396407

Photos/film footage:

“Bentall’s Store 1947.” [Black and white documentary] https://www.britishpathe.com/video/bentalls-store/query/bentalls+kingston

“Clarence Street and environs including Bentall’s Department Store and All Saints’ Church, Kingston Upon Thames, 1935.” [Black and white photograph] https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPR000682

Sources used

Here is a list of the primary and secondary sources used in researching for this project.

Primary sources:

Bench, Natasha. “Interview with Brenda Bench about the Changing High Street and Local Department Store of Bentalls.” [MP3 audio file], 10th November 2020.

Circa 1914 Lloyd George Domesday Survey Map showing Plot 644 Bentall’s Department Store. [Map] 1914, scale not given. The Genealogist. Accessed 20.01.21. https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2020/property-records-find-ancestors-homes-and-business-in-kingston-upon-thames-1251/

Cardy, Matt. “High Street Retailers Battle for Share of Xmas Spend.” [Coloured photo], Getty Images, (Bristol: 20th December 2017). Accessed 20.01.21. https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/christmas-shoppers-pass-retailers-on-the-main-shopping-news-photo/896124660?adppopup=true

Bentalls Shopping Centre. [Map], 2018, scale not given. Google Maps. Accessed 20.01.21. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Bentalls+Shopping+Centre,+1+Clarence+St,+Kingston+upon+Thames+KT1+1TP/@51.4113066,-0.303833,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48760b9538371339:0xff6b8f9b3c077881!8m2!3d51.4110055!4d-0.3056247

“The Bentall Centre.” Foursquare City Guide. Uploaded 14th November 2013. Accessed 21.01.21. https://foursquare.com/v/the-bentall-centre/4ae187d8f964a5203b8621e3?openPhotoId=5285260911d21efbfeb77a75

“Bentalls Limited.” The Times. Issue no. 50608, 14th November 1946 (London): pg. 9.

Herbert, Julian. “New Bentalls Store is just the Start.” The Times. Issue no. 63765, 23rd July 1990 (London): pg. 26.

Secondary sources:

Carolyn, Brown. “I remember the huge parade in the 50’s…” in Kingston Upon Thames Past and Present Group. Facebook. 19th January 2021. Accessed 21.01.21. https://www.facebook.com/groups/welovekingstonuponthames/permalink/1895296723941527/?comment_id=1896193810518485

Clark, Andrew. “Families Tie in Fenwick’s £70m Deal with Bentalls.” The Guardian. 29th June 2001. Accessed 20.01.21. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/jun/29/1

“Bentall Centre in Kingston Upon Thames.” Kingston Online. Accessed 20.01.21. http://www.kingstononline.co.uk/bentall-centre-in-kingston-upon-thames/

“A Child’s Christmas in 1950s Britain.” Onewomansomanyblogs. 7th October 2017. Accessed 21.01.21. https://www.onewomansomanyblogs.com/christmas/a-childs-christmas-in-1950s-britain

“The Forgotten Christmas Elf.” Story Storks. Accessed 21.01.21. https://www.storystorks.co.uk/the-forgotten-christmas-elf

This project/microsite has also been informed by members of the Kingston Upon Thames Past and Present Facebook Group. You can read more about their memories and stories by following the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/welovekingstonuponthames/permalink/1895296723941527/?comment_id=1896193810518485