Why do so many UK supermarkets have clock towers?
Filmmaker and videographer Chris Spargo recently shared his insights and research in a video posted on his Youtube channel which already has attracted hundreds of thousands of views.
Spargo explained that in 1964, GEM, an American department store company, introduced the concept of one-stop shopping to the UK by opening the first out-of-town supermarket in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire.
In the Youtube video, Spargo said: “As the 1970s rolled around, it was getting harder and harder to get them [the supermakets] built in the first place.
“People didn’t like the way they looked.”
There was a need to design supermarkets that blended more with the local area and were visually appeakling to the community, different from the typical American-style supermarkets.
The Youtuber said that the first supermarket that had this clocktower design was made in 1977 to abide the ‘specific Essex characteristics’ required when they were building an ASDA supermarket in the town square of the new town of South Woodham Ferrers.
While he said he didn’t have ‘solid proof’, Spargo believes the idea of this clock tower design was taken from merging a 14th century barn and a Victorian clock tower in Coggeshall.
He added: “These two buildings are suspiciously similar to their final design.
“This was the first supermarket that looked like this and now the clock tower makes sense.
“It’s next to a town square so it fits in perfectly.”
However, Spargo explained that although this design was tailored to this local community using local references, this became a ‘template’ for all the others and used across the UK and called the Essex Barn style.
The UK’s oldest supermarket dates back to 1948.
It was the UK’s first self-service supermarket which was opened by the London Co-operative Society in East London’s Manor Park.
For the first time, customers could walk directly to the supermarket shelves and grab the items they needed that were already pre-packed and priced.
Before that, people would be served individually, and the shopkeeper would ask them what they wanted, retrieve it from the shelves and measure out the items.
