The old Co-Op, Burleigh Street in the 1980s, as the Kite is being demolished, by Roy Hammans (the-golden-fleece.co.uk)

62 – 69 Burleigh Street, Co-operative Society’s Stores, Cambridge

History of 69 Burleigh Street

1868

In the words of Enid Porter: “It was in February 1868 that the first meeting of the Cambridge provident Industrial Society was held, largely through the enthusiasm of a group of the many shoemakers who earned a living in Cambridge at that time, making hand-sewn boots for undergraduates. the meeting was held at no.2 City Road, the home of Charles Nightingale, bootmaker, and in June of that year a president, committee, auditors and trustees were formally elected. By December, 33 people had taken £1 shares in the society. This number increased to 50 early in 1869, when co-operative trading began in a room rented at no.8 City Road.”

In the first year sales totalled more than £1,000 and business grew so quickly that in 1871 no. 11 Fitzroy Street, next to the former Eden Baptist Chapel, was taken as a store and the society joined the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

In 1882 the society made its first move into Burleigh Street by buying the John Barleycorn.

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1881

(65)

Charles Allen, 38, umbrella and caneworks manager, b Cambridge

Ann, 37, b Suffolk

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1886

File of Cambridge Charity Organisation Society on Annie Allen of  65 Burleigh Street

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1886

Home of Florence Cecile Jane Smith (1870-1945), born at 15 Clarendon Street.

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1898

The Co-operative Society acquired stores and an assembly room at numbers 62-68 where a row of small shops had been.

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1899 07 17
A fatality occurred today. The scene of the accident was the new stores being erected in Burleigh Street, Cambridge for the Co-operative Company. The outer walls have been built up and the workmen are engaged on the interior. One scaffolder, named Thomas Filby, aged 60, was engaged on the scaffolding erected above the top floor. He fell sheer into the basement on to a heap of broken brick. Before he lapsed into a state of utter insensibility he was heard to murmur, “It’s all up”

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1900 01 25
The Cambridge Co-operative Society has erected spacious new premises in Burleigh Street. The building is imposing and by contrast with the other not very ornate premises in Burleigh Street is rendered all the more conspicuous. On the ground floor are spaces for the butchery, drapery and boot and shoe department. The first floor is well laid out for other branches with a ready-made clothes emporium and on the top floor is a really fine meeting room. The old building in Fitzroy Street will be retained for the grocery portion of the business.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1901 11 05
A fruitless burglary was committed at the Mill Road branch of the Cambridge Co-operative Society. The object was obviously cash but they were scantily repaid for their trouble, because on Saturday evening the money is cleared and lodged in the strong room of the central stores in Burleigh Street. The manager noticed the disarrangement of some sugar bags, which had been left ready for the weighing up of sugar. A steel for sharpening knives had been used in breaking open the till. The back door was unfastened but nothing is missing, the thieves preferring not to take away goods which might have been identified.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1913 (62-69)

Co-operative Society’s Stores, W T Charter, secretary

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1920 03 31
Employees Welcomed Back,— There was an interesting gathering at the Co-operative Hall, Burleigh Street, Cambridge, on Wednesday evening, when the Cambridge and District Co-operative Society Ltd. gave a complimentary tea and concert formally to welcome all its employees who served in His Majesty’s Forces during the war. Mr. G. R. Meaden the President of the Society, was in the chair, and at the conclusion of the tea he proposed the loyal toast and “The Returned Soldiers.” Mr. James Quincey and Mr. J, Abrahams replied. Subsequently the toast of “Those we miss” was reverently acknowledged. Mr, Meaden committed on the fact that during the war every eligible man employed by the Society joined the Colours. An excellent concert was given by Mr. Hunt’s concert party, and the various items of the programme were well received. The artists were Miss Dollie Hunt, Miss Dorothie Smith, Mr, Harry Collins, Mr. George Gass, and Mr, Godwin Hunt, with Mr. Arthur Noble at the piano.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1924 02 02c
The renewal of the music and dancing licence of the Cambridge co-operative hall, was objected to on the grounds of noise. Burleigh Street was one of the most densely populated parts of the town. The hall was not originally built for dancing, it had a large number of windows and the dancing room was situated on the top floor of the highest building in the neighbourhood, with the result that the sound was dissipated considerably further. As a rule the dances did not terminate until midnight and sometimes a great noise was caused by the people leaving – shouting, singing and the back-firing of motor cycles, of which a large number were brought by the people who attended

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1936 01 03
With the enlargement of the drapery section, the Co-operative Society’s premises in Burleigh Street comprise the finest Departmental Store in Cambridge. On the ground floor, the Butchery has finest home-killed and imported meat, Grocery sells bread and confectionary, Outfitting has made-to-measure suits while Furnishing has three-piece suites and mirrors. Every Department is equipped in the most modern manner with lifts to all parts of the building. 36 01 03d & e

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

1936 08 22
Mr & Mrs Ben Mills of Sleaford Street received a telegram of congratulations from the King on their diamond wedding. Born at Hardwick, he lost his right arm in an accident at the age of nine. Refusing to allow that disability to mar his life, he came to St Paul’s School, Cambridge and soon qualified as a teacher. He worked for W.G. Chater, the woollen merchants before joining the Co-operative movement in 1876, starting at the old shop in Fitzroy Street. In 1901 he opened the new shop in Burleigh Street with a silver key and has seen the premises grow. He became Provincial Grand Master of the Oddfellows. His wife has been a familiar figure at the functions, quietly lending a hand ‘behind the scenes’ and catering for juvenile outings. 36 08 22a

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1939 (62 – 73)

Cambridge and District Co-operative Soc.

J Quincey, general manager

E Darlington JP, secretary

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1949 05 23
A “Happy Homes” exhibition was opened at the Co-operative hall, Burleigh Street. Several of the exhibits are of goods which are being made again for the first time since the war. One, a welcome sight, is the man’s fitted wardrobe, with shelves for his underwear, ties and hats, and sliding rods and rails for suits and footwear. One exhibit which drew the women, was a cream and green electrically-driven washing machine, with automatic wringer, which does the family wash in an hour and a half, at a cost of about 1d in electricity a week.

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1958 08 23
Cambridge Co-op ventured into the specialist field of gramophone records with the opening of a modern record bar in its Burleigh Street department store. Recordings are filed in classified order to make for ease of selection of the standard L.P. and E.P. records. Six sound booths give superb reproduction for customers who wish to hear the recordings. It also stocks a selection of record players, radiograms and tape recorders. 58 08 23b

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

1958 11 17
Co-op new self-service super food store, Burleigh St – 59 11 17

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1959 01 16
Just Arrived! Presley’s Fabulous New Single! 200,000 sold in one week! ‘One Night’ c.w. ‘I Got Stung’. Co-Operative Record Bar, Burleigh Street. The centre for disc fans (Advert). 59 01 16b

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1964 05 30
Screaming teenage girls besieged the Co-op in Burleigh Street when the Merseybeats, a ‘pop’ music group from Liverpool, made a personal appearance. Four policemen pushed the crowds back when the group arrived in a taxi and inside girls clambered on to radiograms, refrigerators and television to see them as they signed autographs in the record department. Some girls wept and others grabbed publicity photographs. Finally John Banks, Tony Crane. Aaron Williams and Johnny Gustafson escaped and relaxed with coffee before departing for Manchester 64 05 30

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1966 08 03
Fitzroy Street sub-post office moved to Co-op in Burleigh Street, petition in protest – 66 08 23a

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1973 11 10
A crowd of several hundred greeted BBC disc jockey, Tony Blackburn, when he arrived at the Cambridge Co-operative Society store in Burleigh Street. Store officials, red faces streaming with perspiration, linked arms and strained hard to keep the ground, largely consisting of weeny-boppers in order. He was appearing at the store to mark its £40000 ground-floor refit. The new hanging racks of jackets and jumpers were under almost continuous siege with children of all sizes, as they tried to get nearer to Mr Blackburn. After 40 minutes he left the store pursued by young fans. Nevertheless a number of children left in tears clutching unsigned photographs

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1984 05 14
Work on rebuilding the Cambridge Co-op store in Burleigh Street has reached the half-way mark. It will transform the historic building, bringing in new kinds of goods, a hairdressing salon and a coffee shop. For the first time it will have departments for self-assembly furniture and lighting as well as counters for the Burleigh Street post office and the Co-op Bank. A three-storey atrium at the Fitzroy Street end of the building will provide an airy display centre for shoes and furniture. 84 05 14 p5

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

1984 11 14
The redevelopment of the huge Co-op site in Burleigh Street has been beset with problems ever since the first report on Cambridge shopping in the fifties. Now it has transformed its flagship store inside and out, demonstrating its faith in the twin shopping centre concept. It says much for the Co-op’s business acumen that it has kept pace with the latest trends, adapting to the needs of the times and retaining a hard core of loyal support from its members. 84 11 14 suppl6

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1987 09 29
A new-look Co-op has come to Cambridge with the refurbishment of the old premises in Burleigh Street producing the latest of the Society’s Homemaker stores. Although it now occupies only the ground floor it has a more modern look and concentrates on electrical goods bringing it more in tune with the Grafton Centre. None of the staff have been made redundant though some have moved to the Beehive site. 87 09 29a

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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1989 11 21
Co-op chiefs have been forced to sell off the freehold of their Burleigh Street store to fend off a cash crisis. The Victorian building has been sold to a London Investment Company and they will lease back the premises. The Co-op began trading in Burleigh Street in 1908 but has been hit by soaring interest rates on loans taken out to cover major projects such as the massive Beehive Centre. It has already put branches up for sale in Mill Road, Milton Road, Waterbeach, Duxford & Cherry Hinton. 89 11 21

Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge Burleigh Street Scrapbook 1897 to 1990.

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During the building of the Grand Arcade in the 2010s John Lewis relocated there temporarily.

In 2025 the building is occupied by Primark.