A blast from the past
For generations of Bournemouth shoppers, Bobby’s was far more than simply somewhere to visit the shops.
My father was Santa in Bobby's Christmas Groto in the 1960's and these were the days when the whole town turned out to watch Santa arrive at the Bournemouth train sation and have a great parade through the town with Santa arriving at Bobby's.
The famous department store opened in Bournemouth Square in May 1915, becoming one of the town’s best-known retail names before Bobby’s became Debenhams in 1972.
The store offered a wide range of goods, while its restaurant became another part of the Bobby’s experience.
Archive material shows that the restaurant could seat 750 people and looked out over the Lower Gardens.
Bobby's department store. (Image: Echo)
For the people who worked there, however, Bobby’s was also a workplace and, for some, somewhere that became almost a second home.
Eventually, the Bobby’s name disappeared from Bournemouth's high street when the store was rebranded as Debenhams in 1972.
Decades later the name returned, with the first phase of the revived Bobby’s opening in September 2021.
But what do YOU remember about the original Bobby’s?
Did you work behind one of its counters, in its restaurant or elsewhere in the building?
I worked in Bobby's briefly in the summer of 1976 - as the head Chef in the restaurant under a women named Mrs. Freak, and she lived up to her name. She would write menues for me each day and I would have to change them as she had absolutely no idea - and she didn't like that, so as it was the long hot sumer , and as I wanted to spend it on Studland naked beach, and as we had just sold our hotel in Guernsey and was holidaying for the summer in Bournemouth before returning to Guernsey and I though I needed a job - which it turned out I didn't, it was an experience I had not known before.
Perhaps Bobby’s was where you earned your first wage, made lifelong friends or met your future husband or wife.
Or maybe you remember being taken there as a child, meeting friends there, enjoying something to eat in the restaurant or going into town for a special shopping trip.
We want to hear the human stories behind Bobby’s.
Bobby's department store extension being built.
What was it actually like to work there? Who were the characters everyone knew? Which departments do you remember?
And what little details about the old store have stuck in your mind all these years?
We would also love to see your old photographs of Bobby’s, particularly pictures of people working or shopping inside, as well as staff photographs, Bobby’s memorabilia or images showing the store as you remember it.
The sad thing is, more recenty, Debenhams closed and the store sat empty for a long time until it was refurbished as small units who would rent a space within the building and - basically - it was full of crap and to this day, struggles with tennants and as most of the store looks to be going to be converted into ' down town apartments' it is a shame, but then, all departent stores in Bourneouth have gone and is the same around the country and when the central fgure of the town centre goes, bang goes the town centre. Even the massive M&S has gone.
We are all responsible. We shop more and more ' on line' and other than food and visits to Ikea, I cannot think of much I buy in shops any more and go straight to my ' on line shopping' and this is so much easier. We are to blame, you and I for the demise of the High Street so while we get customers here to Hamilton Hall complaining the town is not what it was as there are so many empty shops, I do remind them that their own High Street is just as empty, just as filled with vape shops, charity shops, hair dressers and tattoo parlours...oh and coffee shops - and all the decent shops have gone. It is too expensive for small family run shops like in the past and the btcher, baker, green grocer, fish merchant and even the haberdashery / hardwear store have all gone and now we either go to B&Q or Aldi etc. The giants. No small independant stores left any more.
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