Although one of the most modern buildings in Plymouth at the time of the Blitz – and therefore better constructed in terms of fire regulations – Leicester Harmsworth House could still easily have been damaged during the Blitz.
Costers on one side and Lawsons on the other were both completely burnt out.
Indeed, Francis Lawson noted that all that remained was the extent of the premises.
Employees, meanwhile, were suspicious of their neighbours: the newspaper offices were a ‘round-the-clock’ operation and had staff on duty throughout the bombing – and rumours abounded that staff, in order to save their own building, were throwing incendiaries off the roof in any direction.
Certainly fire was the biggest cause of the destruction during the war and it was estimated that 75 per cent of properties lost to fire could have been saved, if fire brigades from outside the city had had hoses and equipment that was compatible with local water supplies.
The fact that they couldn’t and that so much was lost on account of it, hastened the formation of a National Fire Brigade – after the war!
The Co-op building was gutted, but its massive presence here meant that the Society were given first call on the site after the war.
The new Co-operative House was erected in three phases: the first being completed in 1952, the second in 1959 and the third in 1960.
Rebranded Derrys in 1998 the store only traded here for another decade or so. It was taken over by Vergo Retail in 2009, and the company went into liquidation the following year.
Pictures and text from Chris Robinson’s new book: The Story of Plymouth Hoe, Barbican and City Centre, Then & Now.