In recent years, the British high street has seen a plethora of store closures, with once revered brands disappearing at an increasingly alarming rate. Woolworths, Austin Reed and British Home Stores among many others, have all entered administration over the last decade, whilst those that survive have typically closed stores in order to cut costs and stay afloat.

When Woolworths failed in 2008 it had a retail footprint of 807 stores, all of which were subsequently sold by the administrators, Deloitte. With most stores now operating under new banners and with old signage removed, there is little or no trace of Woolworths left on the high street. One brand that does still survive however, is Burton, which sits within Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group. Whilst the retailer has long since vacated from many of its original stores, most are still easily identifiable as a Burton.

One such building is 262 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, N.13. When construction of the new north London premises commenced in 1938, Burton was already reported to be “the largest merchant tailoring organisation in the world”, with 15,000 employees on the payroll, and a further 100,000 indirect employees working in the supply chain, with every yard of cloth that went into Burton’s garments sourced from the British Isles. Many of Burton’s direct workforce were employed in the company’s vast British factories: Burtonville in Worsley, Lancashire, which was opened by Lord Derby in 1938; and Hudson Road Mills, Leeds.

The self proclaimed “tailor of taste” was founded by the eponymous Sir Montague Maurice Burton (1885-1952), who first arrived in England in 1900 as Meshe David Osinsky, a Jewish immigrant from the Kovno province in Russia, now part of modern day Lithuania. With initial capital of just £100, advanced to him by a relative, he established the ‘Cross-Tailoring Company’ and began selling ready to wear suits, acquired via a wholesaler in Leeds, from a single shop in nearby Chesterfield.

By the end of the First World War in 1919, Messrs. Montague Burton had 40 stores across Britain and was selling both ready to wear and bespoke suits, the latter being manufactured at the company’s own factory in Leeds. By the start of the Second World War in 1939, however, the store base had ballooned to 595, a near 15-fold increase in just 20 years, after an ambitious expansion programme of both stores and factories alike, which included Palmers Green. As a result, the company was able to proudly claim in its newspaper adverts that “there is a Montague Burton establishment within a bus ride of your home”, with “depots in all leading thoroughfares”.

Burton ensured that quality kept pace with quantity, however, placing great emphasis on the appearance of the new premises, many of which were designed in the popular ‘Art Deco’ style, typical of the era, by the Leeds based architect, Harry Wilson. In the early 1930’s, given the sheer scale and ambition of the expansion, the Burton Architects Department was established in-house, with Wilson appointed as chief. As with other businesses that expanded rapidly during the interwar period, such as the ODEON cinema chain, whilst every new store was different, owing to individual site constraints, they all adhered to a consistent design language, with many built using the same high quality materials.

Whilst Burton have long since left Palmers Green, several details still survive that reveal the original occupier. Every new store erected during the 1930’s had a series of foundation stones placed at street level, many of which were laid by Montague’s four children; Barbara, Stanley, Raymond and Arnold. The emerald pearl granite stones featured an inscription in recessed gold lettering, followed by the year in which the stone was laid.

In the case of Palmers Green, the sole surviving stone was laid by Arnold James Burton (1917-2013), the youngest son of Montague and his wife, Sophia. It is likely that there would have been other stones laid, which have subsequently been lost or covered up over the years, primarily through the replacement of the original shopfront. At nearby Southgate for example, where construction started in the same year, there are four foundation stones that survive and are still visible.

Whilst much altered at street level, the principal Green Lanes elevation is still typical of Burton premises from the era. Above the ground floor, the prominent red brick building features four central pilasters, all of Empire Stone, an artificial alternative to the more costly Portland stone, which rise to the top of the building. Pilasters were used across the new stores, with their number dependant on the width of the site in question. A large parapet wall sits above the second floor at Palmers Green, which would have once displayed a prominent Burton sign, manufactured and supplied by ‘Franco Signs’, whose own premises were on Oxford Street, W.1.

The building is now occupied at ground floor level by Amy’s, the kitchen and housewares business. Sadly, the original decorative shopfront of 1938 has been replaced by a modern alternative, whilst there is no surviving evidence of the Burton interior still visible. Whether the original granite facade still exists under the new wooden signage box is unknown.

The upper floors of the building are let to Park View Health Clubs, who currently use the space as a low-cost gym. Sadly, the original metal window frames have been lost and replaced with UPVc alternatives, which is particularly regrettable in that this only occurred within the last few years. Despite attempting to match the originals, the new units have failed to do so, resulting in a clunky alternative that is a major detractor from the building’s original presence on Green Lanes.

Sadly, the fate of the former Palmers Green branch is not unique. The 1939 edition of the Kelly’s Directory for London lists more than 50 Montague Burton branches, of which not a single one still serves in its original capacity. Many of the buildings have been demolished, whilst even more have been significantly altered and exist in a very sorry state today, with original architectural details compromised by modern signage and additions. The Palmers Green building is not listed, nor is it on the London Borough of Enfield’s Local Heritage List, seemingly holding no historic, townscape or local cultural value.

Over the coming weeks, months and years, I am hoping to document more of Burton’s former premises, starting with Palmers Green today. If you have any insights, photos or stories of these buildings then please feel free to get in touch and leave a comment.

April, 2019