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Archive => Archived Boards => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: admin on June 18, 2012, 03:17:43 PM

Title: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 18, 2012, 03:17:43 PM
I have an email from a couple of expats in Singapore arguing about what Iceland was before it was Iceland.

Can any of you Marple long-timers or Marple born and bred enlighted us and help resolve this argument please?
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: tina on June 18, 2012, 03:30:18 PM
I remember it being  a gateway supermarket
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: amazon on June 18, 2012, 03:50:57 PM
I remember it being  a gateway supermarket

Try. The virtual tour of marple . there's one on there from 1970 can't see what it says though how far back. Do you want to go .
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Tricky on June 18, 2012, 04:08:07 PM
It was 'Dee Discount' for a while.. in the early 80s
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 18, 2012, 04:14:28 PM
The argument seems to stem around it once being a furniture shop. Was "Dee Discount" a furniture shop? The period of early 80s is about right.

There isn't anything on the Virtual Tour apart from some shots of the back of it in the 1970s.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: sooty2 on June 18, 2012, 04:18:58 PM
Frank Dee was a general supermarket.Ice Land was previously Freezerite.Boots Chemist was a furniture shop Garsides of Glossop and The Cancer Research shop was Kay shoes after it was a fancy goods shop belonging to Arthur Walsh the builder.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Lily on June 18, 2012, 05:20:45 PM
Was there ever a 'Woolworths' in Marple - and if so, where was it?

Both me and hubby seem to remember one but as neither of us originate from Marple we can't be sure.

Thanks.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 18, 2012, 05:42:15 PM
Well we seem to be getting a little closer to solving this but Boots the Chemist was where it is now in the 1970s (http://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/displayimage.php?pid=6976) so it is not quite stacking up.

Did Garsides sell leather furniture and was it opened by Jack Duckworth off Corrie?
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: sooty2 on June 18, 2012, 06:07:15 PM
Frank Dee,Spar,Gateway,Freezerite and now Iceland are all the same building.Boots,Kay shoes and Arthur Walsh was just additional info.Garsides may of sold leather furniture amongst other types.I don't know about Jack Duckworth opening it,but I know that Simon Dee the DJ opened the spar when it was the now Iceland building.No Woolworths in Marple.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: the rover on June 19, 2012, 09:15:25 AM
Originally it was a church with gravestones in front of it!
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: RAY NOBLE on June 19, 2012, 11:37:03 AM
Trinity Methodist Chapel and Sunday school. At one time the Sunday school was used as The Welfare where mothers took their babies to be weighed  and have  the nurse give them a check-over. In the 1960s the welfare moved to the Memorial park.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 19, 2012, 12:21:36 PM
To try and resolve the original query, does anyone recall the Iceland building being a furniture shop and it being opened by Jack Duckworth in early 80s? Or has it always been a supermarket since it was built?

Does anyone remember a different building near here being a furniture store in the early 80s?
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 20, 2012, 08:32:22 PM
Well this confirms that the Boots building was once Garsides but this must have been pre-1970s and the Iceland building isn't there yet.

(http://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/albums/uploads/streetscenes/picture_89.jpg)
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 20, 2012, 08:56:43 PM
Same shot in 1970:

(http://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/albums/uploads/new/district-centre/Image22.jpg)
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: sooty2 on June 20, 2012, 10:41:00 PM
Trinity Chapel was demolished in 1964/65.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: My login is Henrietta on June 23, 2012, 11:50:07 AM
The argument seems to stem around it once being a furniture shop. Was "Dee Discount" a furniture shop? The period of early 80s is about right.

There isn't anything on the Virtual Tour apart from some shots of the back of it in the 1970s.
No, what is now the Boots shop was a branch of Garsides of Glossop, a furniture shop. Icelend was variously Dee Discount and Gateway (interesting that those supermarkets didn't survive. Gateway became a part of Fine Fare, I think, who then became part of Somerfield and we know where they ended up.)

Before the building that is now Iceland the site was occupied by Trinity Methodist Chapel (hence Trinity and Chapel Streets in the vicinity).
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: My login is Henrietta on June 23, 2012, 11:52:10 AM
Was there ever a 'Woolworths' in Marple - and if so, where was it?

Both me and hubby seem to remember one but as neither of us originate from Marple we can't be sure.

Thanks.

Not in my lifetime (1949 to the present day). As teenagers we used to take ourselves off on Saturday on the bus to Stockport when we needed our Woolies fix
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: My login is Henrietta on June 23, 2012, 11:55:06 AM
Well we seem to be getting a little closer to solving this but Boots the Chemist was where it is now in the 1970s (http://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/displayimage.php?pid=6976) so it is not quite stacking up.

Did Garsides sell leather furniture and was it opened by Jack Duckworth off Corrie?
I would have thought that Garside's shop in Marple pre-dated Jack Duckworth's tenure of Coronation street by quite a long time.

That row of shops was built on the site of some stone cottages with front gardens which were demolished in the early-ish 1950s
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: My login is Henrietta on June 23, 2012, 11:57:46 AM
The argument seems to stem around it once being a furniture shop. Was "Dee Discount" a furniture shop? The period of early 80s is about right.

There isn't anything on the Virtual Tour apart from some shots of the back of it in the 1970s.
NO! as several of use have said iceland was never a furniture shop. The furniture shop was where Boots is now. Boots was previously on the other side of Market street. Possibly where the china shop used to be? It was certainly in that row.

Dee discount was a cheapo supermarket - a bit like B&M and others.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Mr Marple on June 28, 2012, 02:43:01 PM
Well we seem to be getting a little closer to solving this but Boots the Chemist was where it is now in the 1970s (http://visitmarple.co.uk/photos/displayimage.php?pid=6976) so it is not quite stacking up.

Did Garsides sell leather furniture and was it opened by Jack Duckworth off Corrie?
I would have thought that Garside's shop in Marple pre-dated Jack Duckworth's tenure of Coronation street by quite a long time.

That row of shops was built on the site of some stone cottages with front gardens which were demolished in the early-ish 1950s

A famous celebrity did open a store on the chapels side of the street but it was in the eighties, I just can't remember the specific month and year. I have a sneaky feeling that it was Jack Duckworth though.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: admin on June 28, 2012, 06:44:23 PM
A famous celebrity did open a store on the chapels side of the street but it was in the eighties, I just can't remember the specific month and year. I have a sneaky feeling that it was Jack Duckworth though.

Is is the 80s that the original argument was about. Anyone remember Jack Duckworth opening a shop and what it was?
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: RAY NOBLE on June 28, 2012, 08:51:45 PM
I remember John Savident (Fred Elliot)  who was the butcher in Coronation Street being on Market Street about 20/25 years ago opening some shop.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Neil Smith on August 05, 2012, 10:48:14 PM
I remember John Savident (Fred Elliot)  who was the butcher in Coronation Street being on Market Street about 20/25 years ago opening some shop.

Jimmy Saville had something going on in the coop carpark around that time not sure if he opened it or not.

Iceland has been a supermarket as long as I can remember as I was stung by a wasp in there late 70's (aged about 3 or 4)
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Bluezorro on August 06, 2012, 12:44:28 AM
It used to be called Bejam.
Title: Re: What was Iceland before it was Iceland?
Post by: Duke Fame on August 06, 2012, 11:59:05 PM
It used to be called Bejam.

That was my answer but Ive only lived in Marple a couple of years.