Rainwear shops

[plasphil]

In course of my work, I recently came across a sixties photo of a street scene in Glasgow showing a large store called 'Stone-Dri Weatherwear'. Having read about the sad demise of the Weathervain shop, I wondered how many other high street stores there were primarily selling rainwear. I believe there were at least two or three 'Stay Dry' stores in the south of England and a famous one (to me anyway!) was 'Zacs for Macs' in the centre of Oxford. Obviously we all know about the Woolworths stores during the hey-day of the Pakamac but there must have been other independent shops?

Phil.

[blackmacjay]

About 50 years ago there was a shop in Sheffield called, I believe, "The Raincoat Shop". But feel free to give the correct name, if I'm wrong, which these days is likely.

It was in Orchard Lane which went from Leopold St to Church St. But again, my memory of the name could be wrong. So give the correct name if you know it.

Long gone but the memory lingers on.

[merv]

at one stage in Norwich, UK, I think during the mid-80s there was a shop/stall on Norwich market which sold nothing but rainwear, I recall buying a pvc raincoat at the time

[Taffmac]

In the late 1970's I bought a see-through plastic poncho from a shop named Kendall's in Pontypridd. There was also a branch of Kendall's in Swansea. I can remember clearly the display of see-through plastic macs, jackets and ponchos but I believe that they primarily sold rainwear of all types. Does anyone else remember Kendall's ? Presumably, there would have been branches elsewhere in the UK.

[Domino]

I remember Kendalls. They were a family owned business and had a lot of small shops in Northern England and elsewhere. They had one in Tunbridge Wells (in the South East) from the 1940s to the 1970s. They mainly sold umbrellas and ladies' raincoats. I'm pretty sure that they closed this branch before the family sold the business in 1977. I used to know a girl who was friends with the manageress of this branch.

[hotwilly]

In the late 1970's I bought a see-through plastic poncho from a shop named Kendall's in Pontypridd. There was also a branch of Kendall's in Swansea. I can remember clearly the display of see-through plastic macs, jackets and ponchos but I believe that they primarily sold rainwear of all types. Does anyone else remember Kendall's ? Presumably, there would have been branches elsewhere in the UK.

There was a Kendal's store in Manchester (note only one L)
House of Frasers took it over , in our area Binn's was taken over by HoF

On this subject surely C&A was the place to get rainwear In the 60's & 70's
Long gone from our shores but thriving in Europe

[merv]

ah yes C&A, they did masses of rainwear back in the day, but then so did most department stores, the clothing departments whether menswear or ladieswear would always include a rack of plastic raincoats

[plasphil]

C&A, what wonderful shops they were. The one in Guildford had two racks full of lovely long plastic raincoats. There was an advert on TV at the time, Maureen Lipman said the line 'so you've got all of the colours in all of the sizes', well C&A did. One day I was with my girlfriend and she was trying on a blue one, just to wind me up really as she knew it would fit as we had already bought a purple and a red one before. An older woman was also trying one on and she told my girlfriend how the colour suited her, then they got into a discussion about how practical plastic macs were. As you can imagine, after all that excitement I couldn't wait to get home and 'christen' the blue mac which thankfully I still have today.

Phil.

[Taffmac]

Does anyone remember the Van Allen shops ? They seemed to be one of the first shops to sell see-though plastic macs at the time when they became very popular in the late 1970's/early 1980's. I remember loitering outside their shop in Cardiff watching a woman try on a long glass clear raincoat and looking at herself in a mirror. Later on, they started selling jackets, macs and ponchos in lots of different colours and they were featured in the window display for ages. Great times !!!

[Jjai]

There were also plenty of shops such as famous army stores that sold good rainwear.
My favourite were the old government surplus stores in the 1980s and marine chandlery shops that sold thick shiny plastic raingear like the plastimo and Helly Hanson brands.