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[Lizzie_Zoom]

..........and to add my ex and I used to use the very first B&Q in Portswood, Southampton, when they had one small double unit shop in the mid-1970s. 

We watched them grow into the superstores of today, having spent thousands of pounds in their units!

Another bit of trival information!

should've bought shares not shelves Liz 

St Marys Street wasn't it?

Yes, I think so.........the main road running down from Eastleigh into the City 8-) 8-)

Well it used to until it got bypassed at that end
You're referring to 'The Avenue' which runs through Southampton Common. The shop was on a corner & I think it had previously been a Woolworth store. It was just up from the Fire Station. My late uncle & aunt owned the Spar shop just round the corner

No it wasn't that unit in that place PF.  I have just looked on Google Street Maps and frankly the area through Portswood has changed dramatically since the 1970s!!

All I know is we motored down from Fair Oak, through Eastleigh using the road parallel to the railway, towards Portswood and on to the City centre.  The original B&Q was in a white painted double fronted building on the left in a line of standard shops.

[Pitchfork]

..........and to add my ex and I used to use the very first B&Q in Portswood, Southampton, when they had one small double unit shop in the mid-1970s. 

We watched them grow into the superstores of today, having spent thousands of pounds in their units!

Another bit of trival information!

should've bought shares not shelves Liz 

St Marys Street wasn't it?

Yes, I think so.........the main road running down from Eastleigh into the City 8-) 8-)

Well it used to until it got bypassed at that end
You're referring to 'The Avenue' which runs through Southampton Common. The shop was on a corner & I think it had previously been a Woolworth store. It was just up from the Fire Station. My late uncle & aunt owned the Spar shop just round the corner

manta was right 

Curiously the B&Q web-site says it started in Portswood Rd in an old cinema, but that's not what I remember -I'll investigate more

[Lizzie_Zoom]

..........and to add my ex and I used to use the very first B&Q in Portswood, Southampton, when they had one small double unit shop in the mid-1970s. 

We watched them grow into the superstores of today, having spent thousands of pounds in their units!

Another bit of trival information!

should've bought shares not shelves Liz 

St Marys Street wasn't it?

Yes, I think so.........the main road running down from Eastleigh into the City 8-) 8-)

Well it used to until it got bypassed at that end
You're referring to 'The Avenue' which runs through Southampton Common. The shop was on a corner & I think it had previously been a Woolworth store. It was just up from the Fire Station. My late uncle & aunt owned the Spar shop just round the corner

manta was right 

Curiously the B&Q web-site says it started in Portswood Rd in an old cinema, but that's not what I remember -I'll investigate more

Now that does ring a bell, and certainly the old building could either have been a cinema or a garage!  It would have been in Portswood Road 8-) 8-)

[Pitchfork]

..........and to add my ex and I used to use the very first B&Q in Portswood, Southampton, when they had one small double unit shop in the mid-1970s. 

We watched them grow into the superstores of today, having spent thousands of pounds in their units!

Another bit of trival information!

should've bought shares not shelves Liz 

St Marys Street wasn't it?

Yes, I think so.........the main road running down from Eastleigh into the City 8-) 8-)

Well it used to until it got bypassed at that end
You're referring to 'The Avenue' which runs through Southampton Common. The shop was on a corner & I think it had previously been a Woolworth store. It was just up from the Fire Station. My late uncle & aunt owned the Spar shop just round the corner

manta was right 

Curiously the B&Q web-site says it started in Portswood Rd in an old cinema, but that's not what I remember -I'll investigate more

Now that does ring a bell, and certainly the old building could either have been a cinema or a garage!  It would have been in Portswood Road 8-) 8-)

The only old Cinema in Portswood Rd that closed was the Palladium & that became a Fine-Fare supermarket, the other cinema still exists & is now a Mecca Bingo Hall. I still think that B&Qs 1st store was in St Marys Rd not Portswood Rd. I have e-mailed them for more information & maybe a photo

[Lizzie_Zoom]

This is NOT the building I mean, but funnily enough this I have discoved was an early B&Q store in Acton, London, which had originally been a cinema!!.

However the building bears a close resemblance to the original B&Q store in Portswood Road, Southampton that I remember in 1976 to about 1982.



 

[Kevin Wood]

I remember being dragged round a small B&Q in North Camp as a kid (that makes it 70's, then  ). Must have been a fairly early store.

Looks like it's just B now. http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/8104378.B_Q_founder_had_fatal_heart_attack_on_cruise/

EDIT: The Portswood road store was apparently where Machine Mart is currently. There's a much larger B&Q opposite now.


Kevin