From glorious old cinema to 'posh' supermarket: My nostalgic goodbye to Waitrose Hall Green after 53 years

Like most of my classmates who’d grown up in the local area, I had little knowledge of French produce, cheese or otherwise. Few had been abroad, let alone had ever gone to France.

Memorably, someone put their hand up and asked where we’d find information on French cheese.

Read more: Watch as beloved Waitrose supermarket in Hall Green closes its doors for the last time after 53 years

There was no internet in 1973.

Our teacher suggested we try visiting a supermarket just up the Stratford Road which was called Waitrose.

I’d never heard of Waitrose and remember thinking as I approached it how modern and very different it looked to shops in Sparkhill and Acocks Green where we lived between 1968 and 1971 before my family moved to Fox Hollies Road in Hall Green.

To say I was amazed at what I saw in Waitrose was something of an understatement. It felt like a shop for posh people offering a range of produce I’d not seen previously.

Waitrose felt like a place where shoppers died and went to a form of retail heaven!

Having got the information on the cheeses, I left the store without making any purchases. After all, pocket money was for sweeter things bought in paper shops or the Woolworths ‘pick and mix’.

I can’t recall when I started to visit it regularly, but recall taking my mother in the late 1970s to buy staples after she’s been to Acocks Green where she remained committed to buying fruit and veg from the local greengrocer and meat from Haynes the butcher, both of which have ceased trading in recent years.

Waitrose in Hall Green will be sorely missed by shoppers who liked the fact it was a relatively small supermarket – certainly in comparison to more modern stores – in which customers got to know the staff as well as other shoppers.

However, and as those who’ve lived in Hall Green longer than me will happily attest, Waitrose’s arrival in 1971 replaced a much-loved cinema, The Robin Hood, which first opened on Monday, 26th December 1927 with a showing of the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ starring Ramon Novarro.

Owned by Cinema Proprietors Ltd., the cinema, so named because of being close to Robin Hood Lane further up the Stratford Road, was designed by architect Harry E. Farmer and was characterised on the outside by a grand domed entrance.

Inside were red velvet settees and, over proscenium (the part of theatre stage just in front of the screen), hand-painted interiors in homage to Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

Hall Green was, a century ago, fast developing as one of the new suburbs with distinctive inter-war semi- detached houses built by numerous small housing companies which purchased plots of land and, organised all the trades.

In addition, the council were building vast numbers of houses required for people moving out of poor-quality housing in the inner city, that had almost literally been ‘thrown up’ to cope with the rapid influx of workers arriving in Birmingham in search of work in the hundreds of factories that sprung to capitalise on opportunities possible due to the industrialisation.

Hall Green, like area of Birmingham, had a cinema for those wishing to experience the incredible novelty of seeing moving pictures.

Though the first film shown at The Robin Hood was a silent, this did not last long as, on 6th October 1927, just under three months before it opened, the first feature film with sound, The Jazz Singer, had premiered and, unsurprisingly, represented a technological evolution every cinema would soon follow.

Cinemas like the Robin Hood prospered in this innovative era.

Two years after opening, The Robin Hood Theatre, which is clearly visible on pictures of the dome right up to the point of demolition in 1970, though I can find no record of amateur plays being staged, was taken over by Associated British Cinemas (ABC) in October 1929.

Television, though invented in 1926 by Scottish inventor and electrical engineer John Logie Baird, and which would undermine the role of small local cinemas such as The Robin Hood, took a generation to become a fixture in every home.

‘Tele’ became possible by the numerous companies renting what was initially seen as a luxury item.

Memorably, the first job of a schoolfriend who I still regularly see, lived just up the Stratford Road from the Robin Hood Cinema, was at Sweeny’s, a locally based family company specialising in renting and repairing televisions.

In an age when we can watch literally anything from any location where there’s access to the internet, and whilst television pictures in colour was possible on the only three channels available, BBC1, 2 and ITV, from the 15th November 1969, having a set capable of doing this was not widespread for another decade or so.

Unless you knew someone with a colour TV, the only way to see major events was at cinemas; many showed world cup games held in 1966 which, we don’t need reminding, was held in this country and won by England who beat Germany on Saturday 30th July at Wembley.

However, by the 1960s, attendance at the multitude of local cinemas such as The Robin Hood was showing a marked decline.

Video may not have killed the radio star, but television undoubtedly was the catalyst for wrecking balls to be used on local cinemas.

As profits tumbled and local cinemas struggled to make money, vital maintenance was put off and they became less attractive to paying customers.

Many were colloquially described as ‘flea pits’!

Closure of The Robin Hood Cinema became all but inevitable and, on 7th March 1970, he 1964 film Zulu starring Stanley Baker was the last ever show.

The manager at the time, Arnold Lewis, was, it appears, a ‘specialist’ in being in change of closing down cinemas as, eight weeks prior to the demise of the Robin Hood Cinema, had been in charge of ABC Aston and Coleshill Street when they closed permanently.

Demolition of The Robin Hood Cinema followed, and Waitrose opened on the site in 1971 to serve the local customers willing to pay a little extra for quality goods.

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Waitrose formed in 1908 by Wallace Wyndham Waite and Arthur Rose opening a number of small grocery shops in Middlesex.

In October 1937, Waite who was now in control after Rose had left in 1924 due to ill health caused by injury sustained in the first world war, met Michael Watkins, director of trading for the John Lewis Partnership and the ten Waitrose shops and 160 staff became part of the larger organisation.

John Lewis Partnership’s abiding principle has always been that every person employed, including those stacking shelves, working behind the delicatessen and bakery counters, as well as the tills, have equal rights in making decisions and can enjoy a share of any profits made.

For this reason, when Sunday opening for all retailers became possible in August 1994 under the Sunday Trading Act 1994, Waitrose and John Lewis stores delayed doing this until all partners, no doubt recognising the potential loss of trade to competitors, decided its stores would open seven days a week.

As a university lecturer, I’ve frequently cited the John Lewis Partnership as an exemplar of a how democratic organisations operate.

Internet shopping and cut-price German supermarkets – one of which opened a number of years ago on the former Birches’ Second Hand Car Lot literally a few hundred feet away – have undoubtedly altered the retail landscape.

Waitrose have decided that its Hall Green branch will no longer open for the wide range of produce it sells which, after 53 years brings an end to a much-loved store, ten years longer than the previous occupant of the site.

In recent weeks I’ve seen customers hugging staff in the Hall Green store, many who’ve spent decades there, and a few tears have been shed.

All good things come to an end and, seeing the doors close for the last time on Monday, I’ll be tempted to shed a tear myself.

The big question is what will happen to the site?

Hopefully, as has been the case for the best part of the last 100 years, it will be used to create a community-based building that brings people together in pursuit of cultural pursuits and collaboration.

Consistent with the philosophy of John Spedan Lewis, who founded the John Lewis Partnership in 1914, of “Working in Partnership for a Happier World” – which is still used to this day – let’s hope whoever takes control of the former Hall Green Waitrose site adheres to the maxim of harmonious relationships and consults with local residents as to how they believe it should be effectively used to benefit the local community.

That would be a fine legacy.

In the meantime, goodbye to Waitrose in Hall Green and especially its wonderfully committed staff who everyone wishes well in the future.

Like a beloved friend we’ll never see again, Waitrose in Hall Green will be much missed.