0:00:08 > 0:00:12In the spring of 1971 on a busy Saturday afternoon,
0:00:12 > 0:00:15a successful store owner named Barbara Hulanicki
0:00:15 > 0:00:18dragged her husband out shopping.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20They came to a West London antiques market.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26While they were shopping, the imaginable happened -
0:00:26 > 0:00:29a bomb exploded in their hip boutique, Biba.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31EXPLOSION
0:00:33 > 0:00:38The explosion ripped apart Biba's stockroom, injuring a guard.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40The bombers were called the Angry Brigade,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42a radical underground group
0:00:42 > 0:00:44dedicated to destroying the establishment.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46They had already attacked politicians,
0:00:46 > 0:00:49judges and even the Miss World contest.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51And now they settled on a different target -
0:00:51 > 0:00:54the shopgirl.
0:00:54 > 0:00:55But why?
0:00:55 > 0:00:57The answer came in a written statement from
0:00:57 > 0:00:59the Angry Brigade,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01in which they set out their rationale for the bombing.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04"All the salesgirls in the flash boutiques
0:01:04 > 0:01:07"are made to dress the same and have the same make-up.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10"In fashion, as in everything else,
0:01:10 > 0:01:11"capitalism can only go backwards.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14"They've nowhere to go - they're dead."
0:01:18 > 0:01:20And, of course, it was grossly unfair to single out
0:01:20 > 0:01:23the shopgirl for such a vicious attack,
0:01:23 > 0:01:28but it also shows just how prominent she'd become by the early 1970s.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31And I want to understand how that happened.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35How did the image of the shopgirl
0:01:35 > 0:01:38transform so dramatically from suburban, chain-store worker
0:01:38 > 0:01:43of the inter-war years to one with such a high public profile?
0:01:46 > 0:01:49This is the story of how shopgirls grew in status
0:01:49 > 0:01:52in the second half of the 20th century,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55with some even becoming the new cool.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59It's the tale of shopgirls turned war heroines...
0:01:59 > 0:02:03They were, we think, about 60 or 70 families living underneath
0:02:03 > 0:02:04Oxford Street during the war.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08..of boutique shopgirls who embodied the brand...
0:02:08 > 0:02:10She took me to the office and they measured me
0:02:10 > 0:02:13and they said I was an absolutely perfect size.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17..and the influence of Britain's most famous grocer's daughter -
0:02:17 > 0:02:19Margaret Thatcher.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22For the first 18 years of my life,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26I lived over the shop which my father owned and ran.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47LOW DRONING
0:02:49 > 0:02:51EXPLOSION
0:02:54 > 0:02:57I think shopgirls are among the unsung heroines
0:02:57 > 0:02:59of the Second World War.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01For them, it became a patriotic duty
0:03:01 > 0:03:04to keep the country's stores up and running,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08even in the midst of the Blitz.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11As millions of people fled to the safety of the countryside,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15many brave shopworkers carried on travelling into city centres,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18like here on Oxford Street, to open up shop.
0:03:18 > 0:03:22In doing so, they were sending out a strong signal -
0:03:22 > 0:03:24it was business as usual.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Shopgirls were the backbone of the city centre workforce.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Here are some assistants in Bourne & Hollingsworth,
0:03:38 > 0:03:40a department store in London.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44- I'll definitely have that one. - Thank you, madam.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Assistants like these, all over the country,
0:03:46 > 0:03:49were taught how to prepare for Hitler's attacks.
0:03:49 > 0:03:50They were trained in first aid,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54how to evacuate buildings and put out fires.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56- FILM NARRATION:- 'Miss Smith arrives.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58'She has received training from the local authorities,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00'which you too can receive.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03'Note how Miss Smith keeps as near the floor as possible and plays
0:04:03 > 0:04:07'a jet of water on the heart of the fire to get it under control.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10'Now the spray has done its work, the bomb is almost out,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12'Miss Smith finishes off the job.'
0:04:12 > 0:04:13This shows
0:04:13 > 0:04:17some shopgirls undergoing their air-raid precaution training.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22They're putting a fire out in an armchair in the middle of Wembley.
0:04:22 > 0:04:23This is another group of shopgirls.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25So it was something that was happening
0:04:25 > 0:04:27right the way across the country.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29And what's this one?
0:04:29 > 0:04:30That one?
0:04:30 > 0:04:32This one is much closer to home.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34This shows some of the staff.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37They've been told that there was a threat of a gas attack,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42so they'd had to put on their gas masks and go up onto the roof.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Gas masks and tin hats, all part of shop work.
0:04:44 > 0:04:45Absolutely.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48They've still got rather nice court shoes on underneath.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51Yes, well, I suppose you have to have a little bit of glamour,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55as well as the fetching headgear that you're expected to wear.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58You don't often think of shop work as war work.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00Why was it war work?
0:05:00 > 0:05:03What these women were doing was being expected to help out
0:05:03 > 0:05:06in ways that they'd never tried before.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10They might have been having to help with the shelters,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14perhaps provide the food, or dress the beds, or something like that.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17They might even have helped laying the sandbags
0:05:17 > 0:05:18around the outside of the shop.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21It really does change your view of women's war work, I think,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23to think that these are shop assistants,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26they're doing something very extraordinary.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28Some of them were putting in an additional six or eight hours
0:05:28 > 0:05:30after they'd put in a full day's work,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32so they were working extremely hard
0:05:32 > 0:05:35to make sure that everything stayed as normal as it possibly could.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38Did stores like John Lewis have their own air-raid shelters?
0:05:38 > 0:05:42There were lots of air-raid shelters around on Oxford Street,
0:05:42 > 0:05:47and there were rooms which could house up to 200 people.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49And sometimes even people who had been bombed out
0:05:49 > 0:05:52were allowed to stay there permanently.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55So there were, we think, about 60 or 70 families living underneath
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Oxford Street during the war.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02It was part of a shopgirl's job to look after the homeless
0:06:02 > 0:06:05living in the basements of department stores -
0:06:05 > 0:06:09a job which could turn into a matter of life and death,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13as it did the night John Lewis was attacked.
0:06:14 > 0:06:15This is a copy of The Gazette,
0:06:15 > 0:06:18which is the staff magazine for John Lewis,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and it's a copy from 19th October, 1940,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25just about a month after the store was bombed.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27And in here, there's a fascinating letter written by
0:06:27 > 0:06:31a Miss Katherine Austin, who was a member of staff at the time.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35And this is her on her retirement, some years later.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38She's describing the terrible events of that night,
0:06:38 > 0:06:39the night of the bombing.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43"I wasn't actually on the Watch that Tuesday night..."
0:06:43 > 0:06:45And instead she was "'mothering' the evacuees
0:06:45 > 0:06:48"and had been for the previous ten days.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51"We were all, bar the Watch, in bed by 10:45,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55"but were awakened about 12 by the first direct hit".
0:06:55 > 0:06:58RUMBLING EXPLOSIONS
0:07:00 > 0:07:01She panics, jumps out of bed.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04She's running along to a second room where people are sleeping
0:07:04 > 0:07:06to try and get them out.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12"Just as I got there, the second bomb fell somewhere in front of me.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"I had one moment of sheer panic." Just one moment!
0:07:15 > 0:07:19"I could have sworn that the walls in front were going to collapse
0:07:19 > 0:07:22"and that the ceiling would then come down on us all."
0:07:22 > 0:07:23And this is interesting.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26She says it was a curious feeling, in a moment of calm.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29"It was a curious feeling: it was not so much seen as felt -
0:07:29 > 0:07:33"as though someone had put far too much into a cardboard hat-box
0:07:33 > 0:07:35"and you knew it must give way.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38"However, the awful moment passed and I went on."
0:07:38 > 0:07:39Which was tremendous.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43EXPLOSIONS RUMBLE IN BACKGROUND
0:07:44 > 0:07:48She manages to get them out of the building, onto Oxford Street.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52They go to a shelter, crunching on broken glass,
0:07:52 > 0:07:53shattered glass, down the street
0:07:53 > 0:07:56to Lilley & Skinner's, the shoe shop,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00"who very kindly opened their shelter especially for us".
0:08:00 > 0:08:04Well, Katherine Austin showed true grit.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07She probably wouldn't have thought of herself as particularly heroic,
0:08:07 > 0:08:08but she was, and her calmness
0:08:08 > 0:08:13and her presence of mind that night saved lives.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24When dawn broke, Miss Austin was horrified at what she saw.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Much of Oxford Street, including John Lewis -
0:08:28 > 0:08:32the shop she had worked in most of her life - was in ruins.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35This was the store the morning after it was bombed.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Got some really powerful photographs here of John Lewis
0:08:46 > 0:08:48soon after the bombing.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51The building's still on fire - what's left of it, anyway.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54You can see the fireman putting out the flames there.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56But, just a few days, weeks later,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59the shop was up and running.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Here are the guys from the warehouse sorting through the fabrics,
0:09:02 > 0:09:04getting things back to the shop floor.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Look at this damage in the background here.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Shopgirls brushing out fabrics, salvaging what they can,
0:09:11 > 0:09:13broken glass all around them.
0:09:15 > 0:09:16I LOVE this one.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19Smiling, hair curled up,
0:09:19 > 0:09:21brushing down the gowns and the dresses
0:09:21 > 0:09:23ready for the next night out.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25What really comes across in these photographs
0:09:25 > 0:09:28is the staff determination to do everything they could
0:09:28 > 0:09:32to keep their store up and running. It's true Blitz spirit.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39This is Central London, but it was a similar story in bomb-damaged
0:09:39 > 0:09:41cities up and down the country.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Shop staff setting up temporary stores,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48customers carrying on regardless.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52Everyone determined that they wouldn't be beaten by the bombs.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56John Lewis wasn't the only store on Oxford Street
0:09:56 > 0:09:57to be destroyed that night.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Just here, Selfridges was also hit, badly damaged.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Two other major department stores, now both closed down,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09were also ablaze that night.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11One, it's just here -
0:10:11 > 0:10:15Peter Robinson, a household name, is now NikeTown.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23And just coming up to the old Bourne & Hollingsworth building,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27also bombed that night, another much-loved store.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29And it's now a Plaza.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33In just one night of the Blitz,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36all the hard work and dedication of generations
0:10:36 > 0:10:38was left lying in ruins.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45By 1940, over 1½ million men had been conscripted
0:10:45 > 0:10:49and staff numbers in shops plummeted.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Then, in December, 1941, the Government introduced a measure
0:10:58 > 0:11:02that would change shop work and change women's lives forever.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04For the first time in British history,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08women were conscripted into a war effort.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Under the National Service Act,
0:11:10 > 0:11:12all single women aged between
0:11:12 > 0:11:1520 and 30 were liable to be called up.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18They supported the war effort in all kinds of ways -
0:11:18 > 0:11:21at sea as Wrens, on the land as Land Girls,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24and on the factory floor in munitions.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28But all this left retailers with a big problem.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30Many of those conscripted were shopgirls,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33so who was going to run the shop floor?
0:11:40 > 0:11:41The answer?
0:11:41 > 0:11:45The very young, the old and, above all, married women.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Until now, most professions had expected or even forced women
0:11:50 > 0:11:53to leave their jobs when they got married,
0:11:53 > 0:11:54but in a time of national need,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57these conventions were set to change.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00The Museum of London Docklands in Canary Wharf
0:12:00 > 0:12:02houses the Sainsbury's archive.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05It's very revealing about married women being hired
0:12:05 > 0:12:08and even promoted.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11This is a remarkable letter and it comes from Mr RJS -
0:12:11 > 0:12:14that's Robert Sainsbury, one of the directors of the firm -
0:12:14 > 0:12:20and it's written in 1942 to a Mrs Shephard, a married woman,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23and he wants her to apply for a managerial position -
0:12:23 > 0:12:26so quite remarkable in itself.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28The whole things rests on whether
0:12:28 > 0:12:30women like Mrs Shephard are mobile -
0:12:30 > 0:12:32are they able to move to another branch -
0:12:32 > 0:12:34because of their family commitments.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37At the end of the letter, he says,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40"We realise that a large proportion of our female staff
0:12:40 > 0:12:43"undertake domestic duties as well as their work with us."
0:12:43 > 0:12:45He's tying himself in a bit of a knot,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48because he wants these women workers to step up,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50he's not sure if they're able to,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52given their domestic responsibilities.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55He's desperate for them to do so.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58You can just feel this is very uncharted territory.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01This is a lovely piece.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05This is an advert taken out by Sainsbury's in the papers
0:13:05 > 0:13:07to basically reassure customers
0:13:07 > 0:13:10that even though women managers are in place,
0:13:10 > 0:13:13everything's going to be fine, you can still shop there in comfort.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15And it takes the form of a conversation between
0:13:15 > 0:13:17a male manager and a male customer,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20and they're talking about the men of Sainsbury's going off to war.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22And the manager's saying,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25"The girls who take their place? Very good indeed, sir.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28"Yes, they feel they're doing their bit here.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30"A good many are housewives themselves
0:13:30 > 0:13:33"and they know all about war-time shopping.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37"It's a matter of give and take or, as we say, 'Grin and Share it.'"
0:13:42 > 0:13:46'Professor Penny Summerfield explains just how ground-breaking
0:13:46 > 0:13:49'this move to hire married women really was.'
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Penny, before the war, women tended to leave work
0:13:53 > 0:13:56- when they got married, is that right?- Yes, it is.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58And in some occupations and industries
0:13:58 > 0:14:01there was actually a formal marriage bar.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04So teachers had to leave in most areas when they married.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08And it was the practice in an awful lot of places.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11And how did shopkeepers cope with this labour shortage?
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Well, initially, I think they went for the young school leavers.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19School leaving age in the '40s was 14.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22And then, as things got tighter,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24they went for the older married woman,
0:14:24 > 0:14:28especially after the state had introduced
0:14:28 > 0:14:31direction into part-time work.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33That's such a familiar idea today,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and so many women organise their lives in that way,
0:14:36 > 0:14:39but was this the first time that part-time work
0:14:39 > 0:14:40had been structured in that way?
0:14:40 > 0:14:43It was its recognition that was so new.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47And did shopkeepers take on married women,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51mothers, willingly or with a heavy heart?
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Well, it was... For all employers, it was a new thing.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56They hadn't liked having older women,
0:14:56 > 0:14:59they certainly hadn't liked having mothers,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01they seemed like much too much trouble.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Employers of all sorts thought that married women would take time off.
0:15:05 > 0:15:11But, by the end of the war, employers, including shopkeepers,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14were quite pleased with their older married women.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Did married women enjoy working in the war?
0:15:17 > 0:15:21Well, various surveys showed that they really liked two things -
0:15:21 > 0:15:24one was the money and the other was the company.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26They're working mothers,
0:15:26 > 0:15:28what happened to the children?
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Well, during World War II,
0:15:30 > 0:15:34the state did actually create wartime nurseries.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36So hang on, hang on.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39The state sets up state-funded childcare in the war
0:15:39 > 0:15:41to allow married women to work?
0:15:41 > 0:15:42Yes, that's correct.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Wartime nurseries were open to the children of all working mothers,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49whatever their line of war work.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52- VOICE-OVER:- 'The problem for many a patriotic young woman
0:15:52 > 0:15:53'eager to do her part in war work is
0:15:53 > 0:15:56'who will look after her children while she is at the factory?
0:15:56 > 0:15:59'That problem is solved by the creche.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05'Mrs Hare leaves her small daughter in kind and safe hands
0:16:05 > 0:16:07'while she goes to clock in on her job.'
0:16:10 > 0:16:13'Win Hudson started working in the lighting department
0:16:13 > 0:16:17'at Peter Jones in West London in the middle of the war.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20'She was 30 years old with three children.'
0:16:20 > 0:16:22So, would you drop the children off at the nursery
0:16:22 > 0:16:25- or at school before you went to work?- Yeah.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27And pick them up on the way home,
0:16:27 > 0:16:28or did someone else pick them up?
0:16:28 > 0:16:32- Yes, yes.- So they were there for the whole day?- Yes.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Did a lot of mothers get into shop work during the war?
0:16:35 > 0:16:40- Oh, yes. Mostly because you needed the money.- Yes.
0:16:40 > 0:16:47- Army pay was so small really, what you had to manage on.- Yeah.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I mean, it really became almost impossible.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Do you think they picked shop work
0:16:54 > 0:16:58because it fitted in with their time, or what was the attraction?
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Well, yes, really the time and, you see,
0:17:02 > 0:17:09some of them couldn't do the factory work that they had, you know,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12which so many of them went into.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Was the store mainly run by women during the war?
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Yeah, there were men managers,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24but during the war they were nearly all women managers,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26- and the buyers, and that.- Yeah.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31And then it gradually changed over, the men came.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33- As the men came back?- Back.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35- They had their jobs back again.- Yes.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39- After the war, did they keep those management jobs?- No. No.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Do you have a sense of how those women felt
0:17:42 > 0:17:44when they had to give up those jobs after the war?
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Well, they kept most, those that want to,
0:17:49 > 0:17:54but a lot of them wanted to leave because their husband had come home
0:17:54 > 0:17:58or, you know... A lot of them wanted to leave
0:17:58 > 0:18:03- but there was still quite a few of us left, you know.- Yes.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07A lot of people think working mothers are somehow a new thing,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09- but clearly not.- No, no.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23So, the shopgirl had finally grown up.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27She was now a shopwoman, and often a multi-tasking mum.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31But employers were quick to emphasise that working mothers
0:18:31 > 0:18:33were only a temporary solution.
0:18:33 > 0:18:34As soon as the war was over,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37they'd go straight back to where they belonged -
0:18:37 > 0:18:38home and family.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41- VOICE-OVER:- 'Now, these same women are going back
0:18:41 > 0:18:44'to make a home for their demobilised men.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47'After five years of working to this tune, there's no escaping it.'
0:18:47 > 0:18:52MUSIC: "March: Calling All Workers" by Eric Coates
0:18:57 > 0:18:59In 1944, the Government passed
0:18:59 > 0:19:02the Reinstatement in Civil Employment Act,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06allowing ex-servicemen and women the right to return to their old jobs.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13In Woolworths alone, there were 335 women working as managers.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Their jobs would now be under threat.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20I'm coming to see Paul Seaton, a former manager at Woolworths,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23to find out what happened to these so-called manageresses
0:19:23 > 0:19:24when the men returned.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28- Hello, Paul.- Hello, Pam, nice to meet you. Do come in.- Thank you.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Paul owns the most extensive collection of Woolworths archive
0:19:33 > 0:19:35in the country.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37He even has his own pic'n'mix stall.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41What happened after the war in Woolworths -
0:19:41 > 0:19:43did women keep their jobs?
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Only a very few managers kept their jobs.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47People in the Forces
0:19:47 > 0:19:48were all promised that they could
0:19:48 > 0:19:50have their original store back,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53which was the law. A lot of people who'd been serving in the Forces
0:19:53 > 0:19:57desperately wanted the comfort of going back to the team of people
0:19:57 > 0:19:58that they'd been working with.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01How did the directors of Woolworths manage this transition,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03this return of the men from the war?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06There was a little worry in the board about how the women
0:20:06 > 0:20:10were going to feel about stepping down from the job.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14And, you see in the minutes of the company, that they went to quite
0:20:14 > 0:20:18considerable lengths to try and make sure that everybody was happy.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21But there was absolutely no evidence of anyone making a fuss.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Not one letter to the office complaining about it.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28So, more than 300 of them, without a fuss,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32just relinquished the job and went back to filling the counters,
0:20:32 > 0:20:36or supervising, or working in the office, whatever they'd done before.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39So, Paul, we've talked about the women who did give up
0:20:39 > 0:20:41their managerial positions during the war.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Did any hang onto them?
0:20:43 > 0:20:44Yes, there were a handful.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48This is the mugshot book from the company's 50th birthday.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52You have to go 300 pages in before you find a woman in there.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55- And this is her?- This is her. That's right.- That's amazing.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Miss Froome, who managed the branch at Manor Park.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02So she was quite a legendary figure. You also see why she's legendary
0:21:02 > 0:21:04because she's in a sea of male faces.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09This annual report gives a picture of how the company perceives itself.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13It shows you how many people work in an average Woolworths store.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16It sort of gives the message to anybody
0:21:16 > 0:21:17thinking of pursuing a career.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20So, the manager is portrayed as a man.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23- Four men in suits. - Assistant manager's a man. Yeah.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Two more floormen, and then all of the other menial tasks,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30so people putting stock away in the stock room,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32all the staff on the sales floor,
0:21:32 > 0:21:38and even the ancillary staff behind the scenes, all portrayed as women.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42It's really fascinating, isn't it? And that picture says it all.
0:21:42 > 0:21:48MUSIC: "Mr Sandman" by The Chordettes
0:21:51 > 0:21:53# Mr Sandman.. #
0:21:53 > 0:21:55By the early 1950s,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58the British economy was getting back into its stride.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02The number of female shop assistants had increased by nearly 40%
0:22:02 > 0:22:04since the 1930s,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08and women in retail were now three-quarters of a million strong.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12They included a new generation of shopgirls.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Madeleine Jupp was one of them.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18She started on the shop floor at 18.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23When did you start working at Bourne & Hollingsworth?
0:22:23 > 0:22:28The first year I started at Bourne and Hollingsworth is in 1950,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31and that's the young lady that went to work there.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33And had you worked in a shop before?
0:22:33 > 0:22:35I had, yes.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39In Peter Robinson's in Oxford Circus, which no longer exists.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42When I first went to Peter Robinson's to work,
0:22:42 > 0:22:47I had to spend three months not serving a customer,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and I had to learn the correct way, you know, to sell.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53What was the key to selling?
0:22:53 > 0:22:58The key to selling was obviously to make the customer feel
0:22:58 > 0:23:01that we'd got a very good stock, a very good choice,
0:23:01 > 0:23:07and we didn't push them, and we wanted them to go out of the shop
0:23:07 > 0:23:10feeling as though they want to come back and shop again.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13- Will you show this lady some cardigans, please?- Certainly.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17- What colour would you like, madam? - Have you any in powder blue?- Yes.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Because I wanted the customer to return, you know, to me.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24I wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for the customer.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26And then I went to Bourne & Hollingsworth
0:23:26 > 0:23:29and I did become assistant manageress in the restaurant.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32How was life in the store in the '50s?
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Oh, it was.. I mean, they were quite strict in some respects.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38We dressed in black.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41And you could wear a white collar or you could wear pearls.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45We were treated like young ladies, and behaved like young ladies.
0:23:45 > 0:23:46What's this photo?
0:23:46 > 0:23:50This photo is the staff outing, which we had once a year
0:23:50 > 0:23:52to a seaside resort,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55and there's all the shopgirls in there.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01It was taken in 1951, so it was the first staff outing I went on.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Was it a happy place to work? Did the shopgirls enjoy it?
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Oh, yes. We all were all very happy.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11We talked about women who'd been involved in war work
0:24:11 > 0:24:14going back to the home, but how about their daughters,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17people like you, the new generation coming up?
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Were they happy to slot back into that old world?
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Not necessarily, no.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25I think we sort of felt there's a big wide world out there,
0:24:25 > 0:24:30and we wanted to sort of enjoy it really
0:24:30 > 0:24:34after the worries we had during the war.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38There was that freedom now, after five years of peace,
0:24:38 > 0:24:45to go and explore, and sort of be a modern young lady, really.
0:24:45 > 0:24:47Of course, after the war, you had the new look came in,
0:24:47 > 0:24:52the new fashions, and we were all eager to embrace that.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55It was a sort of different generation,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58and we left the pre-war years behind.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Yes, it was a sort of buoyant time.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07Everybody was sort of feeling great relief and it was...
0:25:07 > 0:25:10People were so nice to each other.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14So, you know, it was a lovely period, I think, really.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18Had shopgirls' ambitions changed after the war?
0:25:18 > 0:25:22It wasn't like possibly pre-war where a woman got married
0:25:22 > 0:25:23and that was it, sort of thing.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27She didn't have ambitions to necessarily go on from there,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30which, of course, our generation did.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33That happened a long time ago. We've got it all cleared up now.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35I found Madeleine's story so interesting
0:25:35 > 0:25:39because it seemed to me to really capture the spirit of the times.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43On the one hand, she was attracted by the formality
0:25:43 > 0:25:46and the traditions of a store like Bourne & Hollingsworth,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49with its rules and regulations and its sense of order,
0:25:49 > 0:25:52and on the other hand, she and her fellow shopgirls
0:25:52 > 0:25:55were really open to change and ready to move with the times.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02And the times were changing fast.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07The post-war baby boom created a massive demographic shift,
0:26:07 > 0:26:10producing record numbers of teenagers.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15These teenagers were hugely influenced by American culture,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18particularly in music, fashion and film.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22And their mothers were gradually getting a taste
0:26:22 > 0:26:25for another American export - self-service.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31The UK's self-service experiment had started in a Co-op grocery store
0:26:31 > 0:26:33in Romford during the war.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36But it didn't really take off for another decade.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Co-op opened its first fully self-service store in 1948.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Within three years, there were 600 of them.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Now, it's the most natural thing in the world today -
0:26:49 > 0:26:52come to the supermarket, scan the freestanding shelves,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54choose what you want - but back then it was revolutionary.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Take something like tea.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59This would have been blended for you behind the counter,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01it would have been bagged up and weighed by a shopgirl.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Here, you just pick it up, help yourself.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06The same with biscuits.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09They would have been served from a jar, perhaps from the counter.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13Here they are, pre-packaged, brightly coloured, straight in.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Everything about these stores
0:27:16 > 0:27:18was custom-made for the new self-service.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Florescent lighting to make sure everything was well lit,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25signage so the customers could navigate their way around the store.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Free-standing fridges, so people could help themselves
0:27:29 > 0:27:30to fresh produce.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35Of course, the checkout, again, not having to wait at a counter.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Even the wire basket that's so familiar to us today,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41but it was specially invented for self-service.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43It was transparent, you could see through it,
0:27:43 > 0:27:47all your goods were on display, it's meant to stop shoplifting.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55- FILM VOICE-OVER:- 'You're given a wire basket as you go in,
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'and that's to put the groceries in.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59'From then on, the customer is more or less on her own,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01'free to choose whatever she wants.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06'These shelves with the goods on are called gondolas -
0:28:06 > 0:28:07'nobody seems to know why.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11'There's an assistant to see that each gondola is kept stocked.'
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Penny, why did self-service take so long
0:28:13 > 0:28:15to get off the ground in Britain?
0:28:15 > 0:28:17I think there were a number of reasons.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22Obviously, food rationing, there wasn't enough product around,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25merchandise to get into the shops, just wasn't there.
0:28:25 > 0:28:27I think there was resistance.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29I don't think those who shopped, particularly the middle classes,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32were particularly keen on having to go and do the work themselves,
0:28:32 > 0:28:34they were used to being looked after.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Used to being served.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Used to being served, absolutely, and helped and guided...
0:28:39 > 0:28:43I can imagine some people really holding out for the old ways.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47We know stories, in the early Sainsbury's, of ladies going in
0:28:47 > 0:28:50and throwing their wire baskets at people in disgust
0:28:50 > 0:28:52because they wanted the service.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54So, what changed?
0:28:54 > 0:28:56That whole consumer culture thing
0:28:56 > 0:28:59that builds in the American '20s and '30s underpins this.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01And we get it in the '50s.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03And I think we're resistant at first,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06but we grab it wholeheartedly.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10Did it have an edge of glamour because it came from America?
0:29:10 > 0:29:12I think it had a huge edge of glamour.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15I mean that whole Americanisation of British culture in the '50s,
0:29:15 > 0:29:20whether it be Hollywood film, pulp novels, supermarkets,
0:29:20 > 0:29:21it all goes together.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28What do the stores do to win people over to the new practice?
0:29:28 > 0:29:31The goods themselves became very seductive.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Gradually, the idea of the sort of the package
0:29:34 > 0:29:36and the brand on the package comes into being.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38The colours of the bright, primary colours.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Hugely bright. Absolutely, yeah.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42It's a very simple psychology.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44You know, be bright and visible and people will buy me.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46And could you say that the packaging is, in a way,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48a substitute for the shopgirl?
0:29:48 > 0:29:52The packaging is absolutely the substitute for the shopgirl.
0:29:52 > 0:29:53What did she do?
0:29:53 > 0:29:56She puts things into bags, that's not necessary,
0:29:56 > 0:29:57it's already packaged.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00Kept it hygienic, so the packaging does that.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02And it tells you that it's good quality.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05She would tell you that before, now the package tells you that as well.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07So it does it all, yes, it is the substitute.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11And a lot of manufacturers were very alert to the fact
0:30:11 > 0:30:16that women consumers no longer have this sort of external advice,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19and some of them brought in sort of fictional characters.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22In the States, for example, Betty Crocker was very well known.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25She was the very sensible housewife who knew how to cook
0:30:25 > 0:30:26and therefore you took advice from her,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29but she's only a brand, she's fictional.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31MUSIC: "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley
0:30:31 > 0:30:34# Well, bless my soul What's wrong with me?
0:30:34 > 0:30:36# I'm itching like a man... #
0:30:36 > 0:30:40By the '50s, girls were leaving school at 15.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43They were better educated and expected more out of life.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48Many flocked to London in search of adventure.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54500 young women a week were taking their chances in the capital.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57They often picked up work as shopgirls to support themselves.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01- VOICE-OVER:- 'Perhaps there's more money to be made in London,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04'but is this the main reason why they come?
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'We put that question to a number of girls.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11'The first one we asked works in a big shop in Kensington.
0:31:11 > 0:31:12'Her name is Eileen Nixon.'
0:31:14 > 0:31:18'Ever since I left school I wanted to leave home and Birmingham,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21'and I thought that London would be a bigger and happier place,
0:31:21 > 0:31:26'full of entertainment and a bigger variety of life
0:31:26 > 0:31:27'and more amusement.'
0:31:28 > 0:31:32I've been here since I was 15 and, well, I'm very happy.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39I'm coming to see writer Diana Melly,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43who moved to London from Essex at the age of 14.
0:31:43 > 0:31:44DOORBELL RINGS
0:31:44 > 0:31:46As she tried to make it as a model,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Diana worked part-time as a shopgirl in a traditional haberdashery,
0:31:50 > 0:31:52on Oxford Street, called Jacks.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57It was a small shop next door to the tube station,
0:31:57 > 0:31:59Oxford Circus tube station,
0:31:59 > 0:32:01and it was on four floors.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04And to begin with, I worked on the ground floor
0:32:04 > 0:32:08where they sold haberdashery, stockings, gloves.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13And then I was moved down to the basement, where we sold dresses.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17I made friends with the woman who was the window-dresser -
0:32:17 > 0:32:20a woman, she was also... I think she was 15 or 16,
0:32:20 > 0:32:23and she was the sort of most Bohemian one,
0:32:23 > 0:32:25she was allowed to wear trousers.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Once a week when the new stock came in,
0:32:28 > 0:32:32one of us would be chosen to go up and try on the sweaters,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35and we would be stood on a table and the owner would then
0:32:35 > 0:32:37- run his hands up our legs.- Eugh!
0:32:37 > 0:32:40I wasn't often chosen, the window-dresser was more likely
0:32:40 > 0:32:42to be chosen because she had rather bigger tits.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46I think every girl's ambition, if they were as flat-chested as me,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48was to have a blow-up bra.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52I don't think they exist any more either.
0:32:52 > 0:32:53THEY LAUGH
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Did she just know she had to put up with that?
0:32:56 > 0:32:58Yeah, one had to put up with it, because it wasn't....
0:32:58 > 0:33:00It wasn't that easy to get a job.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03And if you objected you'd have got the sack.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06And the window displays were extraordinary in those days,
0:33:06 > 0:33:10because what you weren't allowed to see in the window
0:33:10 > 0:33:16was a naked plastic model, you know, with her breasts and everything.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20And so when she was dressing the window,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23she had to do it after the shop was closed and the blinds were down,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26because you couldn't have these naked models in the window.
0:33:26 > 0:33:27Did you enjoy working there?
0:33:29 > 0:33:31No, I didn't.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37I-II'd had ambitions to be a model,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39not just a shopgirl.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42And I was always sort of posing and walking into places
0:33:42 > 0:33:47like Hardy Amies, you know, never got past the receptionist.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52This is me aged 14, nearly 15.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Because in those days you actually had to look 30 and sophisticated.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59There wasn't really a teenage look, was there?
0:33:59 > 0:34:03- No, that was the look that you aimed at.- Yes.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06MUSIC: "Susie Q" by Dale Hawkins
0:34:09 > 0:34:13When Diana was offered the chance to work for a new, hip boutique
0:34:13 > 0:34:14she went for it.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18The boutique was called Bazaar, started by designer Mary Quant.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25Bazaar broke the mould.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Quant created not just a new youth look,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31but helped kick-start a new youth culture.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38She designed her own clothes and made sure that she hired shopgirls
0:34:38 > 0:34:40who looked great wearing them.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Bazaar was on the King's Road in what is now a coffee shop.
0:34:48 > 0:34:49So was it this part here?
0:34:49 > 0:34:51Yes. Yeah. That's right.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54And yes, and it was all just one window
0:34:54 > 0:34:59with these fabulous looking models, not real models,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02in Mary's clothes, which was so different
0:35:02 > 0:35:04to anything we'd seen before.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07Goodness.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11There's absolutely nothing here to prompt the memory.
0:35:11 > 0:35:19And I have a sort of feeling of lounging around in that area.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Apparently, I was usually weeping.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Oh, really? What about?
0:35:23 > 0:35:27Somebody said to me once, "I remember Diana when she worked at Bazaar
0:35:27 > 0:35:30"and she was always weeping about some bloke."
0:35:30 > 0:35:32# ..Oh, say that you'll be true
0:35:32 > 0:35:36# Say that you'll be true and never leave me blue
0:35:36 > 0:35:38# My Susie Q... #
0:35:44 > 0:35:46When did you work at Bazaar?
0:35:46 > 0:35:471958.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52I'd lost my Essex accent...
0:35:52 > 0:35:56because the customers who came to Bazaar were quite different
0:35:56 > 0:35:57from the Jacks customers.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02They were richer and maybe kind of more Bohemian.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05But posh, posh Bohemia.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Yes.
0:36:07 > 0:36:12And I think that Mary Quant wanted the sort of women
0:36:12 > 0:36:17working in the shop who would have not been totally out of sync
0:36:17 > 0:36:20- with the customers. - With the customers.- Yeah.- Sure.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22And what made it so special, would you say?
0:36:22 > 0:36:27Before that, all the clothes seemed to be for 50-year-olds,
0:36:27 > 0:36:29let alone teenagers or 20-year-olds.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31I mean it was just completely different.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35What was it like at the time? What kind of reputation did it have?
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Well, you certainly knew that if you came to work in Bazaar
0:36:38 > 0:36:40you weren't going to be a shopgirl.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42What were you going to be?
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Well, I'm thinking about that.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46You were going to be someone who worked at Bazaar,
0:36:46 > 0:36:48something quite different.
0:36:48 > 0:36:49Yes. It was fun.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53It was kind of a feather in your cap to work at Bazaar.
0:36:53 > 0:36:59The King's Road was the place to be and Bazaar was where it was at.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04MUSIC: "Susie Q" by Dale Hawkins
0:37:14 > 0:37:18By the mid-1960s, London had over 80 boutiques.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21It was enough to fill a small guide book like this one.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24It's packed full of fascinating things, like little maps
0:37:24 > 0:37:26to show you exactly where to find these places
0:37:26 > 0:37:28in back streets and back alleys,
0:37:28 > 0:37:31and how much money you should expect to spend when you get there.
0:37:31 > 0:37:34And, of course, magazines went to town on boutiques -
0:37:34 > 0:37:36lots and lots of features,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39interviews with owners, that kind of thing.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41I've got one here from Rave magazine,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44which was a pop magazine of the time,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47which explains this kind of new phenomenon of boutiques.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51"They are the current 'in' places to buy clothes and accessories.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53"People who run them with flair and fashion sense
0:37:53 > 0:37:57"know exactly what YOU like to wear and how it should be worn.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59"Boutiques are small, interesting friendly places
0:37:59 > 0:38:03"where you can browse for hours without anyone bothering you."
0:38:03 > 0:38:04And it goes on to say,
0:38:04 > 0:38:08"The boutique boom is extending fast across the whole country."
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Most shopgirls still worked in traditional independent shops
0:38:16 > 0:38:18and the ever-growing chain stores.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22But for a lucky few working in boutiques,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25being a shopgirl was more than just a job,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27it was a status symbol...
0:38:27 > 0:38:30particularly if that boutique was Biba.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36Biba started in the early 1960s as a mail-order company
0:38:36 > 0:38:38run from Barbara Hulanicki's home.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41A decade on and three shops later,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44it moved here to a seven storey former department store
0:38:44 > 0:38:48in Central London, and this was its roof garden.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56The roof garden, with its famous flamingos,
0:38:56 > 0:38:59was the pinnacle of Barbara Hulanicki's vision for Biba.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04Over a decade, she and her husband Fitz
0:39:04 > 0:39:07had expanded their original budget boutique
0:39:07 > 0:39:10into an enormous lifestyle store,
0:39:10 > 0:39:14selling everything from fashion, food to children's wear.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Shopgirls were crucial to Biba's success.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23They modelled the clothes, they hung out with the customers,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26and lived by Fitz's one golden rule,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28never, ever sell hard.
0:39:33 > 0:39:34FITZ: The whole idea is
0:39:34 > 0:39:37that we are not trying to sell anything to anybody.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40We are merely putting things into the store
0:39:40 > 0:39:42in the hope that somebody will come along and buy them.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45We do not want to be seen to be pushing the customer into anything.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48One rule is if anyone ever says "Can I help you?"
0:39:48 > 0:39:50they're sacked that second.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Fitz was rather more laid-back
0:39:55 > 0:39:59in dealing with his staff's shaky knowledge of their stock.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02OK, so the short ones aren't going?
0:40:02 > 0:40:05- No?- Well, sort of. - What do you mean sort of?
0:40:05 > 0:40:07Well, I mean like there's a lot out there,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09but some of them are sold as well.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12It doesn't make much difference. You see what I mean?
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Yeah, only too clearly.
0:40:15 > 0:40:16SHE LAUGHS
0:40:20 > 0:40:22Delisia Price, seen on the right,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26started working at Biba when she was 20.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Also, I think we ought to make a list of all the colours
0:40:29 > 0:40:31- that are running low.- Yes. Yes.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34'Today, she's coming back to the roof garden
0:40:34 > 0:40:35'to tell me what it was like.'
0:40:35 > 0:40:37- Hello.- Hi.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41- Great.- This is amazing. - Isn't it beautiful?
0:40:41 > 0:40:42It's wonderful, isn't it?
0:40:42 > 0:40:45It's so lovely to be back here again.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48How much would you say that shopgirls made Biba what it was?
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Well, I think they were incredibly important,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54because they were on the front line, really.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57You know, they were absolutely vital. They were there all the time.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59They had incredible influence.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01Both Barbara and Fitz were incredible,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04I mean they knew everybody, even up until this place,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06where there was hundreds of people working here.
0:41:06 > 0:41:10They both were incredibly involved and were very, very respectful
0:41:10 > 0:41:13and listened to them and treated them as intelligent people,
0:41:13 > 0:41:14which they were.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16And there were all kinds of staff.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19There were very posh girls, very working-class girls -
0:41:19 > 0:41:20a huge spectrum.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Is it right that part of the role of the Biba girl
0:41:22 > 0:41:26was to befriend the customer, not exactly befriend them
0:41:26 > 0:41:29but to be almost like a role model for them?
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Well, we... Oh, a role model?
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Yeah, or a muse?
0:41:34 > 0:41:38Yeah, we were... We were kind of with the customer,
0:41:38 > 0:41:40we were just girls.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42The people who came in were girls.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45There weren't any rules and regulations, you know,
0:41:45 > 0:41:48you could talk. I mean we spent hours talking to people.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50People used to come in and fall asleep
0:41:50 > 0:41:53or bring their dogs or, you know.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56So it really was a place to be and a place to hang out?
0:41:56 > 0:41:58Oh, it was amazing.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02It was a really dark version of a sort of Arab tent.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05It was wonderful. I mean everybody used to come in.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Mick Jagger used to come in and sit on the counter
0:42:09 > 0:42:11and chat to Fitz and stuff like that.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13So talk me through the different roles you had here.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15Well, I started off in the shop,
0:42:15 > 0:42:19then they kept wanting a size ten to do fittings on,
0:42:19 > 0:42:21because Barbara's an incredible perfectionist
0:42:21 > 0:42:23and the clothes had to be fitted.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25And one day she grabbed me and she said, "You look like right."
0:42:25 > 0:42:28She took me to the office and they measured me
0:42:28 > 0:42:31and they said I was an absolutely perfect size.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35Barbara Hulanicki expected her shopgirls to model her clothes.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38Delisia was one of those that particularly embodied
0:42:38 > 0:42:40the Biba brand.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Can you put the jacket on again?
0:42:42 > 0:42:45'The shape that I think is terrific is very tall
0:42:45 > 0:42:48'and square shouldered and a bit flat-chested.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52'Unfortunately, there aren't many people like that around.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55'But if you start off building on somebody like that
0:42:55 > 0:42:58'your clothes will look like that even on chubby people.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02'If you want to look hourglass shape you just don't buy our clothes.'
0:43:02 > 0:43:05How would you capture the spirit of Biba for, say, you know,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07the new generation?
0:43:07 > 0:43:11It was just the new generation coming into its own, really.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16Delisia's generation of shopgirls enjoyed more freedom
0:43:16 > 0:43:18than assistants had ever had before.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25In the 1880s, shopgirls at Whiteley's
0:43:25 > 0:43:29were forced to follow 176 strict rules.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37In the 1970s at Biba, they abided by one rule only,
0:43:37 > 0:43:38don't hassle the customer.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47But critics of laid-back boutique culture
0:43:47 > 0:43:50claimed it allowed owners to take advantage of their staff.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Spare Rib, a new feminist magazine of the time,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58warned that shopgirls were being exploited.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Some of the feminists were very critical
0:44:04 > 0:44:06of the conditions of work in shops,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09and Rosie Boycott, who was the Editor of Spare Rib,
0:44:09 > 0:44:13did write a critique of the working conditions of young women
0:44:13 > 0:44:16who worked in the boutiques. She exposed,
0:44:16 > 0:44:19you know, long hours and low pay
0:44:19 > 0:44:24and being sort of bossed about employers and so on,
0:44:24 > 0:44:29and did come up with some pretty depressing statistics.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Just looking at the headline on this:
0:44:39 > 0:44:42It rather bursts the bubble of the boutiques.
0:44:42 > 0:44:43Yes.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45The harsh reality.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48"Working in the 'trendy' boutiques is boring, badly paid and hard work.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50"The boutique owners manage to exploit the market
0:44:50 > 0:44:52"by claiming to offer 'exciting jobs', 'groovy music',
0:44:52 > 0:44:54"'interesting people', 'cheaper clothes'.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57"It all adds up to the ideal job for the Kensington girl
0:44:57 > 0:45:00"who doesn't want to sit bashing at a typewriter all day,
0:45:00 > 0:45:02"but prefers the idea of being in a boutique."
0:45:02 > 0:45:04Is that a bit harsh?
0:45:06 > 0:45:12I think she's being honest about the working conditions and the pay,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14and that was a pre-occupation of women's liberation.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Pay of 9 or 10 or 20, even 15 or £20 a week
0:45:19 > 0:45:24by the mid-'70s was a reasonable wage for a short time.
0:45:24 > 0:45:28- What it didn't offer you was anywhere else to go, you know?- Right.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32And of course the hours were long, it was exhausting.
0:45:32 > 0:45:33You had to look gorgeous.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35But was that one of the problems with boutiques,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37that the girls had to look gorgeous?
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Yes. But don't forget, most young girls do want to look gorgeous.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46But with the economic turmoil of the 1970s,
0:45:46 > 0:45:48many boutiques struggled to survive.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Chain stores, though, were growing in size and number
0:45:53 > 0:45:56and squeezed out smaller shops of all types.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59Then came the mall.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07This is Brent Cross Shopping Centre in the Northwest suburbs of London.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10It was built on an old dog track and some allotment plots.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14When it opened in 1976,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Britain had never seen anything like it.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21It was our first stand-alone, out-of-town shopping mall.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25It covered an immense 800,000 square feet,
0:46:25 > 0:46:30spread over 52 acres, and employed over 4,000 people.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34MALE VOICE: 'Once inside, the atmosphere of soft lights,
0:46:34 > 0:46:35'marbled floors and fountains
0:46:35 > 0:46:39'might lull you into thinking you were in a five-star hotel.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41'The organisers quite deliberately set out
0:46:41 > 0:46:44'to achieve an upmarket atmosphere to sell their quality goods.'
0:46:44 > 0:46:47I have not seen anything like this before.
0:46:47 > 0:46:49Do you think you'll like it to shop in though?
0:46:49 > 0:46:53Very good. I've just been in Marks. It's very, very nice.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55And it'll save us all the journey up the West End.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57I think it's one of the best precincts
0:46:57 > 0:47:00- and shopping centres I've been in. - Beautiful.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02It must have cost a lot of money.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05It certainly must have cost a lot of money but it's well worth it.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Understandably, the shopkeepers and assistants
0:47:10 > 0:47:12working in the shadow of Brent Cross
0:47:12 > 0:47:15were nervous of their new, super-sized neighbour.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19It's very telling that the local traders of the area
0:47:19 > 0:47:23couldn't count on the support of their own local MP,
0:47:23 > 0:47:25one Margaret Thatcher.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Instead, she embraced Brent Cross and its enterprising spirit.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34Quite ironic, given that she was arguably
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Britain's most famous shopgirl.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39For the first 18 years of my life,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44I lived over the shop which my father owned and ran.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47I knew full well the tremendous number of hours
0:47:47 > 0:47:51which went into earning your keep.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02I grew up in Essex in the '80s, heartland of Thatcherism.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05I was no fan of her policies, but I was fascinated by her as a woman
0:48:05 > 0:48:08as a character, as a politician.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11Coming to her home town in Grantham.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23So here it is, the shop where Margaret Thatcher grew up.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25She was born here in the mid-1920s,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29a time when the number of British shops peaks at a million,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33many of them like this back then, small family businesses,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35the Roberts' grocer's store.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Now it's Living Health, more of a lifestyle store.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46So this is the young Margaret's bedroom,
0:48:46 > 0:48:48right at the top of the house.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50It's now a treatment room.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53It's very small, very humble.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57There's the view from her window.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00A very grand, double-fronted house opposite,
0:49:00 > 0:49:02green fields in the distance,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05but right between them two MASSIVE supermarkets.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11These giant superstores seem the polar opposite
0:49:11 > 0:49:13of Margaret Thatcher's cosy family shop.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18Today, there are just a third of the number of stores there were
0:49:18 > 0:49:21when she lived above the Grantham grocer's.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26And despite her being the town's most famous daughter,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28there's very little to mark her life here,
0:49:28 > 0:49:32although there is a rather curious memorial to her
0:49:32 > 0:49:34in the local library and museum.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39This is Grantham's greatest tribute to Margaret Thatcher.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41It's her childhood bed.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43It's surely got to be the one the stranger ways
0:49:43 > 0:49:45of marking the life of any former prime minister,
0:49:45 > 0:49:48but it's a curiously intimate one.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52I do wonder what the effect was of that life in the shop,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56in that room on the young Margaret and on her later politics.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59You get some sense of it from her autobiography.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05"Life 'over the shop' is much more than a phrase.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08"It is something which those who have lived it
0:50:08 > 0:50:09"know to be quite distinctive.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12"For one thing, you are always on duty.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15"People would knock at the door at almost any hour of the night
0:50:15 > 0:50:18"or weekend if they ran out of bacon, sugar, butter or eggs.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22"Everybody knew that we lived by serving the customer.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"It was pointless to complain, so nobody did."
0:50:26 > 0:50:28I just think that's so revealing.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31Obviously lots of things shaped her politics,
0:50:31 > 0:50:33but those early years in the shop taught her
0:50:33 > 0:50:36that the power lay with the customer.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41She believed in the right-to-buy in the broadest sense -
0:50:41 > 0:50:45that the customer should have what they wanted when they wanted it.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52And THIS is what many customers wanted,
0:50:52 > 0:50:54larger stores with lower prices,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56longer trading hours and more car parking.
0:50:56 > 0:51:01All made possible by the loosening of Employment and Planning laws,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03hallmarks of Thatcherism.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06My own home town became a classic example
0:51:06 > 0:51:08of the modern-day shopping experience.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14As teenagers, my friends and I spent a lot of time hanging out here
0:51:14 > 0:51:16on Southend High Street.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19We also worked here in its many chain stores,
0:51:19 > 0:51:24M&S, Next, Top Shop, Miss Selfridge, WHSmith's.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27And I worked round the corner in Sainsbury's.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Big chains like Sainsbury's have seen a massive increase
0:51:32 > 0:51:35in their market share since I worked here.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38Today, we spend much more than we used to,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41but in a much smaller number of larger stores.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Plus we splash out increasingly amounts online.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47I was here in the late '80s when this store opened,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50I used to work on these checkouts.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53The first time any of us had seen bar codes and scanners,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55and we all had to be specially trained.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58I remember there was a prize for scanner of the week,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02for the person who could scan the most goods in the shortest time.
0:52:02 > 0:52:03I don't think I ever won that.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Today, retail workers are still the largest group
0:52:10 > 0:52:13of private sector workers in the country.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Almost two thirds of them are women.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18And over half of them work part-time.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Vanessa, how long have you worked here?
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Just over 24 years, 24½ years.
0:52:24 > 0:52:25- That's a long time.- Yeah.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27And you've stayed there that long?
0:52:27 > 0:52:30I have on and off. When you say "on and off" it's between children.
0:52:30 > 0:52:31Yes, of course.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Jeanette, how long have you worked here?
0:52:33 > 0:52:34I've worked here 16 years,
0:52:34 > 0:52:35took four years out
0:52:35 > 0:52:37and I've been back eight years.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39And when you took four out was that...
0:52:39 > 0:52:42- Looking after my mum, yeah, yeah. - Looking after your mum, yeah.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44So, do you think flexibility's a big part
0:52:44 > 0:52:46of the attraction of working here?
0:52:46 > 0:52:47Definitely.
0:52:47 > 0:52:49Definitely. Because it helps out when you've got family.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52You can do things around their school and everything.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54It was the main reason for me.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57And do you think that's why a lot of people work in
0:52:57 > 0:52:58- the big stores like this? - I do, yeah,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00because there's so many of us
0:53:00 > 0:53:02they've got that bit more flexibility.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04And how do you think shopping's changing today?
0:53:04 > 0:53:05It's massively changed.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09And you know in terms of online shopping now,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11it's a huge business, absolutely huge business.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14The clothing as well, you know,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16one of the biggest clothing retailers.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18People don't have to shop now, you could if you wanted to
0:53:18 > 0:53:21sit at home and buy everything, almost everything online.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23So, why do people still come to the shops?
0:53:23 > 0:53:27Because they'll miss like the chat, you know, the company.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Some people are on their own, they come out at seven,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33sit outside the shop waiting for it to open.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Same faces every day because they want to talk.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39What about the downsides of shop work?
0:53:39 > 0:53:40The pressure.
0:53:40 > 0:53:45Yeah, there's a fair amount of pressure to perform, to do well.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Also the stigma that goes with it,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51the people that look down on you.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54Sometimes it can be really obvious.
0:53:54 > 0:53:55Why's it obvious?
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Just by the way they look at you or what they expect.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02But you sort of shine through that,
0:54:02 > 0:54:04you sort of have to go one step above that.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06There is a stigma attached to
0:54:06 > 0:54:08"Oh, well, it's someone that just works in a shop.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10"They haven't done very well for themselves."
0:54:10 > 0:54:12Whereas if you was an accountant or something
0:54:12 > 0:54:14they think that you're highly educated.
0:54:14 > 0:54:16But obviously there is people that are highly educated.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19They've been here, they've gone to uni, come back
0:54:19 > 0:54:21and gone into a management role cos they've got a degree.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24So, what do you like about working here?
0:54:24 > 0:54:26I love the customers. I do.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28I know it sounds a bit cranky, but I do.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31We have such a laugh, it's really good fun.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35We all sort of help each other out, don't we? I really like it.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37A lot of people might think that shopworkers
0:54:37 > 0:54:40don't have a relationship so much with customers now.
0:54:40 > 0:54:41Oh, no, you do, you really do.
0:54:41 > 0:54:43You've got your regulars and they look out for you.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46Even if you're just sitting on a checkout
0:54:46 > 0:54:49they'll rather queue and come to a specific person
0:54:49 > 0:54:52because they get a relationship and it's really good fun.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55And the joy you get when you've served someone
0:54:55 > 0:54:58and you've put all your knowledge in place
0:54:58 > 0:55:00and then your manager might come down the next day or a week
0:55:00 > 0:55:03and say, "Actually, someone come down and said they were really happy
0:55:03 > 0:55:07"with your service." Then you think "Yes!"
0:55:07 > 0:55:09You know, that's how it makes you feel.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11LAUGHTER AND CHATTER
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Shops are part of our ordinary, everyday lives
0:55:15 > 0:55:19but, if you take a step back, the story of the women who work in them
0:55:19 > 0:55:21is extraordinary.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Our shopgirls have been at the forefront of waves
0:55:23 > 0:55:26of social change, from Victorian apprentices
0:55:26 > 0:55:28to boutique entrepreneurs.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31From the first generation of female graduate trainees,
0:55:31 > 0:55:36to the first generation of officially recognised working mums.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41Over the past 150 years, shopgirls have performed as servants,
0:55:41 > 0:55:46specialists, advisors, models, muses and much else.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48But what does the future hold for them?
0:55:50 > 0:55:53In fashion boutique Start, in London's East End,
0:55:53 > 0:55:56the assistants are trialling cutting-edge technology.
0:55:58 > 0:56:00Online customers browse a virtual store,
0:56:00 > 0:56:04yet can still call on the help of real-life, in-store staff.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07If you're not able to come to our store in person
0:56:07 > 0:56:12then from your desktop, you can take a virtual tour around the store,
0:56:12 > 0:56:14focus in on a particular object
0:56:14 > 0:56:16that catches your eye,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18and then e-mail us or text us
0:56:18 > 0:56:20any questions you have.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23So we still have a personal interaction with the customer,
0:56:23 > 0:56:26even though you could be thousands of miles away
0:56:26 > 0:56:28on the other side of the world.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Through instant messaging, the assistant can send the customer
0:56:33 > 0:56:35all the information they need.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38These assistants need to be tech savvy,
0:56:38 > 0:56:40fashion savvy and customer savvy.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44'We are the next generation of shopgirls.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47'Basically allow us to extend'
0:56:47 > 0:56:50our role further from the shop floor,
0:56:50 > 0:56:54so we are able to give the same personal service, expert advice
0:56:54 > 0:56:56to customers all over the world,
0:56:56 > 0:56:58not just the ones who are able to make it into the shop.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01So I think it's just the next step for us really.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07It's clear that in the years ahead,
0:57:07 > 0:57:10shops and shopping are set to change.
0:57:13 > 0:57:14Women workers have done so much
0:57:14 > 0:57:17to shape the way we've shopped in the past,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20but will stores be able to count on them in the future?
0:57:22 > 0:57:25That's partly up to us and what we want as consumers,
0:57:25 > 0:57:30but it's also up to women and what they want from life.