Your Local Carpet Store – Then and Now

Your Local Carpet Store
Here is Mays Carpets in 1975 – the largest carpet showroom in Europe.
Your Local Carpet Store
Here is the same part of the Fairacres Retail Park in 2017. The units were re-developed a few years ago. Mays are now the managers of the retail park.

There is still a Carpet shop ‘Carpet Right’,  with BM the bargain store one side, and Dream Beds the other.

12 thoughts on “Your Local Carpet Store – Then and Now

  1. rudi

    used to love visiting mays as a kid – all those gigantic reels of carpet to explore. amazing how exciting a carpet shop could seem.

    Reply
  2. Badger

    I don’t necessarily agree with out of town developments such as this but in a town such as ours the ‘retail park’ is surely inevitable and the only way to get certain retailers locally. Didcot not being an ancient historic town has meant that changes in business and land usage allowed for a sizeable area to be redeveloped and a retail park in town be built. If you look around at what retailers such as M&S, Aldi, Lidl etc have as a standard set of prerequisites for a new site Fairacres for us is the only way we’ll get them here in this town, as such they don’t do ‘town centre’. So with all the planned housing development this is the way it’ll go, everyone is going to drive to these places from their house on the edge of town which as a whole has to adapt to survive or we’ll have to drive to Oxford or Didcot if we want those big names.

    Reply
  3. ColinB

    I think it is when Tesco moved in. Deedee,

    Mays was there long before. True it could be seen at the point it changed from a single large carpet warehouse, when it was ‘transformed’ into smaller units. [ Not found in the town centre]. Years ago there was a small Texas DIY store, sold paint. Not the size of B&Q or Homebase…

    With the demise of Beales, will this be split into smaller units.

    Reply
  4. Deedee

    Colin, I understand that DIY stores, B & Q, Homebase etc are better suited to out of town retail parks, I get that, but surely an M & S food store is better sited in a town centre? Think what an attraction that would be and also encourage poeople who live and work in the town centre to choose to shop here too?

    Reply
  5. Colinb

    Is it confirmed that an M&S is going in the Beales. I am sure there is a Charter which ‘forbids’ this. Both Lidl and Aldi showed an interest. Then B&M moved in the corner space.

    Many rumours when the Bury Street precinct was ‘renovated’ and the 2 storey buildings were in place. M&S might be moving there. Are the top floors still empty??.

    Reply
  6. Colinb

    Deedee, don’t forget that as Phase 2 of the Bury Street refurb, it was planned to finance the project, and increase footfall, by demolishing The Charter. and build an ‘Anchor’ shop to ‘pull in the punters’.

    The design showed a Supermarket and Carpark underneath. No supermarket would take up the offer. Relocation of the services provided in the Charter. Would be an unpopular move. added to this the With close proximity of Waitrose.

    Where could M&S foodhall be placed….

    Reply
  7. Badger

    ColinB – Nice though it would be I don’t see a Charter redevelopment this side of 2020 or 2025 by which time there will be at least another 3 or 4 thousand households within easy shopping range of the town. Tesco will become a war zone on Friday evenings and at the weekend unless everyone shops online.

    Reply
  8. Badger

    In the absence of any changes in the centre we will need another supermarket on the opposite side of the town to the existing large one and maybe a retail park as well. It would certainly reduce the need to traverse the place to do a big shop, some might even walk or cycle. Maybe also an Aldi/Lidl between Drayton and Abingdon as that space gets filled up.

    Reply
  9. Deedee

    Colin, as I understand it the new M&S outlet will be in the new part of the retail park yet to be built? And yes you see perfectly correct by saying there are, or rather were covernants in place prohibiting the sale of goods such as food, clothing, and even cycles, but the retail park recently applied to have those restrictions removed, the town council and the Abingdon Chamber of Commerce were given the opportunity to object to the application, but neither did,
    Next thing we’ll here is Abingdon businesses complaining of lack of foot fall ?

    Reply
  10. simon

    No need to wait for M&S in Abingdon as we have them coming to Didcot as part of the expansion of the Orchard Centre

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.