This is the Wilko branch in Market Harborough, which will close on Sunday. I feel sorry for the people here and around the country who are losing their jobs.
You can be sure the top management that brought the company to this pass will have a more comfortable landing.
Wilkinson's was originally a Leicester company. In 1930 when James Kemsey Wilkinson and his fiancée Mary Cooper opened a small ironmongers at 151 Charnwood Street in the city.
The opened a second shop in Wigston Magna in 1932 and then a third on the Narborough Road.
Charnwood Street is a lost working-class shopping street in Leicester. A website devoted to it explains where it ran:
Charnwood Street in Leicester - popularly known as 'Charny' - was built in the early 1870s and demolished in 1970 when the area was redeveloped. It ran from Kent Street to Spinney Hill Road to the east of the city centre, parallel with Humberstone Road.
If you browse the website you will see that it was mourned by many.
When Charnwood Street was razed, Wilkinson's had 28 stores across the country. At some point their original shop had moved a few doors to no. 159.
The photo below shows shops in Charnwood Street empty and awaiting demolition. It comes from the University of Leicester's Vanished Leicester collection.
Copyright © Dennis Calow
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