Colson's, later Dingle's and House of Fraser, was a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

located in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Located on the

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

, the store was founded in 1792, expanded after damage in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was later purchased and grouped with Plymouth-based Dingles, taking their name, before becoming

House of Fraser House of Fraser (also operating as Frasers) is a British department store group with 44 locations across the United Kingdom, which is now part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it w ...

. The store closed in 2019, along with a number of other House of Fraser stores during financial difficulties at the group. The site was derelict for a number of years, before being renovated during 2022 by

IHG Hotels & Resorts InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FT ...

as a

Hotel Indigo Hotel Indigo is a chain of small, individually owned boutique hotels, which is part of IHG Hotels & Resorts. As of December 2021, there were 130 Hotel Indigo properties featuring 16,343 rooms worldwide. History The first Hotel Indigo opened in ...

, including a restaurant named "Colson's" in recognition of the history of the building.

History

Foundation

Colson's was started in 1789 by Mrs Colson, taking over the Millinery and Linen business of a Mrs Coles, along with her "Childbed Linen Warehouse" opposite Gandy's Lane (now Gandy Street) on Exeter High Street. Mrs Cole announced her retirement and sale on 27 July 1789, with the newly named Colson's opening on 3 August the same year. At opening the store boasted

drapery Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin ). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothin ...

haberdasher In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

, and a selection of

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

s. Mrs Colson was the widower of a member of King George's diplomatic service. Mrs Colson's son John Worthy Colson joined the business and in 1829 he took a partner into the business. The new business was called Colson & Spark, however the partnership did not last long and ended in 1832. By 1870 the business again entered into a partnership, becoming Colson and Gates. In 1887, George Colson took over the running of the business, and in 1889 the partnership broke down, with the business reverting to the name Colson & Co. Also in 1887, the company provided its entire stock of calico to help wrap the dead bodies from the

Exeter Theatre Royal fire The Exeter Theatre Royal fire was a disaster that occurred on 5 September 1887 in Exeter, England. A fire broke out in the backstage area of the Theatre Royal during the production of ''The Romany Rye'' by George Robert Sims and produced by Wi ...

, which had killed 186

Colson's leaves family ownership

In 1913 George sold the business to a local JP, Sir Edgar Plummer who ran the store for 12 years. In 1925 the store was purchased from Sir Edgar by Brights, a fellow department store located in

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

, with the business trading under the brand of "Colson and Co". During the Second World War, the store was damaged by bombing raids, but parts of the store had been saved and continued to operate. After the war the business had plans drawn up to refurbish the buildings but by 1953, new plans were drawn up by architects F W Beech & E Curnow Cookes to rebuild the whole store in nine phases, to allow for business to continue. When the new store was completed it had increased in size taking in neighbouring stores, Bellmans and Wymans. The business continued to operate as part of Brights until 1960, when Brights were purchased by a rival Bournemouth based department store group called J J Allen. Under J J Allen ownership the business added the J J Allen stores Mayron Fashion and Chanelle as departments. Also in 1960, Colson's opened a furniture warehouse at 22 Cathedral Yard (a Michael Spiers shop as of 2022), a short distance from the main store opposite the cathedral. By 1966 the store had its own Food Hall.

Purchase by House of Fraser

In 1969, however J J Allen were purchased by

for £5.3 million and merged into its

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

group. But this did not last long and in 1971, House of Fraser purchased the west country department store group E Dingle & Co and all the House of Fraser stores in the west country were transferred into the new Dingles division and re-branded under the Dingles name. Following the construction of the new

Princesshay Princesshay is a shopping precinct in the city of Exeter, Devon, England. It was built in the early 1950s to replace buildings that had been severely damaged in the World War II Baedeker Blitz. From 2005 the precinct and some surrounding buildin ...

shopping centre nearby, which included rival department-store chain

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

in 2007, House of Fraser invested £1.5m in upgrading the Exeter store, which reopened branded as House of Fraser, dropping the Dingles name.

Closure

In 2018, House of Fraser group was in significant financial difficulty , entering into a

company voluntary arrangement Under UK insolvency law an insolvent company can enter into a company voluntary arrangement (CVA). The CVA is a form of composition, similar to the personal IVA ( individual voluntary arrangement), where an insolvency procedure allows a company ...

. The group announced the closure of 31 stores in June 2018, but Exeter was not amongst the stores announced for closure. In October of that year, it was confirmed that the Exeter store would close in January 2019. In January 2019, there were hopes that the store has been saved, with it being reported that the store would not close, with closing down sale signage removed from the store and restocking happening. However, the closing down signage returned in August 2019, and the store finally closed in October 2019.

References

{{Reflist Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1792 House of Fraser