J L Dixons department store opened in

Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

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 ...

, in 1913 and shut its doors in 1973.

Background

The store was located on the corner of London Road and what was called The Broadway, now known as the High Street with its main competitors being

Keddies Keddies was a small chain of department stores in Essex, England, with its flagship store in a prime location in Southend-on-Sea, Southend High Street (originally called the Broadway). The business had a national reputation, being recognised in T ...

& Brightwells. The site was re-developed in 1938 and had over 40,000 square feet in total, is today occupied by

WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant ch ...

, Toy n Tuck (Queens Road) and the Lawrence Matthews Art Shop (Queens Road). J L Dixons was not related to

Dixons Retail Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (with stores increasingly dual branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixons Travel and its s ...

(now Dixons Carphone Warehouse), also started in Southend.

References

Dixons J L Department stores in Southend-On-Sea (town) Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea 1913 establishments in England Retail companies established in 1913 Department store buildings in the United Kingdom {{UK-retail-company-stub