J D Morant Ltd – West Street’s forgotten department store

By Mia Curtis-Mays, Searchroom Assistant

The beloved department store is something that is sorely missed in the current climate of high street shopping. In Chichester, West Street lost House of Fraser in recent years. This was, surprisingly, not the only department store St George’s House hosted. Before House of Fraser, many will remember it being Army & Navy – but the first department store there was J D Morant Ltd.

J D Morant Ltd was originally a Southsea store in Palmerston Road. However, due to the extensive damage the Blitz caused its Portsmouth branch, J D Morant Ltd decided to set up home in West Street.

The store in Portsmouth spanned across 45, 47, 49 and 51 Palmerston Road and No 4 and 5 Stanley Street, creating one large drapery store with departments including: household linens, general furnishings, ladies’ gowns, costumes, coats, ladies underclothing, millinery, café, a modern hairdressing establishment and library. Unfortunately, as you can see in the pictures below, this area was a target in the bombings.

J D Morant Ltd asked for a valuation on the property (AM 1211/1/1) after the bombings, which surmounted to £82,000 (almost £4 million in today’s prices!).

The Portsmouth store was advertised to readers of the Chichester Observer on a regular basis by the columnist George Barker. His columns seemed to be hidden advertisements of the store, constantly promoting the fact that it was easy to commute there from Chichester by bus. It was almost as if he had shares in the company – he was that complimentary!

With all the advertisement to gain Chichester customers, it made a lot of sense to move their new store to West Street. It was announced in the Portsmouth Evening News, on the 14^th of March 1941, that J D Morant Ltd had opened their Chichester branch. They were intending to concentrate first on “All Fashions, Ladies’ Outfitting, Corsets, Camp Surgical Belts, Hosiery, Gloves, Cotton, Woollen and Silk Fabrics, Scarves, Blouses, Blousettes, and Laces”. In this announcement, Edgar Wilson Tozer, company director, put a personal message stating: “The reason we did not immediately reopen in Southsea. We suffered as a private business two very costly disasters. We had for a long time contemplated a permanent branch at Chichester. Indeed, we had obtained control of the premises we desired.”

1. CPS 934/2
2. CPS 934/3
3. CPS 1915/1
4. CPS 2022/1

Morants became part of the Chichester community, but this didn’t exclude them from getting into some hot water over the years. During the war, in 1943, the secretary and manager, Douglas V Lankester, was fined 10s for leaving lights on after hours. He assured the Bench that he took the greatest personal care to see that all lights were put out and it was a mystery to him how certain lights came to be burning on the occasion complained of.

The most amusing fine that Morants received was for serving the wrong cream in their café. The Bognor Regis Observer asked, in 1958, “What is in a name, and what does a customer expect to be given when he orders fruit, jelly, and cream?”. William Hurry, on behalf of West Sussex County Council, took J D Morant Ltd to the Magistrate’s Court for a menu error. Hurry told the Bench “It was not cream in any sense”. Two inspectors of weights and measures had taken a sample of the ‘whipped cream’, and it was then examined by the Public Analyst. It was suggested that if the company had used the word ‘crème’ instead of ‘cream’, they wouldn’t have been liable for prosecution. Morant Ltd were fined £3, with £3 3s costs.

Morant’s Café was on 18 West Street and was previously the Tower Café. After the death of Murray Smith, Tower Café closed in September 1956. His younger brother, Alan George Warren Smith, a previous manager of the Tower Café, wanted to concentrate the business on the Tudor Café. This led to the sale of the Café to Morants Department Store. The café added a new feature to their ever-growing department store. They served A la Carte Luncheons during Goodwood Week and hosted wedding receptions.

This wasn’t the only extension of the building that Morant Ltd undertook. Their plans to extend and create workrooms in 1946 can be found in WDC/SU22/1/1411. A nine feet high concrete canopy, projecting over four feet of the pavement was approved in 1950. In 1961, an extension and improving the premises, a portion of the Roman Town Baths and pavement were found, and at the south end of the property, the skeletons of a bird and a frog were built into the wall. It was suggested that this had been done for luck and dated back to about 1730. In 1972, further developments were made when they opened a brand-new Fabric Hall, boasting that they had the finest fabric section in the city.

Room was needed for all the different departments, Morant Ltd had to offer. In AM 1211/2/5, in the account and savings books of 1953-1973, there were many departments listed on the payroll: Hosiery, Teenage, Pine Room, Dresses, Hats, Baby, Gloves, Lingerie, Cosmetics, Handbags, China, Travel, Shoes, Electric, Stationary, Sports Wear, Confectionary, Lamp Shades, Material and Soft Furnishings. In these books, it lists at least 85 employees at one time!

Their advertisement strategy seemed to be successful. With constant adverts and personal statements in newspapers to Father Christmas advertising Morants in West Street, they weren’t short of ideas of bringing customers in. They really made a name for themselves. So much so that, Army & Navy Stores didn’t even initially change its name, when they took it over.

If you would like to find out more about J D Morant Ltd, we have a whole collection on their business, under the reference AM 1211. I would also recommend reading A Baker’s Dozen: Chichester’s Lost Retailers (Lib 17946) to get a sense of the history of shops in Chichester.

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