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BEATTIES toy and model shop


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Beatties Sheffield 1.jpg

Beatties Sheffield 2.jpg

 

Anyone remember BEATTIES model and toy shop?

Seem to remember it was fantastic for airfix models, model airplanes, train sets and subbuteo

The shop I remember most was opposite the Peace Gardens but they may have had other Beatties shops elsewhere in Sheffield?

 

 

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Didn't they have a store in Meadowhall in the early days?

As far as the Pinstone Street shop was concerned several of the members of the SMRE worked there back in the 80's (Charlie Foster and Peter Heath for starters).

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Yes I remember Beatties on Pinstone Street, used to get a lot of railway modelling stuff from there. They did have a shop in Meadowhall in the early days, on the lower level if I remember correctly.

Nigel L

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On 01/10/2017 at 08:51, lysander said:

I seem to remember being told that Beatties opening was another nail in Redgates coffin.

I always thought that Redgates was closed well before that shop opened. By that time I think the Redgates building was just another department store.

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Wouldn't argue with you. Redgates finally closed in 1988 a couple of years after Mike Nunn had sold the shop. Mike Nunn may have been generalising about the competition Redgates were suffering when he mentioned Beatties in conversation.

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Beatties on Pinstone St had an electric train set running around the ceiling of the store.

 

We took shops like Redgates & Beatties for granted, thinking they would always be there. Sad that they have gone completely.

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Computer games and Asda selling Train sets would have put an end to them anyway.

More Supermarket space than people in Sheffield.

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On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 08:51, lysander said:

I seem to remember being told that Beatties opening was another nail in Redgates coffin.

I think there was a branch of the London toy store Hamleys that opened on Pinstone Street that was in competition with Redgates before Beatties opened

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12 hours ago, Markbaby said:

imageproxy.php?img=&key=ff09c6054f30b62aFront and Back pages of a Beatties Christmas brochure from 1993

I had never realised before that they had, once upon a time, traded over such an extensive geographical area. From Brighton to Aberdeen. :o

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We have a sweet shop where I live now in sunny (very much not) Shrewsbury, and it has a train running around the edge of the shop up near the ceiling. For ages I have been trying to remember where else I've seen this in my dim and distant past - IT WAS BEATTIES !!! Thanks for solving this very annoying mystery :)

I was always in awe of some of the stuff they sold. Never went in very often, but their window displays often made me jealous.

 

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I've got Beatties in my head as being near Pinstone St, but where St Paul's Parade is now (& was then?). This would have been in the late '50s.

My grandpa occasionally took me to buy an Airfix model when he closed his nearby shop for lunch.

Malc B

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It wouldn't have been Beatties in the 1950s. At that time the company was quite small.

According to this post from K&A back in 2007 the shop on St Paul's Parade was called Hobbies.

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On 03/01/2018 at 19:43, DaveH said:

I think there was a branch of the London toy store Hamleys that opened on Pinstone Street that was in competition with Redgates before Beatties opened

Hamleys opened a store on the Moor, possibly the old Roberts building.

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Beasties ran quite nicely alongside Redgates. I used to shop at both in the 70s and 80s for model kits and roleplaying games at both, Action Man and Japanese robot kits at Redgates exclusively. Oh I also used to almost live in Hopkinsons on the Gallery - a grand shop.

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Does anyone remember Wilson and Gumbert? I seem to recall they were in the same sort of business as Redgates

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33 minutes ago, lysandernovo said:

Does anyone remember Wilson and Gumbert? I seem to recall they were in the same sort of business as Redgates

 

Wilson Gumpert was owned by Redgates

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