After 233 years, the household name of WH Smith will soon disappear from high streets and the stores will be rebranded under the fictitious “family” brand name TGJones.
The high street business, which employs 5,000 staff, will sell its 480 high street stores to the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital, but will retain its brand for travel shops in airports, railway stations and hospitals.
From memories of staff choosing which records to play to buying their first Parker pen, six people describe what WH Smith means to them and how the stores have changed over the years.
‘My grandma and grandpa met while working at WH Smith’
Matthew Kempson’s family have had a long association with the high street shop, starting with his grandfather Roy who worked at WH Smith from the 1930s to the 1970s. “He was so proud of the valuable role that the shop had as part of providing a service to the community,” said Matthew, 47, a project manager from Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
His grandfather spent his entire working life running various branches of the chain, including in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and met his wife of 50 years, Ethel, while they were working together. Matthew recalls a family story: “She was managing the pen counter and one time she was demonstrating a lever filling mechanism and accidentally squirted ink all over a balding gentleman’s head. In her panic, she grabbed a duster and smeared it in as she tried to clean it off.”
Matthew recalled how his grandfather would buy him gifts from the store when he was young, and how his father, Michael, who lived in flat above the shop, loved sneaking down to read comics. “WH Smith has not been the same for years,” Matthew said, “but it is these associations, and the life it offered, that we will continue to fondly remember.”
‘It wasn’t just a workplace – it was a soundtrack to my teenage years’
Ranjit was 16 when he got his first job working Saturdays at WH Smith in Warrington. “By sheer luck I landed in the coolest spot of all – the music department,” said Ranjit, now a 60-year-old lecturer who lives in Leeds.
The staff chose which records were played in store and Ranjit found himself exposed to artists such as David Bowie and the Beatles. Soon his friends were eagerly requesting their favourite songs. “I quickly became the go-to DJ of my little corner of WH Smith. Watching my friends nod their heads, singing along to Depeche Mode or the Human League, was pure joy. For a teenager, that was as close to rock-star status as it got.”
He worked there for two years before going to university, and earned £12 for a day’s work. “It felt like a small fortune,” he said. “Looking back, I’m filled with gratitude for those days. WH Smith wasn’t just a workplace – it was a soundtrack to my teenage years.”
‘I stole a copy of Jimmy Osmond’s Long Haired Lover From Liverpool’
For Jane in Cornwall, her memories of WH Smith are not as fond. Aged nine, she stole a copy of Long Haired Lover From Liverpool by Jimmy Osmond from the store on Tunbridge Wells’ high street. “It’s embarrassing,” said the 61-year-old writer. “I didn’t even have my own record player at the time so I don’t know why I did it – I must’ve heard the song on the radio.”
When her parents were asleep, she recalls, she played the song on her father’s record player, but she “felt sick with guilt” the next day, snapped the vinyl into pieces and hid it in the garden. A few weeks later, her golden retriever dug up the shards.
“I confessed and my parents made me tell the manager of WH Smith. He was suitably stern. My dad paid for the record but I had to wash his car for years to repay the debt incurred. I still feel a degree of shame when passing a store.”
‘I always have to go inside a Smiths to breathe in its smell’
In 1985, Lucy wanted a Saturday job, so she wrote speculative letters to high street shops such as Boots, Marks & Spencer and WH Smith. “Smiths got back to me and offered me a job – I was 15,” said the now 55-year-old teacher from Sussex.
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At first she only planned to work until she finished her A-levels, but she didn’t want to go to university at the time and so did the management training scheme for another year. “I have such great memories of that time: my fellow Saturday girls and boys who became my friends, the glamorous women from the travel department and putting out endless copies of the Radio Times and TV Times at Christmas.
“My family makes fun of me as I always have to go inside a Smiths whenever I see a branch to breathe in the smell from the newspapers – it’s silly but I find it relaxing. I’ll have to get my fix at stations, I suppose.”
‘Working at Smiths was a formative part of my career’
John Haslam, 45, said he was “terrified of the public” when he applied to work at the Altrincham branch of WH Smith after leaving university aged 21. “I soon learned the importance of simply being kind to customers, and for a natural introvert that’s still how I strike up conversation with strangers,” said Haslam, the chief executive of a credit union, from Sale, Greater Manchester.
Haslam worked there for two years and feels the skills he learned remain a “formative” part of his career. “I get up and speak to large groups of people now and Smiths was probably the start of helping me be able to do that,” he said.
One of Matthew’s memories is of picking up a new pencil case, pencils, rubber and ruler every September before the new school term. “Years later I’d buy my first Parker fountain pen – immediately seduced by its smooth, silky writing style,” said Matthew, 45, who is from Enfield and lives in Barcelona. “I still have that pen today and use it to write birthday and Christmas cards.”
But it was the “cavernous yet cosy” basement where he spent most of his time browsing books, regularly spending his birthday and Christmas book tokens on teen series such as Adrian Mole and Point Horror. “WH Smith was one of the only places in my neighbourhood where I could buy books,” said Matthew, who works as a translator.
He was 16 when he bought his last book from the store, JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “I read it that same summer during lunch breaks while working at a factory and the volume still occupies a proud place on my bookshelves. To this day, whenever I see a film, episode or other content related to Tolkien’s creation, I’m transported back to the welcoming vault of treasures inside the WH Smith in Enfield.”
