Three brothers and Pater were the Busby family that built and ran a Bradford based departmental store chain. An other brother Clifford died in infancy and a younger sister Rita was born in 1907. But it was Dad, aka ‘Pater’ a senior director of Owen and Owen, together with Arthur, Eric and Ernest who established Busbys as a preeminent retailer in Bradford.
A satellite store was operated in Ikley and W J Buckley and Co of Harrogate was acquired from John Lewis Partnership in 1953 and renamed Busbys. It continued trading there until Debenhams took over until finally ceasing in 2021.
The Bradford store was renown for its Christmas grotto, iconic building on Manningham Lane, major Sales events and the company logo Busbys ‘epicted above’. Busbys in Bradford excelled from 1930’s to 1958 but was not to last under Debenhams ownership. First Ilkley store closed then the Busby name was dropped in favour of a Debenham rebrand 1973. By 1978 more financial pressure saw the axe fall on the Bradford store and it was closed!
Further disaster struck in 1979 when the by now empty Busbys building was raised by a large fire. I do not know if the real cause of the start was discovered but it destroyed a super building which architecturally and aesthetically we could be proud of in this year of culture.