Crabbery Street, Stafford

Description:Looking east along Crabbery Street, towards the junction with Gaolgate Street, Stafford.

On the left several different buildings are seen linked to form part of the Co-op store. At the time the Archway was an entrance to the Co-op, although in earlier years it was the entrance to the Albert Hall Cinema, next-door with the columns is the Co-op Pharmacy and then the Co-op Hardware department, adjacent is Phillip Shaw and Son’s drapers and tailors shop and on the right is a part view of Burton’s a national chain of menswear shops selling bespoke and 'made-to-measure' suits.

Shortly after this photograph was taken in 1962 all of buildings from the Chapel Street junction (not in this view) up to and including the Co-op Archway entrance were due to be demolished to make way for a large new extension to the Co-op store which fronted nearby on Gaolgate Street, however, the Co-op Pharmacy and the Hardware department survived for several more years before they too were replaced by a new section for the Co-op. In 2013 the Stafford Co-op store closed and stood empty for several years. In 2025 the entire Co-op store in Crabbery Street and Princess Street Precinct was demolished to make way for a major redevelopment of the area.

Philip Shaw’s shop was rebuilt around 1965-1970 to the design that still remains (2026); it was an Adams children’s shop for a few years and then changed ownership on several occasions. The Burton menswear shop was later occupied by Orange which then became an EE mobile phone shop.