Marks & Spencer is potentially the most well-known department store chain in the United Kingdom. The chain originally started in 1884 as a stall in Kirkgate Market in Leeds selling simple household goods, but by the end of the nineteenth century, the business had already set up stores in multiple other cities, and throughout the 20th century, the company would continue to expand across the United Kingdom and into international markets.
As the chain opened more stores, it would also add more products to its range, first selling clothes in the 1920s, groceries in the 1930s, and furniture in the 1980s. Notably, the chain has for a very long time created its own lines of fashion, homewares, and groceries, which even today constitute most of the items sold in its stores.
The M&S Archive was established in 1984 to chronicle the history of the department store chain, which included storing examples of the clothes and other items that were sold by the company as well as the catalogs, advertisements, and other materials that the company produced.
In 2012, the M&S Archive opened the Michael Marks Building on the University of Leeds campus, where it not only continues to archive materials from Marks & Spencer but where it has also set up a small museum on the ground floor chronicling the history of the chain.
The museum features a set of exhibits displaying clothes and other retail items dating from when the chain first started to the present, providing interesting insights into how the retailer’s fashions and other items have changed over time.
Visitors can even try on a selection of Marks & Spencer clothing from various time periods and help themselves to small samples of Marks & Spencer’s food and drinks. Additionally, the staff regularly run craft exhibits where visitors can create their own souvenirs to bring home with them.
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