Former Co-operative Department Store, High Street and Roxburgh Street

This imposing 1888 former department store is one of central Galashiels’ clearest expressions of co-operative enterprise, working people’s collective purchasing power and late Victorian commercial confidence.

Quick Facts

Why It Matters

The former Co-operative Department Store matters for more than its lively towers, dormers and coloured stonework. It records a form of commerce based on collective ownership and mutual benefit. Its scale demonstrates how deeply the co-operative movement had become embedded in Galashiels by the later nineteenth century, when a society founded by working people could commission one of the town centre’s most conspicuous retail buildings.

Placed on the corner of High Street and Roxburgh Street, the store formed part of the busy commercial centre created by Galashiels’ rapid industrial growth. Its architecture turned a practical department store into a civic-looking landmark. The building therefore belongs simultaneously to the history of shopping, the textile town, organised labour and the changing High Street.

Co-operation in Galashiels

The Galashiels Co-operative Society was established in 1839, placing it among Scotland’s early co-operative organisations. Historical accounts record premises in Overhaugh Street from 1842 and the development of a society bakehouse during the 1840s. Bread was a particularly important commodity for early co-operators: regular household demand made it possible to combine reliable supply with shared economic benefit.

The principle that surplus should be returned to members in proportion to their purchases was discussed locally during the 1840s and subsequently adopted. This apparently modest mechanism had far-reaching consequences. Instead of profit flowing only to a private shopkeeper, members could share in the results of their own spending. The movement offered practical household savings, but it also encouraged habits of democratic administration, record keeping, education and collective responsibility.

Galashiels was especially fertile ground for co-operation. The expanding woollen industries drew together a large wage-earning population whose lives were shaped by fluctuations in employment and prices. A successful co-operative society could supply daily necessities while giving members a degree of influence over the enterprise. Its buildings became visible evidence that pooled small contributions could produce substantial common assets.

A Department Store for 1888

By the 1880s, the society had outgrown the scale of its earlier premises. The present building, dated 1888 in the Historic Environment Scotland record, replaced earlier co-operative accommodation and gathered a much larger retail operation under one architectural composition. Its department-store form reflected changing expectations: customers increasingly encountered a range of goods and services in one organised establishment rather than a single small shop.

The investment was also symbolic. A co-operative store of this size claimed a prominent place for member-owned commerce in the centre of town. The architecture used the vocabulary of prosperous late Victorian business, but the capital and custom behind it came collectively from the society’s membership. That combination gives the building exceptional social resonance.

J. and J. Hall

The architects were J. and J. Hall, a Galashiels practice responsible for a number of buildings that helped define the rapidly growing town. Their local knowledge is evident in the store’s response to a prominent corner site. Rather than treating the elevations as anonymous rows of windows, they created a strongly modelled roofline and used the junction of the streets as an architectural event.

The practice’s work elsewhere in Galashiels included important commercial and institutional commissions. The former Douglas Hotel and the later Technical College help show the range of building types through which local architects shaped the town’s public image. The Co-operative Store belongs to that broader story of professional architecture serving an industrial burgh.

Architecture and Materials

Historic Environment Scotland describes a three-storey and attic building, now broadly L-shaped, with five bays to Roxburgh Street and seven to High Street. Buff sandstone is enlivened by red sandstone ashlar dressings. The contrast gives the elevations colour and depth, while pilasters, shaped gables, mansard roofs and lucarne dormers create a deliberately picturesque silhouette.

At ground level, the sequence of shopfronts expressed the building’s retail purpose. Above, regularly ordered windows unified the long elevations. A central pend, with wrought-iron gates, provided access into the complex. The result is both practical and theatrical: the base addresses the pavement and customers, while the upper storeys and roofline announce the building across the town centre.

Towers and Roofline

The polygonal corner tower, capped by a bell-cast roof, is the building’s most memorable feature. It turns the junction of High Street and Roxburgh Street into a landmark and allows the store to be recognised from several approaches. A square tower at the south end originally carried an octagonal cupola; the loss of that feature has simplified the composition, but the surviving tower, mansards and dormers still give the building an unusually animated skyline.

These high-level features are not incidental decoration. In a dense shopping street, a roofline could act like a sign, identifying a business before its shop windows were visible. The towers gave the society a public presence comparable with banks, hotels and civic buildings.

Inside the Store

The listing record notes that the main stair was reported to retain decorative tiling, although the interior was not accessed during the 2005 resurvey. That limitation is important: the exterior is well documented, but the survival and condition of interior fittings require direct, current evidence. Department stores were experienced as interiors as much as façades, and any surviving stairs, tiles, joinery or spatial divisions could add substantially to understanding the building.

Change and Reuse

The complex has changed significantly. Historic Environment Scotland indicates that the original building appears to have been more nearly rectangular, arranged around a central light well. Later refurbishment removed much of the rear, and newer work was faced in brick. The building now accommodates commercial and residential uses rather than operating as one department store.

These alterations are part of its history. Large retail buildings often have to be subdivided when patterns of shopping change. Continued use can secure maintenance, but it may also obscure the original circulation and relationship between departments. The surviving street elevations remain especially valuable because they allow the 1888 composition to be read despite substantial change behind them.

Things to Notice

• The polygonal corner tower and its bell-cast roof.
• The contrast between buff walling stone and red sandstone dressings.
• The mansard roofs, lucarne dormers and shaped gables that animate the skyline.
• The long shopfront rhythm at street level and the more regular upper floors.
• The central pend and wrought-iron gates.
• The altered southern tower, which originally carried an octagonal cupola.
• The different character of the High Street and Roxburgh Street elevations.

Why It Matters Today

The former store is a reminder that Galashiels’ commercial history was not made only by individual entrepreneurs. It was also made by households combining their purchasing power and building institutions intended to serve members over generations. The building gives that social history a commanding physical presence.

Its continued mixed use demonstrates adaptability, while its towers and roofline remain important to the character of the town centre. Careful maintenance of stonework, windows, roof features and surviving interior fabric would preserve both the architecture and the democratic economic story it embodies.

Significance Scores

These are editorial guide scores, not statutory designations. See How We Assess Significance for the method and limitations.

Timeline

• 1839: Galashiels Co-operative Society is established.
• 1842: The society is recorded in premises in Overhaugh Street.
• 1840s: A bakehouse develops and the principle of distributing surplus according to purchases is debated and adopted.
• 1888: The present department store is built to designs by J. and J. Hall.
• Twentieth century: The store continues to serve changing retail needs; alterations accumulate.
• 1987: The building is added to the statutory list.
• 2006: Its listing category is changed from B to C following resurvey.
• Today: The complex has mixed commercial and residential uses while remaining a major town-centre landmark.

Notes and Uncertainties

• The date, architects, address, principal architectural description and broad alteration history are taken from the HES designation record.
• Historical accounts differ slightly in how they date the early adoption of purchase-related dividends. The sequence is therefore described here without assigning a single precise year where the evidence is not uniform.
• HES did not inspect the interior during its 2005 resurvey. Reports of decorative tiling to the principal stair should be verified against current access and condition.
• The reasons behind the change from Category B to Category C are not fully set out on the designation page; a category change does not mean that the building lacks architectural or social value.

Image and Licence Notes

The photograph shows the Roxburgh Street elevation rather than the more familiar High Street corner view. It was taken by Wikimedia Commons contributor Victuallers on 17 September 2021 and is reused under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence. No crop or substantive alteration has been applied.

Related Places

• Victoria Buildings
• Bank Street Listed Buildings Group
• Former Douglas Hotel and Channel Street Buildings
• Former Post Office, 1 Channel Street

Sources

• Historic Environment Scotland, LB31991: Former Co-operative Department Store, High Street and Roxburgh Street.
• RCAHMS, Historic Galashiels: The Archaeological Implications of Development, for the building’s place in the historic townscape.
• William Maxwell, The History of Co-operation in Scotland: Its Inception and Its Leaders, for the early history of the Galashiels society. This historical publication is used critically and its prose has not been reproduced.
• Wikimedia Commons file page for the Roxburgh Street photograph.

Last reviewed: 15 July 2026.