Matthias Robinson was a small chain of department stores in the north of England which were purchased by

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

History

In 1875 Matthias Robinson opened a drapery shop on Lynn Street,

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

. He quickly expanded the business by taking on the store next door, before buying the large building next to his store and calling it Lynn House. On the advice of doctors, Matthias moved his family to

Stockton on Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees V ...

due to his wife's health condition and in 1896, a new store was opened in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

as the first Robinsons department store. The two houses that were converted on Stockton High Street were destroyed by fire in December 1899, but a new store was completely rebuilt on the same site re-opening in May 1901. The new store had 48 departments, a restaurant and a cafe. The building was designed by Barnes & Coates of Sunderland with the assistance of W. Basil Scott and is an early example of

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

construction in England. By 1912, the Hartlepool business had grown further with premises opening on the opposite side of Lynn Street, which Matthias called The Coliseum and buildings on Whitby Street which he named Birmingham House. The business continued to grow and in 1914 opened a new department store in

Briggate Briggate is a pedestrianised principal shopping street in Leeds city centre, England. Historically it was the main street, leading north from Leeds Bridge, and housed markets, merchant's houses and other business premises. It contains many h ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. This store was later expanded in 1938 by purchasing neighbouring department store H & D Hart. After the death of Matthias in 1929, his sons took over the running of the business with his son Cyril running the Stockton branch until he retired. The Stockton branch was then run by his grandson, Lionel, who was later responsible for negotiating the sale of the business to Debenhams. The Leeds store was run by another of Mathias's grandsons, Cecil. The business expanded in 1961 with the purchase of Bainbridge Barker, a quality department store in Darlington, which was renamed Matthias Robinson. The following year Debenhams purchased all four stores of Matthias Robinson for £2.8 million. The stores continued to operate under the Matthias Robinson or Robinsons name, with the Hartlepool store being closed and demolished in the late 1960s. In 1973, as part of a wider rationalisation and rebranding exercise, the Darlington store was closed and the Robinson name was dropped in favour of Debenhams at the two remaining stores which continue to trade. On 26 April 2019, it was announced the Stockton branch would close in 2020 as one of 22 to be closed.

References

{{Reflist Robinson Matthias Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1875 Robinson Matthias